Böcker utgivna av Mdpi AG

The Building sector requires a conspicuous considerable amount of energy for services related to annual air-conditioning and the thermal comfort of indoor spaces. The design of highly efficient low-energy buildings is often a challenging task, especially rranean area, where the balanced requirement for heating and cooling energy does not usually permit a high level of envelope insulation in order to avoid summer overheating. This topical Special Issue of Energies is dedicated to "High Efficient Buildings in Mediterranean Area: Challenges and Perspectives" and collects studies related to the assessment and evaluation of systems and technologies for building energy management and control in the Mediterranean climate, with the aim of optimizing the building-plant system and reducing energy use. This collection of papers presents the latest research results related to the topic; these articles offer valuable insights into the energy simulation of highly efficient buildings, propose innovative envelope solutions, such as green roofs, Trombe walls, and PCM, and investigate the use of renewable sources such as photovoltaic systems. The topics also include the innovative use and control of Venetian blinds and fixed solar shades in order to reduce energy consumption and preserve visual comfort, as well as an interesting economic analysis based on the cost-optimal approach.in the Mediterranean area, where usually the balanced requirement for heating and cooling energy does not usually permit a high level of envelope insulation, in order to avoid summer overheating. This topical sSpecial iIssue of Energies is dedicated to the "High Efficient Buildings in Mediterranean Area: Challenges and Perspectives" and collects contributions with studies related to the assessment and evaluation of systems and technologies for building energy management and control in the Mediterranean climate, with the aimed at the of optimization ofing the building--plant system and the reductiong of energy use. This collection of papers presents the latest research results related to the topic; these articles offering valuable insights on into the energy simulation of highly efficient buildings, proposeing innovative envelope solutions, such as green roofs, Trombe wWalls, and PCM, and investigateing the use of renewable sources such as photovoltaics systems. The topics also investigate include the innovative use and control of Vvenetian blinds and fixed solar shadeings in order to reduce energy consumption and preserve visual comfort, and finally proposing alsoas well as an interesting economic analysis based on the cost-optimal approach.The building sector requires a considerable amount of energy for services related to annual air-conditioning and the thermal comfort of indoor spaces. The design of highly efficient low-energy buildings is often a challenging task, especially in the Medite

This book is dedicated to "High-Performance Eco-Efficient Concrete" and concrete fatigue behavior, more sustainable construction materials, capable of complying with quality standards and current innovation policies, aimed at saving natural resources and reducing global pollution. The development of self-compacting concretes with electric arc furnace slags is a further achievement. In addition, the technical and economic viability of using coarse recycled aggregates from crushed concrete in shotcrete, enhanced quality and reduced on-site construction time are the basic features of prefabricated bridge elements and systems, biomass bottom ash as aluminosilicate precursor and phosphogypsum were discussed. On the other hand, basalt fiber improving the mechanical properties and durability of reactive powder concrete, alkali-activated slag and high-volume fly ash and the potential of phosphogypsum as secondary raw material in construction industry, the effects of fly ash on the diffusion, bonding, and microproperties of chloride penetration in concrete were studied. Increasing amounts of sustainable concretes are being used as society becomes more aware of the environment. Finally, the circular economy as an economic model of production and consumption that involves reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling materials after their service life are presented in this book.

Communities increasingly find that the water quality, water levels, or some other resource indicator in their river basins do not meet their expectations. This discrepancy between the desired and actual state of the resource leads to efforts in river basin restoration. River basins are complex systems, and too often, restoration efforts are ineffective due to a lack of understanding of the purpose of the system, defined by the system structure and function. The river basin structure includes stocks (e.g., water level or quality), inflows (e.g., precipitation or fertilization), outflows (e.g., evaporation or runoff), and positive and negative feedback loops with delays in responsiveness, all of which function to change or stabilize the state of the system (e.g., the stock of interest, such as water level or quality). External drivers on this structure, together with goals and rules, contribute to how a river basin functions. This book reviews several new research projects to identify and rank the twelve most effective leverage points to address discrepancies between the desired and actual state of the river basin system. This book demonstrates that river basin restoration is most likely to succeed when we change paradigms rather than try to change the system elements, as the paradigm will establish the system goals, structure, rules, delays, and parameters.

This Special Issue titled "Soil Erosion and Sustainable Land Management" presents 13 chapters organized into four main parts. The first part deals with assessment of soil erosion that covers historical sediment dating to understand past environmental impacts due to tillage; laboratory simulation to clarify the effect of soil surface microtopography; integrated field observation and the random forest machine learning algorithm to assess watershed-scale soil erosion assessment; and developing the sediment delivery distributed (SEDD) model for sub-watershed erosion risk prioritization. In Part II, the factors controlling soil erosion and vegetation degradation as influenced by topographic positions and climatic regions; long-term land use change; and improper implementation of land management measures are well dealt with. Part III presents different land management technologies that could reduce soil erosion at various spatial scales; improve land productivity of marginal lands with soil microbes; and reclaim degraded farmland using dredged reservoir sediments. The final part relates livelihood diversification to climate vulnerability as well as the coping strategy to the adverse impacts of soil erosion through sustainable land management implementation which opens prospects for policy formulation. The studies cover regions of Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, being dominantly conducted under the framework of international scientific collaborations through employing a range techniques and scales, from the laboratory to watershed scales. We believe those unique features of the book could attract the interest of the wider scientific community worldwide.

Do you care about your environment and your health? Contamination by hazardous substances in environmental matrices, including landfills, oil fields, and manufacturing and industrial sites, represents a global concern and needs to be remediated since it poses a serious risk to the environment and human health. Particular attention should also be paid to the use of medical devices and recent developments in the use of nanoparticles expressed as drug delivery systems designed to treat a wide variety of diseases. This Special Issue collects a compilation of articles that strongly demonstrate the continuous efforts made in developing advanced and safe nanomaterial-based technologies for nano-remediation and for drug delivery and other biomedical applications. It covers the most recent advances in the safe nanomaterials synthesis field as well as in environmental applications, in the use of restorative materials, drug delivery and other clinical applications, in order to lay the foundations for a cleaner and healthier future.