Ambiente e Sustentabilidade | Capítulos/artigos em livros internacionais / Book chapters/papers in international books
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- Assessing high school students perceptions and comprehension of climate changePublication . Azeiteiro, Ulisses; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Santos, Paulo T.; Nicolau, Leonor Bacelar; Morgado, FernandoThe purpose of this study was to investigate High School (HS) students’ perceptions of Climate Change (CC) and Global warming (GW). This work was conducted within Portuguese High School students and the results in this context should have meaningful implications for national CC policies in the future as well as HS curricula adaptation to the students’ perceptions. Research was conducted at a high school in Central Portugal. The survey was applied to all the high school students from the 10th to the 12th grade, enrolled in the areas of Sciences and Technology, Languages and Humanities, Socio-economical Sciences and Professionalization. The data were collected through a self-completion questionnaire consisting of 29 closed-ended questions and two open questions aiming at characterizing students from the socio-demographic, and from their perceptions, beliefs, motivations, attitudes, knowledge relating to the topic of CC. Google Drive was used to host the questionnaire and allow for the online survey. Statistical exploratory univariate and bivariate analyses were performed on the data collected (frequencies, total and column percentages, adjusted residuals). All statistical tests were two-tailed, with significance levels of 5%. Only statistically significant results were commented on the results section. Majority of students believed that CC was happening and also perceived that human activities were an important cause of CC. Still, the surveyed students hold some misconceptions about basic causes and consequences of climate change. Students’ gender influenced their perceptions of time scale of CC impact on both human and biotic communities. Most students state that their training had focused enough on the topic of CC and felt they had a moderate technical knowledge about the topic of CC (students’ knowledge of how their behaviour influenced CC followed a similar pattern). There was a large conviction that the main actions in mitigating CC effects should be taken by governments and regarding the perception of the importance of CC for their future professional carrier, 48% considered that this topic was “moderately important” and 29% considered it as “very important”. However as individuals, and globally, 74% had not taken actions to mitigate CC (only 26% of the respondents had taken some actions to mitigate the causes of CC). Further research is necessary so that curricula programs can be adequate to promote better knowledge and attitudes about climate change and an active engagement of future participative citizens, as part of the solution for climate change problems.
- Attitudes, barriers and motivators as factors for sustainability of higher education e-Learning programmes at Universidade Aberta, PortugalPublication . Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Caeiro, Sandra; Martinho, Ana Paula; Azeiteiro, UlissesIn higher education distance learning institutions, where studies are carried on through a variety of distance learning regimes, from the correspondence and earlier forms of distance education to fully online e-learning programmes, and where planners and administrators seize the effective adoption and deployment of technology-enabled education, student attitude and motivation assume considerable significance. Attitudinal pre-dispositions, institutional and allied barriers (including appropriate policy initiatives), besides the scientific and pedagogical quality of degree programmes are assumed to play a crucial role in sustainability of higher education systems. This article reports the findings of a study conducted at Universidade Aberta, Portugal—the Portuguese Distance Learning Education University—to examine student attitudes towards e-learning and to identify barriers and motivators of e-learning adoption, which are key factors for decreasing dropout rates of a 2nd cycle degree e-learning programme, analysed as a case study.
- Avaliação de uma unidade curricular do programa de doutoramento em Sustentabilidade Social e Desenvolvimento da Universidade Aberta de PortugalPublication . Oliveira, Carla Padrel de; Carmo, Hermano; Caeiro, Sandra
- Benefits of introducing door-to-door separate collection in rural areasPublication . Vaz, J.; Sousa, V.; Ferreira, CéliaThere is a pre-conception that in rural isolated areas, the production of recyclable waste is reduced and door-to-door collection schemes are not worth setting-up. This work describes the implementation of a pilot test for door-to-door collection of dry recyclable waste at a small rural site. It aims at improving the knowledge about the waste generated in rural areas and the impact on source segregation habits arising from the implementation of door-to-door collection. The strategy comprised the introduction of individual waste containers and bags at household level and setting up a waste generation monitoring and physical composition evaluation programs. The recyclable waste more than tripled after implementation of door-to-door collection, from 23 kg/inhab/year to 73 kg/inhab/year. Concomitantly, residual waste decreased from 230 kg/inhab/year to 180 kg/inhab/year. The strategy followed at the test site represented a positive incentive for householders and services to source segregate and produce less residual waste.
- Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): tendencies and perspectivesPublication . Leal Filho, Walter; Castro, Paula; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Azul, Anabela Marisa; Azeiteiro, UlissesThis introductory paper outlines some of the areas where research and action is needed, so as to allow a more systematic development of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the Biodiversity Conservation context. Apart from presenting the concepts of ecosystem services and biodiversity, this chapter indicates the main initiatives needed to be developed to incorporate ESD in the curricula as a multiple-perspective approach. Additionally, it is discussed how biodiversity conservation through education action fit within the actual premises and programmes of sustainability as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 2010 Biodiversity Target or under the scope of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. Tendencies and perspectives on Education for Biodiversity Conservation in the coming decades is also a subject of debate in the present chapter.
- Business intelligence standardization and corporate strategy : a paradoxPublication . Jacquinet, Marc; Porfírio, José; Carrilho, TiagoMarket evidence suggests the increased investment of companies in BI systems to feed their strategy processes. The change in the strategy fundamentals increases substantially the value of information for both strategies’ implementation and control. One domain neglected is the use of BI systems for strategy conception. And this is something increasingly important in today’s constantly changing world of business, where new information in a knowledge economy is usually synonymous of more added value and competitiveness. However, together with this tendency, we experience a general trend for BI systems standardization, a dominant movement for BI solutions providers to standardize processes in order to take advantage of learning curves and processes, and economies of scale and scope. Considering that each strategy should be unique, and departing from the principle that BI systems are closely related with corporate strategy, it seems that there is a double paradox in BI markets that companies should solve as soon as possible, in order to take the most out of the momentum of BI markets.
- Characterization of particulate residues from Greenlandic municipal waste incineration to evaluate potential use as secondary resources in local constructionPublication . Kirkelund, Gunvor M.; Ferreira, Célia; Jensen, Pernille ErlandIn Greenland, waste incineration is used in the larger towns to treat the municipal solid waste. The incineration reduces the amount of waste, but produces particulate incineration residues such as fly and bottom ash that are disposed of. Most construction materials are imported to Arctic areas. The focus in this study is a characterisation of Greenlandic incineration residues to assess the potential as local secondary resources. In this study, fly ash samples from all the incinerators and bottom ash from two incinerators were collected and investigated for several physical-chemical properties. The fly ash samples consisted of very fine-grained particles, with different grading for each incinerator. High water solubility due to high salt concentrations was seen for all fly ash samples along with high concentrations of leachable heavy metals, thus pretreatment is recommended before use as secondary material. The bottom ashes consisted of coarser particles and exhibited lower heavy metal leaching than the fly ash. All residue samples were different and evaluation of reuse should be made individually, however the fly ash shows potential as cement replacement and bottom ash as sand replacement for construction purposes.
- Climate change and e-learning: interdisciplinarity and interculturality challengesPublication . Alves, Fátima; Azeiteiro, UlissesClimate change is a key issue on today’s scientific, social and political agenda. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals reinforce its current priorities in this regard (e.g. SDG 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts) and is one of the five priority areas of the Strategy 2020 of the European Commission. This chapter discusses the specificities of climate change online learning in respect to syllabus contents and highlights its multidisciplinary and multicultural components. One of the characteristics of online learning is its capacity to reach an extensive number of people, scattered around the world and with diversified cultural backgrounds. This opens an extremely valuable path to research and societal responsibility, filled with potentialities and challenges. Student’s cultural diversity and geographical belonging must be reflected in the syllabus contents, as well as in the objectives of the courses and in the competencies that should be promoted. Furthermore in the design of the courses it is increasingly relevant to reflect and value an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, because it is a key factor in Climate Change Education and Awareness. In this interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary dialog, it is crucial to evidence the cultural and contextual validity of knowledge and the impact of socioenvironmental dimensions in the configuration of Climate change challenges. For the purpose of this study we took as an example two course proposals: “Environment, Health and Wellbeing” for social sciences undergraduate students and “Governance of Climate Change Adaptation” for postgraduate students, presenting teaching contents, teaching and learning methodologies, effectiveness through e-learning in higher education institutions (HEIs) and the potential for increase in public climate science literacy.
- Contribution of advanced training for real problem solutions within sustainable development goals: the case of an e-learning PhDPublication . Oliveira, Carla Padrel de; Caeiro, Sandra; Trindade, JorgeIn this work, we intend to evaluate the contribution of this e-learning PhD program on Social Sustainability and Development for worldwide real problem solutions, in particular related with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The research was conducted for those research plans submitted between 2014 and 2016. A content analysis was applied to those students’ research plans.
- Data communications solutions overview for smart cities waste managementPublication . Madureira, R. C.; Ferreira, CéliaThe current works describes the data transport networks within a smart waste management system. Existing technical solutions based on cellular networks and Internet-of-things (IoT) are described and the system’s technological limitations are discussed from the smart city perspective. A comparison is made using as relevant parameters the rate of transmission (kilobits per second), the energy consumption, the coverage area and the costs. While cellular networks have higher rates of transmission and use pre-existing telecommunication infrastructures, the monthly cost can easily reach prohibitive values and prevent the use of cellular communications in smart waste systems, such as those used in pay-as you-throw (PAYT). Solutions based on IoT networks (LoraWAN and SigFox) might partially overcome communication costs, and seem especially promising, especially considering the emerging 5G technology that is expected to trigger the widespread development of IoT solutions for smart waste.