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Topic Review
Mine Tailings-Based Geopolymers: Durability Properties
The mining industry produces a considerable amount of stone waste and tailings, posing an environmental danger. It is recyclable by a variety of methods, including the promising geopolymerization method. This literature evaluation indicates knowledge gaps that must be addressed to enhance mine tailings composites for geopolymers.
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Urban Green Infrastructure for Thermal Comfort
The elements of urban green infrastructure (UGI), such as green roofs, green walls, and green facades, represent a natural base solution to break the vicious cycle by providing thermal comfort to urban residents without placing an additional burden in terms of urbanization and global warming. Integrating UGI into urban design can improve the urban microclimate, achieve energy-demand savings, and create temperate outdoor spaces. Studies show that UGI is effective for controlling UHI and improving air quality; it leads to positive health effects by reducing asthma, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, obesity, and circulatory disease. The indirect positive health impacts associated with socio-economic factors include child cognitive development, elderly longevity, and strengthened immunity. The incorporation of UGI in urban design can help cities to tackle the challenges of limited access to resources and a lack of green space due to urban development, but the success of UGI implantation requires input from the city authorities, businesses, and other institutions, working together to investigate different options to adapt a variety of urban spaces.
  • 1.1K
  • 06 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Development for Oil and Gas Infrastructure
The oil and gas (O&G) sector is a critical energy infrastructure to a Nation’s welfare. As developed as the O&G industry may seem, its aging infrastructure gradually shows numerous challenges to keep up with the growing energy demand, increasing operation costs, and environmental concerns. A robust O&G infrastructure that is risk-free, reliable, and resilient towards expected or unexpected threats can offer an uninterrupted supply of O&G to downstream stakeholders, competitive prices to customers, and better environmental footprints. With the shift towards renewable energy, the notion of sustainable development should be firmly embedded in O&G infrastructure and operations to facilitate the smooth transition towards future renewable energy generation. 
  • 1.1K
  • 17 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Landscapes
Urban landscapes are under great pressure and particularly vulnerable, due to climate change, population growth and economic development. Despite the growing understanding that Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) represent efficient solutions to facilitate adaptation to climate change and increase cities’ resilience, their wide-scale adoption is still limited. There is a need to include NBS in urban governance and planning agendas through policy instruments, such as plan/legislative, economic and information instruments. However, there is a lack of studies that assess such policy instruments and, through the use of specific examples, how they can foster NBS adoption.
  • 1.1K
  • 31 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Phytoremediation of Domestic Wastewater
A circular economy (CE) based strategy is essential to progress toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). CE is centered on the conversion of waste into meaningful products and resource efficiency with the objective of promoting resource reuse. This study presents the potential of CE approaches in the phytoremediation of wastewater and energy recovery using hydroponic tanks. The integration of phytoremediation with bioenergy, construction and lifespan of hydroponic tanks in phytoremediation of wastewater, selection of aquatic plants, and the expected challenges in the implementation of CE in phytoremediation of wastewater were discussed. It further elucidates a comprehensive circularity assessment methodology that would enable and support a strategic CE framework for phytoremediation techniques in wastewater treatment. Additionally, a complete view of the feedstock conversion process into valuable end products was discussed in this CE strategic study. The findings obtained provided insights into the relative growth rate of the plant-based biomass harvested from the phytoremediation of domestic wastewater. It also provided information on the economic and technical feasibility of wastewater phytoremediation using hydroponic tanks for simultaneous recovery of treated water and plants’ biomass to enable large-scale implementation. Furthermore, optimizing resource recovery and bioenergy generation, developing new approaches and solutions, and improving process stability would help encourage and enhance the adoption of the CE framework in the phytoremediation of domestic wastewater.
  • 1.1K
  • 30 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Elastic Beam-like Model of Multi-Storey Framed Buildings
Modern computational techniques have greatly influenced the numerical analyses of structures, not only in terms of calculation speed, but also in terms of procedural approach. In particular, great importance has been given to structural modelling, that is, the process by which a structure and the actions to which it is subjected are reduced to a simplified scheme. The use of a simplified calculation scheme is necessary since the structures are, in general, considerably complex physical systems whose behaviour is influenced by a large number of variables.
  • 1.1K
  • 23 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Digitalization of Construction Projects through Integration
The construction industry has fared poorly in the process of digital transformation, while the main challenge is the digitalization of construction projects. Changes in project management approaches are urgently required in construction organizations to better align digital technology and organizational conditions.
  • 1.1K
  • 05 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Sense of Gain and Rural Infrastructures
Rural infrastructure is not only the foundation for the development of various rural undertakings but also an integral part of the rural economic system. Its construction and operation are closely related to farmers’ quality of life. However, owing to the urban–rural dual structure in many countries in the world, there is still a big gap between the level of rural infrastructure and that of cities, which affects the interests of farmers and restricts the sustainable development of rural areas. The sense of gain can reveal shortcomings in the rural infrastructure from the perspective of farmers, helping to suggest rapid and accurate improvements according to the farmers’ feelings.
  • 1.1K
  • 24 May 2022
Topic Review
Waste as Cement Replacement in Foamed Concrete
Foamed concrete is a lightweight construction material that has gained popularity due to its excellent thermal and acoustic insulation properties. Foamed concrete production involves using cement as a binding agent, which results in a high carbon footprint. In response to sustainable development goals (SDG), there has been a growing interest in exploring alternative materials that can replace cement to improve energy efficiency, climate change, resource efficiency, and overall improvement of foamed concrete properties.
  • 1.1K
  • 22 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Smart Pavement Data with Decision Support Systems
Nowadays, pavement management systems (PMS) are mainly based on monitoring processes that have been established for a long time, and strongly depend on acquired experience. However, with the emergence of smart technologies, such as internet of things and artificial intelligence, PMS could be improved by applying these new smart technologies to their decision support systems, not just by updating their data collection methodologies, but also their data analysis tools. The application of these smart technologies to the field of pavement monitoring and condition evaluation will undoubtedly contribute to more efficient, less costly, safer, and environmentally friendly methodologies.
  • 1.1K
  • 08 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Sustainable Approaches to Polymer-Modified Asphalt Binder
Due to periodic variations in temperature and heavy traffic loading, hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavements undergo considerable distress during their service life. The rheological properties of asphalt binder, when subjected to complex physical and chemical processes, make it stiff and sometimes brittle, which ultimately plays a huge part in pavement deterioration. This phenomenon is commonly known as asphalt aging. Incorporating polymer modifiers with virgin asphalt can work as an effective means to change the binder properties and alleviate the issues related to asphalt aging. Different types of polymers, including elastomers, plastomers, and reactive polymers, can mixed in different combinations with the virgin asphalt to create polymer-modified binders (PMBs). In general, polymers are typically added to the virgin asphalt binder in PMB manufacturing at weight percentages ranging from 3% to 7%.
  • 1.1K
  • 28 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Morphological Characteristic Evaluation of Road Aggregates
The sustainable performance of asphalt pavement depends on the quality and mix design of road aggregates. Identifying aggregate morphology and size is a prerequisite step for material design and numerical modeling of asphalt mixtures.
  • 1.1K
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Recycled Waste Materials and Technologies in Asphalt Pavements
Given the prevailing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and the growing demand for renewable resources, the pavement industry, among others, is actively engaged in researching and exploring low-carbon materials and technologies. Despite the growing interest in low-carbon asphalt pavement, there is still a significant knowledge gap regarding the use of various waste materials and technologies to achieve this goal. 
  • 1.1K
  • 19 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Urban-Scale Physics-Based Building Energy Modeling
Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) is a practical approach in large-scale building energy modeling for stakeholders in the energy industry to predict energy use in the building sector under different design and retrofit scenarios. UBEM is a relatively new large-scale building energy modeling (BEM) approach which raises different challenges and requires more in-depth study to facilitate its application. 
  • 1.1K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Spatial Planning and Energy Efficiency in Urban Form
As the urban population grows, so does their energy consumption, making efficiency critical to mitigate emissions and resource use. Thus, spatial and transport planning must include energy efficiency and their strategies, as these are vital to urban sustainability. In this sense, compactness has been shown to have many positive aspects that serendipitously go much in line with Jacobs’ ideas. The urban environment is expected to host a growing number of dwellers in the coming decades, and compact urbanism is one possible solution to keep energy consumption under control while providing all the benefits of proximity.
  • 1.1K
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Guidelines for Measuring Particulate Matter at Construction Sites
PM is a set of air pollutants consisting of solid or liquid particles. These particles are suspended in the atmosphere, but they can also be sedimented on surfaces. Despite a number of differences, PM is mainly classified by its aerodynamic diameter into three groups: (1) fine or breathable particles (PM2.5) with aerodynamic diameter up to 2.5 µm, (2) coarse or inhalable particles (PM10) with an aerodynamic diameter up to 10 µm, and (3) total suspended particles (TSP) that have a wide particle size range, typically with an equivalent aerodynamic cutting diameter of 100 µm.
  • 1.1K
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Artificial Intelligence-Based Regional Flood Frequency Analysis Methods
Flood is one of the most destructive natural disasters, causing significant economic damage and loss of lives. Numerous methods have been introduced to estimate design floods, which include linear and non-linear techniques. Since flood generation is a non-linear process, the use of linear techniques has inherent weaknesses. To overcome these, artificial intelligence (AI)-based non-linear regional flood frequency analysis (RFFA) techniques have been introduced. 
  • 1.1K
  • 20 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Fugitive Dust
Fugitive dust is a serious threat to unpaved road users from a safety and health point of view. Dust suppressing materials or dust suppressants are often employed to lower the fugitive dust. Currently, many dust suppressants are commercially available and are being developed for various applications. 
  • 1.1K
  • 09 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Catchment Resilience
Catchment resilience can be used as a unifying concept to explore the role of latent conditions that are triggered by hydro-hazards and their impact on exposed people or assets. Catchment resilience requires acknowledging the interactions between natural, technical, and social systems within a catchment, and considering feedbacks between exposure, vulnerability, and resilience of the catchment.
  • 1.1K
  • 12 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Permeable Pavement Systems for Stormwater Management
There has been growing interest in the field of permeable pavement systems (PPS), especially in the scope of stormwater management as a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS). Slight modifications within the PPS layers or incorporation of innovative filters could result in improved contaminant removal efficiency. In addition maintenance procedures were proven effective in mitigating clogging effects, mostly occurring at the upper 1.5–2.5 cm of the PPS. Although partial replacement of the PPS mix design with recycled aggregates improved the overall permeability, the compressive strength was slightly compromised. 
  • 1.1K
  • 21 Oct 2022
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