Ana Horta

Simulation of Continuous Variables at Meander Structures: Application to Contaminated Sediments of a Lagoon

Simulation of continuous variables conditioned to meander structures is an important tool in the context of soil contamination assessment, namely, when the contamination is related with depositional sediments in water channels. Hence, this paper proposes using bi-point statistics stochastic simulation with local anisotropy trends to simulate continuous variables inside predefined channels. To accomplish this objective, the Direct Sequential Simulation (DSS) algorithm was modified to account for local anisotropy when searching for the simulation node. This methodological approach was applied to the spatial characterization of polluted sediments in a coastal lagoon located in the North of Portugal (Barrinha de Esmoriz).

Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse

Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for mitigation policy. These dimensions yield four clusters of cases producing a fractured global field. Positive values on the dimensions show modest association with emissions reductions. Data-mining media research is needed to determine trends in this global field.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster and its effects on media framing of fission and fusion energy technologies

This paper presents results of a comparison of media coverage of fusion and fission energy technologies in three countries (Germany, Spain and Portugal) and in the English language international print media addressing transnational elite, from 2008 to 2012. The analysis showed that the accident in Fukushima in March 2010 did not have significant impact on media framing of nuclear fusion in the major part of print media under investigation. In fact, fusion is clearly dissociated from traditional nuclear (fission) energy and from nuclear accidents. It tends to be portrayed as a safe, clean and unlimited source of energy, although less credited when confronted with research costs, technological feasibility and the possibility to be achieved in a reasonable period of time. On the contrary, fission is portrayed as a hazardous source of energy, expensive when compared to research costs of renewables, hardly a long-term energy option, susceptible to contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or rogue military use. Fukushima accident was consistently discussed in the context of safety problems of nuclear power plants and in many cases appeared not as an isolated event but rather as a reminder of previous nuclear disasters such as Three Miles Island and Chernobyl.

School meals in Portugal: governing children s food practices

Drawing on a post-Foucauldian conceptual framework we look at the rationalities that inform the organization of the Portuguese school meals and the implementation of these rationalities to transform and normalize children eating habits. The empirical material is drawn from a thematic documental analysis of the school meals regulatory framework from the 1970s up until nowadays. The objectives are threefold: 1) to describe the continuities and discontinuities of official discourses on school meals institutional practices; 2) to look at the ways children, health and food are placed and interpreted in those documents; 3) to describe and explain trajectories of school meals governmentalities and its plural arrangements. It was possible to identify five types of school meals governmental regimes: the Authoritarian; the Democratic, the Modern, the Consumer and the Obesity and Risk. These regimes are intertwined and organize in multiple ways the contexts that govern childrens eating practices in schools.

Children's food meanings and eating contexts: schools and their surroundings

Purpose – Concerns on childrens obesity and overweight have been related to food diets with excessive sugar and fat. Given the relevance of school meals in Portuguese childrens lives, schools follow governmental guidelines in order to provide nutritiously balanced and healthy meals. As imbalances persist, this study aims at understanding the acceptance of school meals by children, in the context of competing marketing allures of nutritiously poor foods outside the schools. Design/methodology/approach – Plural qualitative research techniques (focus groups with children and parents, direct observation and interviews with school directors and kitchen staff) were combined to analyse childrens food-related meanings and practices, and also images of food displayed at schools and in their surroundings. The empirical data were collected in four primary and secondary public schools with different socio-economic backgrounds in the area of Lisbon. Findings – Results show sharp contrasts between food images and me...

Assessing the Quality of the Soil by Stochastic Simulation

For the assessment of soil quality, this chapter proposes a methodology relying on the stochastic simulation and co-simulation of relevant variables representing soil quality. Taking into consideration possible quality thresholds for each variable, we applied loss functions to the simulated maps and combined them to identify areas with different soil quality dynamics. This methodology was applied to an area in the southeast of Portugal, to the left margin of the Guadiana River, classified with a high susceptibility index to the desertification phenomenon.

The Hegemony of Global Politics: News Coverage of Climate Change in a Small Country

ABSTRACT Researching media coverage of climate change may shed light on the different configurations of global and domestic factors affecting journalism and politics. This article analyzes climate change coverage in Portugal from 2007 to 2014 in comparison with 14 other countries. It shows that the Portuguese press tends to reproduce the global political agenda on climate change, mainly focusing on international events associated with global political decision-making processes, instead of providing a domesticated coverage, as observed in other countries. National and local levels of action are thus obscured. The interplay between global and domestic factors—including characteristics of Portugal’s press and politics, such as national political leaders’ lack of mobilization and communication on climate change, media’s deference to powerful sources, and reliance on international news feeds—creates the conditions for global politics to play an hegemonic role in media representations, which is likely to influence public engagement with climate change.

Geostatistical Data Integration Model for Contamination Assessment

Soil contamination assessments can be improved with new methods aimed at the accurate estimation of the volume and extension of contaminated soil to be remediated. Geostatistical models that use secondary information to characterize soil contamination are incorporated into a new integration model to provide accurate three-dimensional maps. The proposed integration model is based on a stochastic inversion approach and uses sequential indicator simulation. A two-dimensional reference image representing the areal extension of the contamination is combined with local measurements of contamination in the vertical direction, to render a three-dimensional contamination map. To demonstrate how well the integration model performs, the case study presented focuses on geophysical data and how it can be integrated with soil contamination measurements to improve the characterization of a contaminated site. The results show that the model reproduces successfully the reference image thus providing an accurate three-dimensional contamination map.

A Blot on the Landscape: Consensus and Controversies on Wind Farms in Rural Portugal

Abstract In recent years, Portugal has witnessed the siting of 250 wind farms, particularly in mountainous and rural areas. Even though, unlike other European countries, general public consensus seemed at first to prevail, protests by local population and ENGOs have been increasing of late (many broadcast by the media) – the outcomes of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) provide a good example. This chapter has two main objectives. On one hand, it examines how rural landscapes are discursively framed in the press when the Portuguese media picks up wind energy issues. On the other hand, by analysing EIA reports, it aims at identifying the social actors involved in the decision process of the siting of wind farms in rural or peri-urban areas, the arguments for and against the location of these facilities and how the (rural) landscape is framed and represented. The empirical material is drawn on three different sources: media analysis of the public discourse on landscape issues related to wind farms; an analysis of EIA reports regarding wind farms in Portugal and an analysis of official positions on this issue assessed through the Environmental Impact Declarations (EID) of EIA processes. It is concluded that despite the lack of media attention to landscape impacts’ of wind farms, the existing discursive frames are often attached to dichotomized cultural meanings: it either deems wind farms as technological tools for landscape progressive transformation or as a risk to its pristine image. As to the EIA reports, landscape matters are more visible and important and at times sufficient to reject approval or change of the siting of a wind farm.

School Meals and the Rural Idyll: Children’s Engagements with Animals, Plants and Other Nature

Abstract Like many other countries, a reform of school meals policies has been implemented in Portugal, wherein nutritional and health criteria are considered in the design of the public plate. Given that a large literature on school meals focus on cities seen as sites for promising transformation regarding health, resilience and sustainability, it is pertinent to examine how these policies are being received in rural areas. Similar to other vulnerable regions in southern Europe, rural areas in Portugal have been affected by depopulation, the re-localisation of public services (e.g. schools, health centres and courts of justice) to larger conurbations, a drastic reduction of farming areas and its reconversion from sites of production to sites of consumption that thrive on tourism. While research on children’s attitudes, experiences and practices in rural areas had picked up the attention of social scientists, research on children’s relations and engagements with school meals in these areas does not abound. This chapter addresses three issues: first, how the catering staff and health professionals experience children’s engagements with school meals after the policy reform; second, how the discourses of the school staff and parents around the rural and gastro-idylls contrast with the reported food practices and experiences of everyday life, and third, how the multiple engagements of children with animals, plants and other nature conflict with or are juxtaposed to the images of the rural idyll. Drawing from focus groups material with children aged between 7 and 9 years old living in the rural hinterland of an inland medium-size city in Portugal, focus groups with parents and interviews with stakeholders (e.g. school and kitchen staff, local authorities, nutritionists and catering firms) the chapter aims at contributing to a broader understanding of children lived experiences with food consumption in rural contexts.