Paulo Ribeiro

The economic assessment of health benefits of active transport

Originality/value This study provides a useful review of the health benefits of active transport with a comprehensive analysis of valuation studies, presenting value-added information. It then reports a former assessment of the health effects of active transport in the Portuguese context (case study) using the state-of-the-art economic analysis tool (HEAT) of the World Health Organization which is believed to contribute to a paradigm shift in the transport policy and appraisal practice given the need of shaping future cities (and their citizens) for health through more investments in active transport.

A remote system for water tank level monitoring and control - a collaborative case-study

This paper presents the design and implementation of a remote experiment for controlling the level of a two-tank system. It describes also the management of the team work: it was performed in a remote collaborative methodology by two students of the fourth year of the Industrial Electronics Master Course at University of Minho (UM) and one student from the third year of the Industrial Informatics course of the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), both high education institutions in Minho region. It is a project work, implemented by undergraduate students and for future students use. The experiment is controlled using an on-off controller and a PID algorithm. The kit is monitored by a custom developed LabVIEW environment. The remote user can test the digital algorithms and parameters, change level reference values and register the output data.

Route planning for soft modes of transport - Healthy routes

The application of sustainability principles on the definition of policies and actions for urban mobility relies on the promotion of less pollutant, economic, and more equitable modes of transport, such as walking and cycling, also known as smooth modes of transport. In this paper, a methodology is presented and described under the concept of healthy route generation. This integrates the contamination of the smooth modes of transport network, according to the noise levels and air pollution indices of the urban environment in which it is located, with the main objective of reducing the exposure level and the risk of development of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Healthy routes can be applied to attract and promote the use of smooth modes of transport in a regular basis in urban environments.

Robot orientation with histograms on MSL

One of the most important tasks on robot soccer is localization. The team robots should self-localize on the 18 × 12 meters soccer field. Since a few years ago the soccer field has increased and the corner posts were removed and that increased the localization task complexity. One important aspect to take care for a proper localization is to find out the robot orientation. This paper proposes a new technique to calculate the robot orientation. The proposed method consists of using a histogram of white-green transitions (to detect the lines on the field) to know the robot orientation. This technique does not take much computational time and proves to be very reliable.

An urban environmental monitoring and information system

Evaluating, monitoring and informing about urban environmental quality has become a main issue, particularly important when considered as a decisionmaking tool that contributes to more habitable and sustainable cities. Following a tendency observed in other European cities, the city of Braga (Portugal) has decided to create an infrastructure for environmental data acquisition and a webbased platform as a public information system. Some of the innovations introduced in this new platform include the use of mobile instrumented units, the extensive use of simulation software to create long-term pollution (air and noise) maps, and the presentation of the information through a geographical interface developed over Google Maps technology. This paper discusses some of the critical aspects regarding the conceptual design of such an information system, and presents the actual information system developed for Braga, named SmarBRAGA.

An integrated approach towards transforming an industrial park into an eco-industrial park: the case of Salaise-Sablons

This paper describes an integrated approach to transform an industrial park into an eco-industrial park by combining three interconnected goals, namely, the consolidation of industrial symbiosis, the promotion of sustainable accessibility and the development of multi-functionalities. The result is an interdependent approach where industrial and territorial ecosystems are jointly planned, seeking a more sustainable level of development that considers industrial activity, the transportation of people and goods and the spatial articulation with the neighbouring environment and urban areas. The critical points and challenges for improving the territorial integration of the French industrial park of Salaise-Sablons are discussed, providing lessons for the future. Regardless of the specificities of the case study, this approach has the potential to be adopted in similar industrial parks.

Global City: Index for Industry Sustainable Development

Nowadays, discussion on global cities concept is been addressed at a European level. The concept is a consequence of the array of globalization processes, adding different analysis layers according to social, economic and environmental requirements, such as, cultural, user-friendly and amenity, assessable, sharing, energy, smart, green or city factory age-friendly cities and communities. Cities should also be analyzed as working systems, with the same needs and requirements in terms of safety and well-being that are considered for other systems. Taking this into consideration, the goal of being a Global City should also comprise the so-called occupational layer. Therefore, it is important, within a city context, to define indicators for Sustainability regarding the occupational Layer. This paper aims to develop a methodology helping cities, at a local level, to define an Index for Industry Sustainable development contributing for the global city model.

A mobile environmental monitoring station for sustainable cities

The aim of this paper is to present a mobile environmental monitoring station to evaluate the urban environment.The different phases of the mobile unit development are presented from its construction and operation mode for handling and sharing the data obtained. This mobile unit measures the following urban environmental parameters: environmental noise (Leq, L10 and L90), air quality (PM10, PM2.5 and Total Suspended Particles) and meteorological parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction). This mobile unit is part of a project developed for the Portuguese city of Vila Real, called SMMART (in English “Municipal System for Monitoring Air, Noise and Traffic”). The municipality accepted the challenge of developing a platform whereby the population could be informed about the quality of the urban environment (air and noise) of the city where they live.

Healthy Routes For Active Modes In School Journeys

In recent years, walking and cycling to school have decreased conversely to the use of private cars due to its greater level of comfort and safety. However, the use of active modes of transport for short journeys is more economically and socially adequate as well as a healthier way of traveling. Active modes of transport can be defined as means of travel and transportation at low speed, which take up little space on the road, are air and noise non-pollutant, thus being regarded as more sustainable and a real alternative to cars. On the other hand, urban sustainable mobility implies the definition of policies and actions that rely on the promotion of less pollutant, economic, and more equitable modes of transport. To promote this modal shift, some policies focus on the facilities and urban form improvements to increase safety, namely for pedestrians. In this paper a different way to promote the use of active modes in school journeys is proposed and presented, which essentially uses and integrates information from noise and air pollution in the route-planning process to generate healthy routes. The concept of generation of healthy routes was triggered by the need to reduce the exposure to noise and air pollution in school journeys, which can affect the childrens health and quality of life. The healthy route model involves the contamination of the distances of the transport network, according to the urban environmental noise levels and the concentration of particles - PM10, thus allowing the definition of the less polluted, less noisy and healthier route for active modes. The performance of the model is assessed by calculating the noise and air pollution exposure rates in the obtained routes, in comparison with the shortest route. To validate the model and its potential for the promotion of active modes, a case study is presented in a city center located in North of Portugal for three different school journeys. KEYWORDS: Active modes, air pollution, cyclists, health, noise, pedestrians, SR2S, PM10. SR2S Language: en