Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-06-14T16:41:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 THIAGO DE LOIOLA ARAÚJO E SILVA_.pdf: 1988461 bytes, checksum: 213ef25b0f494b861dd4b801a990dc4b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-14T16:41:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 THIAGO DE LOIOLA ARAÚJO E SILVA_.pdf: 1988461 bytes, checksum: 213ef25b0f494b861dd4b801a990dc4b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-28 / IFTO - Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Tocantins / A crise energética atual atinge todos os eixos da sociedade e aponta para uma mudança no uso e na dependência dos combustíveis fósseis. A atual forma aponta para a escassez dessa fonte de energia e ao mesmo tempo, aponta para o desenvolvimento de outras fontes de geração de energia. Dentre essas fontes está o biodiesel feito a partir do óleo vegetal onde a soja vem despontando como matéria – prima mais usada na região central do Tocantins. Nesse contexto, o Brasil vem se destacando através do Programa Nacional de Produção e Uso do Biodiesel (PNPB). Entretanto, a geração de biodiesel a partir do óleo vegetal, assim como as outras formas de energia, gera impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais tanto positivos quanto negativos. Esses impactos afetam a sociedade direta e indiretamente, sendo as vezes desconhecidos ou ignorados pelos atores envolvidos. Nesse sentido, a presente dissertação objetiva, através do pensamento sistêmico, analisar os impactos sociais gerados a partir da instalação de uma usina de biodiesel e da produção do combustível tendo como matéria - prima do óleo de soja. Para se atingir o objetivo proposto, foi realizado um levantamento de dados bibliográficos, realizadas entrevistas com os atores envolvidos e construída uma estrutura sistêmica. Como resultado encontrado foram diagnosticados os impactos sociais através da relação direta e inversamente proporcional entre as variáveis diagnosticadas durante as entrevistas e a revisão bibliográfica. A aplicação do pensamento sistêmico na identificação dos impactos sociais se mostrou eficiente, uma vez que permitiu uma visão das relações entre os impactos encontrados e não apenas uma observação superficial. / The current energy crisis reaches all axes of society and points to a change in the use and dependence on fossil fuels. The current form points to the shortage of this energy source and at the same time points to the development of other sources of power generation. Among these sources, is biodiesel made from vegetable oil where soy is emerging as raw - material used in the central region of Tocantins? In this context, Brazil has stood out through the National Program for Production and Use of Biodiesel (NPPB). However, the generation of biodiesel from vegetable oil, as well as other forms of energy, generates socioeconomic and environmental impacts both positive and negative. These impacts affect the company directly and indirectly, and sometimes unknown or ignored by the actors involved. In this sense, the present dissertation aims, through systems thinking, analyzing the social impacts generated from the installation of a biodiesel plant and fuel production taking as raw - material of soybean oil. To achieve this purpose, a survey was conducted of bibliographic data, interviews with the actors involved and built a systemic structure. As a result, found the social impacts have been diagnosed through direct and inversely proportional relation between variables diagnosed during interviews and the literature review. The application of systems thinking to identify the social impact was efficient as it allowed a view of relations between the found impact and not just a superficial observation

O presente trabalho busca compreender e analisar a partir de um ponto de vista conceitual o termo cultura ecológica, que vem sendo usado como sinônimo de uma infinidade de conceitos associados à racionalidade econômica capitalista. O objetivo principal deste trabalho não é definir o quê é cultura ecológica, mas apontar as suas possíveis potencialidades conceituais, já que até agora tem se forjado como um termo mais normativo do que conceitual. Este trabalho propõe uma análise teórica - critica do termo e de vários aspectos ligados a ele, questionando e refletindo sobre a atual crise socioambiental. Primeiramente faz-se uma análise dos termos cultura, ecologia e cultura ecológica, apontando para os usos atuais desta idéia. Baseando-se em alguns aspectos teóricos de Karl Marx, de Max Weber e usando o conceito de cultura política de Gabriel Almond e Sidney Verba, analisaram-se algumas possibilidades de estudo da cultura ecológica. Depois, refletiu-se sobre a relação entre idéias e práticas ecológicas apoiando-se no conceito de práxis, o que levou também a tratar do espaço público, da cidadania e do individualismo. / This study aims to understand and analyze from a conceptual point of view the term ecological culture, which has been used as a synonymous of several concepts associated to the capitalist economic rationality. Thus, the main objective is not to define what ecological culture is, but to point at the possible conceptual potentialities, since it has been shaped as a normative term, instead of a conceptual one. This study suggests a theoretical and critical analysis of the term and of several aspects linked to it, inquiring and reflecting on the current socio environmental crisis. First of all, an analysis of the terms culture, ecology and ecological culture is done, pointing at the current usages of the term ecological culture. Some possibilities of study of the ecological culture are analyzed based upon theoretical aspects from Karl Marx, Max Weber and using the political culture concept from Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. Finally, a reflection on the relation between ecological ideas and practices is made using the praxis concept, what leads to treat about public sphere, citizenship and individualism.

Significant challenges in water resources management arise because of the ever-increasing pressure on the world’s heavily exploited and limited water resources. These stressors include demographic growth, intensification of agriculture, climate variability, and climate change. These challenges to water resources are usually tackled using a top-down approach, which suffers from many limitations including the use of a limited set of climate change scenarios, the lack of methodology to rank these scenarios, and the lack of credibility, particularly on extremes. The bottom-up approach, the recently introduced approach, reverses the process by assessing vulnerabilities of water resources systems to variations in future climates and determining the prospects of such wide range of changes. While it solves some issues of the top-down approach, several issues remain unaddressed. The current project seeks to provide end-users and the research community with an improved version of the bottom-up framework for streamlining climate variability into water resources management decisions. The improvement issues that are tackled are a) the generation of a sufficient number of climate projections that provide better coverage of the risk space; b) a methodology to quantitatively estimate the plausibility of a future desired or undesired outcome and c) the optimization of the size of the projections pool to achieve the desired precision with the minimum time and computing resources. The results will hopefully help to cope with the present-day and future challenges induced mainly by climate. In the first part of the study, the adequacy of stochastically generated climate time series for water resources systems risk and performance assessment is investigated. A number of stochastic weather generators (SWGs) are first used to generate a large number of realizations (i.e. an ensemble of climate outputs) of precipitation and temperature time series. Each realization of the generated climate time series is then used individually as an input to a hydrological model to obtain streamflow time series. The usefulness of weather generators is evaluated by assessing how the statistical properties of simulated precipitation, temperatures, and streamflow deviate from those of observations. This is achieved by plotting a large ensemble of (1) synthetic precipitation and temperature time series in a Climate Statistics Space (CSS), and (2) hydrological indices using simulated streamflow data in a Risk and Performance Indicators Space (RPIS). The performance of the weather generator is assessed using visual inspection and the Mahalanobis distance between statistics derived from observations and simulations. A case study was carried out using five different weather generators: two versions of WeaGETS, two versions of MulGETS and the k-nearest neighbor weather generator (knn). In the second part of the thesis, the impacts of climate change, on the other hand, was evaluated by generating a large number of representative climate projections. Large ensembles of future series are created by perturbing downscaled regional climate models’ outputs with a stochastic weather generator, then used as inputs to a hydrological model that was calibrated using observed data. Risk indices calculated with the simulated streamflow data are converted into probability distributions using Kernel Density Estimations. The results are dimensional joint probability distributions of risk-relevant indices that provide estimates of the likelihood of unwanted events under a given watershed configuration and management policy. The proposed approach offers a more complete vision of the impacts of climate change and opens the door to a more objective assessment of adaptation strategies. The third part of the thesis deals with the estimation of the optimal size of SWG realizations needed to calculate risk and performance indices. The number of realizations required to reach is investigated utilizing Relative Root Mean Square Error and Relative Error. While results indicate that a single realization is not enough to adequately represent a given stochastic weather generator, results generally indicate that there is no major benefit of generating more than 100 realizations as they are not notably different from results obtained using 1000 realizations. Adopting a smaller but carefully chosen number of realizations can significantly reduce the computational time and resources and therefore benefit a larger audience particularly where high-performance machines are not easily accessible. The application was done in one pilot watershed, the South Nation Watershed in Eastern Ontario, yet the methodology will be of interest for Canada and beyond. Overall, the results contribute to making the bottom-up more objective and less computationally intensive, hence more attractive to practitioners and researchers.

As the global demand for oil increases, human health implications related to its discovery and transport remain a serious concern. The Niger Delta has been the site of severe environmental degradation since the oil boom of the 1970s. While some researchers have examined the environmental effects of oil procurement, few have explored human health implications in this region. This phenomenological study investigated the human physical and mental health consequences of oil-related environmental degradation through the perceptions and lived experiences of villagers in Koluama, Nigeria. The conceptual framework for the study was based on research conducted by Morello-Frosch, Zuk, Jerrett, Shamasunder and Kyle (2011) on the public health consequences of environmental pollution to which marginalized populations are vulnerable. Participants included a random sample of 33 residents of Koluama. Data were collected via individual semistructured interviews and 3 focus groups and analyzed using: interpretative phenomenological analysis. Themes that emerged from analysis included children's health issues, including asthma and other breathing problems; and death rates among the elderly in the area. The villagers, aware of the increase in mortality and illness in the area, also suffered from anxiety and depression. The research findings demonstrated the perception of the participants that the oil companies appeared not to be concerned about the lack of health care in the area; although illness increased in the area of the oil fields. This study might be beneficial in eliciting positive social change at the individual and organizational levels by illuminating oil-related health problems and may lead to better health care access for the population.

The hypothesis put forward in this thesis is that tourism can be the agent for the sustainable conservation and development of the valuable legacy of colonial built heritage by capitalizing on its tangible and intangible assets. The key variable is the recognition of the intrinsic value of both iconic and non-iconic properties and sites that constitute the extrinsic value of the cultural attractions of the tourism destination. The research problem is concerned with assessing the impact of contemporary tourism development on these attractions and identifying the issues affecting preservation and realization of asset potential. The research aims to support the collaboration between tourism professionals and cultural heritage stakeholders committed to resolving issues and problems for the destination identified within the stages of the tourism destination's life cycle of evolution (Butler, 1980).

The interconnections between groundwater and river systems remain poorly understood in many catchments throughout the world, and yet they are fundamental to effectively managing water resources. Groundwater extraction from aquifers that are connected to river systems will reduce river flows, and this has implications for riverine ecosystem health, water security, aesthetic and cultural values, as well as water allocation and water management policies more generally. The decline in river flows as a consequence of groundwater extractions has the potential to threaten river basin industries and communities reliant on water resources. ¶ In this thesis the connectivity between groundwater and river systems and the impact that groundwater extractions have on river flows were studied in one of Australia’s most developed irrigation areas, the Namoi River catchment in New South Wales. ¶ Gauged river reaches in the Namoi River catchment were characterised according to three levels of information: 1) presence of hydraulic connection between aquifer-river systems; 2) dominant direction of aquifer-river flux; and 3) the potential for groundwater extraction to impact on river flows. The methods used to characterise the river reaches included the following analyses: 1) a comparison of groundwater and river channel base elevations using a GIS/Database; 2) stream hydrographs and the application of a baseflow separation filter; 3) flow duration curves and the percentage of time a river flows; 4) vertical aquifer connectivity from nested piezometer sites; and 5) paired stream and groundwater hydrographs. ¶ The theoretical responses for gaining, losing and variably gaining-losing river reaches were conceptualised along with the processes that operate in these systems. Subsequently, a map was prepared for the Namoi River catchment river reaches indicating aquifer-river connectivity and dominant direction of flux. Large areas of the Upper Namoi River catchment were found to have connected aquifer-river systems, with groundwater extraction bores located in close proximity to the rivers. Accordingly, the potential for groundwater extraction to impact on river flows in these areas was considered significant. The Lower Namoi was assessed as having mostly disconnected aquifer-river systems. ¶ In order to investigate the impacts of groundwater extraction on river flows in connected aquifer-river systems, a simple integrated aquifer-river model entitled IHACRES_GW was developed for use at the catchment scale. The IHACRES_GW model includes a dynamic, spatially-lumped rainfall-runoff model, IHACRES, combined with a simple groundwater bucket model that maintains a continuous water balance account of groundwater storage volumes for the upstream catchment area relative to the base of the stream, assumed to be the stream gauging station. The IHACRES_GW model was developed primarily: 1) to improve upon existing water allocation models by incorporating aquifer-river interactions; 2) to quantify the impacts of groundwater extraction on river flows within unregulated, connected aquifer-river systems; 3) to inform water policy on groundwater extraction; and 4) to be able to utilise the model in future integrated assessment of water allocations options at the catchment scale. ¶ The IHACRES_GW model was applied within the Cox’s Creek subcatchment in order to test its validity. The model was used to simulate a range of extraction scenarios which enabled the impacts of groundwater extractions on river flows to be assessed. In particular, the historical impacts of groundwater extraction on the timing, magnitude and frequency of baseflow events were quantified over a 15-year (1988-2003) simulation period. The IHACRES_GW model was also used to evaluate the implications of water sharing plans for the Cox’s Creek subcatchment. ¶ A spatially-lumped modelling approach in the management of water resources has a number of limitations, including those arising from the lack of spatial considerations. However, it offers a number of advantages including facilitating a better understanding of large-scale water management issues, assessing the impacts of water allocation and groundwater extraction on river flows at the catchment scale, and informing water sharing plans. In particular, this type of modelling approach lends itself to integrated assessments of water allocation options in which hydrological, ecological and socioeconomic data sets are combined, and where data is commonly aggregated to a larger scale of interest in response to the requirements of policy makers. The research findings from this thesis provide some insights into how to better manage the impacts of groundwater extraction in connected aquifer-river systems.

Avec l'ouverture du secteur des télécommunications et la décentralisation des compétences, le développement numérique apparaît comme une nouvelle « épreuve » pour les collectivités, soucieuses de la compétitivité de leur territoire. Les régions peuvent envisager cette épreuve comme une opportunité, non seulement pour renforcer leur positionnement parmi les autres collectivités mais aussi comme un moyen de créer des stratégies efficaces en terme de développement local. Pour répondre à cette hypothèse, la méthode s'est appuyée sur l'analyse de trois régions françaises : l'Alsace, Midi-Pyrénées et la Picardie.<br />A partir de documents publics et d'articles scientifiques, on a reconstitué le cadre dans lequel se dessinent les ambitions des acteurs locaux. On s'est aperçu que les prérogatives opérationnelles ont glissé des échelles supranationales vers les échelles locales. Ainsi, les collectivités ont acquis une légitimité à la fois historique, politique et réglementaire à agir dans le domaine concurrentiel des télécommunications, en répondant à des missions d'aménagement et d'intérêt général.<br />En s'appuyant sur la géographie des réseaux, on s'est interrogé sur la nature des enjeux qui suscitent la mobilisation régionale. L'architecture de l'Internet à haut débit a révélé des différences de connectivité des réseaux régionaux, d'inégale couverture des services (dégroupage) et du rôle variable des capitales régionales comme hub technologique, de dimension locale, nationale ou européenne. <br />A partir des documents politiques et contractuels, on a analysé les canevas stratégiques des Conseils régionaux pour définir les modèles de gouvernance, mesurer les moyens financiers et humains, et identifier les projets dominants des régions. Ainsi, même si les stratégies divergent dans le fond, elles sont relativement proches sur la forme car elles s'inspirent fortement des documents de contractualisation (CPER, DOCUP). Concernant le positionnement régional, les régions sont leaders et plus souvent partenaires en fonction de trois modèles de gouvernance (intégrée, collaborative, délégante).<br />A partir de données quantitatives et qualitatives, la recherche finit par proposer quatre « e-indicateurs » (l'efficacité, l'efficience, l'effectivité, l'effort) pour évaluer les différents niveaux de la mobilisation régionale dans le développement numérique. Le renforcement du rôle des Conseils régionaux n'est pas encore visible, même si plusieurs régions ont déjà défini leur stratégie, leurs projets TIC, et répondent le cas échéant aux appels à projets nationaux et européens. Les moyens humains et financiers restent encore sous dimensionnés par rapport aux enjeux, illustrant une certaine frilosité des exécutifs régionaux sur un domaine encore neuf d'autant plus que les retombées des stratégies numériques restent difficilement mesurables, faute de données. A cet égard, l'évaluation des politiques territoriales devrait constituer un nouveau champ de recherche.

Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié les effets thermiques des impacts météoritiques et leurs contributions à la formation du noyau terrestre par modélisations numériques. Les impacts météoritiques apportent sur leur cible une quantité importante d'énergie qui permet une augmentation locale de la température fonction du rayon de la planète impactée dans une région sphérique en dessous du point d'impact. <br />Un impact géant sur une petite protoplanète engendre une anomalie thermique sans fusion significative. Lorsque l'impacteur dépasse une taille critique, l'anomalie thermique subit d'abord une phase advective isotherme puis refroidit par diffusion. L'épaisseur de l'anomalie thermique à la fin de l'étape advective ne dépend que de la taille et des paramètres rhéologiques du corps impacté. <br />Lors d'un impact géant sur une protoplanète indifférenciée avec un rayon supérieur au millier de kilomètres, l'énergie apportée peut générer localement de la fusion partielle et une ségrégation entre le fer très dense et les silicates plus légers. Le fer migre ensuite vers le centre de la planète et contribue ainsi à la formation du noyau. Nous avons développé des modèles d'évolution thermique par dissipation visqueuse de la phase métallique plongeant dans du matériel indifférencié. Lorsque son volume est suffisant, le diapir de fer se réchauffe lors de sa chute vers le centre. Ce chauffage est fonction des paramètres rhéologiques de la planète impactée et notamment des contrastes de viscosité mis en jeu.

L'objectif de ce travail est d'évaluer et de comparer le comportement environnemental du glyphosate, utilisé dans un contexte d'introduction de plantes génétiquement modifiées (GM), par rapport aux comportements d'autres herbicides classiquement utilisés pour le désherbage des mêmes cultures non résistantes au glyphosate: trifluraline et métazachlore pour le colza, métamitrone pour la betterave, sulcotrione pour le maïs. En effet, les conséquences sur l'environnement de ces modifications des pratiques de désherbage ont été jusqu'à présent peu étudiées. Trois sites représentatifs des principales situations où sont cultivées ces plantes, aux points de vue climatique et pédologique, ont été choisis pour cette étude (localisés près de Châlons-en-Champagne, Dijon et Toulouse). Dans la première partie de ce travail, les comportements des herbicides dans les trois sols ont été comparés au laboratoire dans les mêmes conditions (sol, température, humidité, dose). Leur rétention, dégradation dans les sols après application directe ou après absorption dans les tissus végétaux dans les cas particuliers du glyphosate et de la sulcotrione (herbicides foliaires) ont été déterminées. Dans la seconde partie, les résultats obtenus au laboratoire ont été utilisés pour estimer les impacts environnementaux des herbicides à partir de trois méthodes de précision croissante: indice de lixiviation GUS (risque de contamination des eaux souterraines), indicateur I-Phy (risque de contamination de l'air, de l'eau de surface et de l'eau souterraine), et modèle numérique de devenir des pesticides, PRZM. Les stocks et flux des herbicides et de leurs métabolites obtenus par modélisation ont ensuite été agrégés avec le modèle USES (analyse de cycle de vie et d'impacts) pour estimer les impacts finaux des différents systèmes de culture existants sur les trois sites (rotations avec colza et betterave GM ou non-GM, monoculture de maïs GM ou non-GM) sur plusieurs cibles de l'environnement (eau, sédiments, écosystèmes, population humaine). Le glyphosate est généralement l'herbicide pour lequel les risques de dispersion dans l'environnement sont les plus faibles (rétention élevée, dégradation rapide), mais ils dépendent cependant du type de sol. Les vitesses et taux de minéralisation des herbicides diminuent fortement avec la température, de même que la formation de résidus non extractibles, avec une préservation des molécules sous forme extractible donc potentiellement disponible. La formation d'un métabolite majeur plus persistant a été observée dans les cas du glyphosate (acide aminométhylphosphonique, AMPA), du métazachlore (non identifié) et de la sulcotrione (acide 2-chloro-4-méthylsulfonylbenzoïque, CMBA). En conséquence, ces métabolites présentent des risques pour l'environnement plus importants que les molécules herbicides. Enfin, l'absorption du glyphosate dans les tissus végétaux diminue sa dégradation. L'accumulation de glyphosate non dégradé dans les tissus végétaux pourrait augmenter les quantités de glyphosate dans le sol après restitution des résidus de récolte ou lors de la chute des feuilles traitées. Ce résultat a été pris en compte dans la modélisation. Le calcul de l'indice GUS a montré que les herbicides présentent peu de risque de contamination des eaux souterraines, le calcul de l'indicateur I-Phy a conduit à des résultats similaires pour les eaux souterraines, ainsi que pour les eaux de surface et l'air. Le modèle PRZM a été préalablement testé à partir d'une expérimentation en conditions de plein champ: il permet des simulations correctes du devenir des herbicides à partir des données obtenues au laboratoire, mais a néanmoins été calé dans les cas du glyphosate et de la trifluraline. Les résultats des simulations des différentes pratiques de désherbage ont montré que plus la fréquence de retour des cultures GM est élevée et plus l'impact sur l'environnement du glyphosate pourrait être important comparé aux herbicides sélectifs. En particulier, les stocks d'AMPA dans le sol après douze ans d'application annuelle de glyphosate dans une monoculture de maïs pourraient être particulièrement élevés. Du point de vue de la contamination de l'environnement par les herbicides, les bénéfices des cultures GM dépendent donc des types de sol, des cultures et des herbicides remplacés. La persistance de l'AMPA dans les sols soulève néanmoins un problème général de durabilité de cette innovation, et impose d'étudier plus en détail le comportement de cette molécule à long terme.

Le mercure est un composé toxique. En zone polaire, au printemps, une chimie extrêmement particulière est à l'origine, après oxydation, de son dépôt en surface du manteau neigeux. Ces phénomènes appelés « Atmospheric Mercury Depletion Events » (AMDEs) ou « pluies de mercure » sont à la base d'une contamination encore mal renseignée des écosystèmes polaires. Lors de campagnes de terrain en Arctique, nous avons observé sept AMDEs, et avons étudié les paramètres physico-chimiques susceptibles de gouverner l'apparition de ces événements. Le rôle des basses températures et l'implication des nuages glacés parmi les surfaces gelées actives sont évoqués. L'impact de ces AMDEs en terme de teneurs en mercure dans la neige de surface a également été examiné. Les dépôts résultant de ces phénomènes n'aboutissent pas forcément à une contamination marquée de la neige de surface, et nos connaissances sont aujourd'hui trop limitées pour pouvoir quantifier l'apport toxique des AMDEs sur l'Arctique.