Följande studie syftar till att analysera mindre kommuners hinder och möjligheter i det kommunala klimatanpassningsarbetet. Studien belyser även hur kritiska faktorer tar sig form som betydande i klimatanpassningsarbetet enligt aktörerna. Studiens empiriska material är baserat på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer, genomförda med aktörer med varierande yrkesroll i fyra svenska kommuner. Analysen av det empiriska materialet identifierade ett antal teman som lyfte faktorer som ansågs betydelsefulla att belysa i mindre kommuners kommunala klimatanpassningsarbete. Identifierade teman var följande: ekonomiska barriärer, politik, kompetens, interna och externa samverkansprocesser och stöd och vägledning i klimatanpassningsarbetet. Studien visade att mindre kommuner har ett antal möjligheter som ansågs betydande i det kommunala klimatanpassningsarbetet och dessa bestod av korta beslutsvägar och god intern och extern kommunikation. Studien pekade på att mindre kommuners klimatanpassningsarbete karaktäriseras av fler hinder än möjligheter, något som anses hämma implementeringen i det kommunala klimatanpassningsarbetet. Hindren utgörs av bristande förståelse från allmänheten, bristande intresse på politisk nivå, svårigheter i att rekrytera relevant kompetens samt att definiera och strukturera det egna klimatanpassningsarbetet. Studien visar även att det är komplext för mindre kommuner att endast tala om översvämningar i klimatanpassningsarbetet, därav pekar studien på att mindre kommuner behöver få hjälp att skala ner riktlinjer till den egna kommunens kapacitet. Mindre kommuners långsiktiga och strategiska mål i kommunalt klimatanpassningsarbete anses vara viktiga variabler att belysa i framtida studier. / The following study aims to analyze the barriers and opportunities for less-populous municipalities in the climate adaptation work. The study also highlights critical issues taking shape as important to climate adaptation work according to the actors and how they differ in their work towards higher populated municipalities. The study's empirical material is based on six semi-structured interviews, conducted with actors with varying professional roles in four Swedish municipalities. The analysis of the empirical material identified several themes that were considered important in the municipalities' climate adaptation work. Identified themes were as follows: economic barriers, politics, competence, internal and external collaboration processes and support and guidance in climate adaptation work.The study showed that less-populous municipalities have a number of opportunities that were considered significant in the municipal climate adaptation work and these consisted of short decision paths and good internal and external communication. The study pointed out that less-populous municipalities' climate adaptation work is characterized by more obstacles than opportunities, something that is considered to impede the implementation. The obstacles consist of a lack of understanding from the public, a lack of interest at the political level, difficulties in retaining and recruiting relevant competence, and defining and structuring the local climate adaptation work. The study also shows that it is complex for less-populous municipalities to only talk about flooding in the climate adaptation work, hence the study points out that less-populous municipalities need to acquire tools to be able to scale down guidelines to their own municipality's capacity. The municipalities' long-term and strategic goals in the climate adaptation work are considered to be important variables to highlight in future studies.

This project analyzes the validity of theoretical models used to predict the duration (hold time) for which a halon-replacement suppression agent will remain within a protected enclosure. Two current models and one new formulation are investigated; the sharp descending interface model (as applied in NFPA 2001, Annex C), the wide descending interface model (implemented in ISO 14520.1, Annex E), and the thick descending interface model (introduced herein). The thick interface model develops the characteristic thickness as an additional input parameter. Experimental data from 34 full-scale tests designed to characterize the discharge and draining dynamics of seven clean extinguishing agents (CEA) is used to assess model validity. For purposes of model validation the characteristic thickness is regressed from the experimental data although further work may be required to establish the independence of this parameter to other system design and environmental variables. Results show that the wide and sharp interface models' validity is highly sensitive to the threshold of agent concentration decay being modeled; whereas the thick interface prediction method demonstrates increased robustness at any modeled threshold. When the hold time is defined as a 15% decay in agent concentration, experimentally obtained hold time values are roughly 10% shorter than sharp interface predictions, 60% longer than wide interface predictions, and 30% longer than the thick interface model predicts.

Quality-of-service (QoS) requirements for the timely delivery of real-time multimedia raise new challenges for the networking world. A key component of QoS is QoS routing which allows the selection of network routes with sufficient resources for requested QoS parameters. Several techniques have been proposed in the literature to compute QoS routes, most of which require dynamic update of link-state information across the Internet. Given the growing size of the Internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gather up-to-date state information in a dynamic environment. We propose a new technique to compute QoS routes on the Internet in a fast and efficient manner without any need for dynamic updates. Our method, known as Selective Flooding, checks the state of the links on a set of pre-computed routes from the source to the destination in parallel and based on this information computes the best route and then reserves resources. We implemented Selective Flooding on a QoS routing simulator and evaluated the performance of Selective Flooding compared to source routing for a variety of network parameters. We find Selective Flooding consistently outperforms source routing in terms of call-blocking rate and outperforms source routing in terms of network overhead for some network conditions. The contributions of this thesis include the design of a new QoS routing algorithm, Selective Flooding, extensive evaluation of Selective Flooding under a variety of network conditions and a working simulation model for future research.

Low-income urban settlements in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) present an extreme case where catastrophic hazards (natural events) and chronic hazards (developed through lack of basic services) overlap. These low-income urban populations often occupy informal settlements that are particularly exposed to natural hazards such as flooding, and their vulnerability also reflects multiple deficiencies arising from their lack of basic services; they accordingly face the greatest challenges to adapt. The research reported in this thesis aims (i) to understand the adaptation processes of the urban poor to flooding; (ii) to develop new knowledge about bottom-up ways in which adaptation to flooding emerges and can be enhanced within households and communities in low-income urban settlements; and (iii) to identify how relevant organizations can contribute effectively to the adaptation process, from a more top-down perspective. The particular case study for the research is located in Dhaka East, where there is both high vulnerability to flooding, and also a significant proportion of the low-income population. The research has adopted a mixed methods approach involving different data collection methods primarily governed by the different scales and actors being investigated, i.e. households, communities and organizations (including government and NGOs). Hence, a questionnaire survey, focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and transect walks have all been undertaken. The diverse forms of data deriving from these methods have been integrated using a qualitative form of systems analysis, to understand the relationships amongst the key variables in the vulnerability and adaptation system under investigation. The research has also developed a form of grounded theory on the processes whereby adaptive behaviour is learned and diffused in amongst the population at risk, and how more organizational-level procedures can positively influence these processes, and be improved where necessary. The research contributes to the advancement of knowledge about (a) the vulnerability of urban poor to flooding; (b) the adaptation process of the urban poor to flooding; (c) the role of organizations in affecting both vulnerability and adaptation amongst the urban poor; (d) a research methodology appropriate for exploring such inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research issues. The study further provides relevant recommendations, based on conclusions from the systems analyses, which are potentially applicable in similar contexts in the LDCs in helping low-income urban populations to adapt more successfully to flooding. Notably, although the research focuses on adaptation of the urban poor to flooding in Dhaka, its conceptual, methodological and research findings are likely to be applicable in other LDCs where the urban poor are subjected to environmental risks.

Devido às facilidades que a proximidade de leitos de rios oferece à população, muitas cidades concentram-se em torno de encostas. Por vezes, essa ocupação ocorre de forma irresponsável, alterando a cobertura original do solo, se estabelecendo em áreas cada vez mais próximas de margens de rios e sem realizar os devidos estudos sobre possíveis mudanças no volume da bacia hidrográfica devido ao aumento da precipitação média. Como conseqüência, ocasionalmente a profundidade da água supera as margens e atinge áreas ocupadas pelas construções e vias de acesso, causando prejuízos financeiros e riscos para o bem-estar da população. Para mitigar os danos, criando soluções imediatas, como a evacuação das áreas de risco, ou em longo prazo, como a reestruturação do sistema de drenagem de águas pluviais da cidade, é essencial uma análise das áreas suscetíveis a inundações. Este estudo tem como objetivo demonstrar o comportamento deste tipo de evento na cidade de Lages, Santa Catarina. Para tal, é utilizado um modelo digital de elevação, imagens obtidas a partir de um levantamento aerofotogramétrico, dados coletados no limite das linhas de ocorrências de cheias anteriores no seu volume máximo, usando tecnologia GNSS e utilizando softwares de Sistemas de Informação Geográfica Sistemas (SIG). Isto permite determinar quais são as áreas de risco de inundação na cidade, com base em informações coletadas no local e conhecimento em SIG. / Due the facilities that the proximity to riverbeds offers, many cities settle around those slopes. Sometimes it is done irresponsibly, changing the natural soil, occupying areas increasingly close to the banks and without conduct studies about possible changes that may happen on the basin's volume due increase of the average rainfall. The consequence of this is that sometimes water depth goes beyond the margins and reaches areas occupied by building and access roads, causing financial losses and risks to the welfare of the population. To be able to collect damages, whether creating immediate solutions, as evacuating the risk areas, or in long term, as city's rainwater drainage system being restructured, is essential an analysis study of areas susceptible to flooding. This study aims to demonstrate the behavior of this type of event in the city of Lages, Santa Catarina. For this, is used a digital elevation model, images captured by an aerophotogrammetric survey, collecting points on the limit of the previous occurrences flood lines at its maximum volume using GPS technology, and using software’s of Geographic Information Systems Studies (GIS). This is was possible to determine which are the flooding risk areas in the city, based on information collected on the local and knowledge in GIS.

This thesis presents a framework for history matching and model calibration of surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding. At first, a high-fidelity mechanistic SP flood model is constructed by performing extensive lab-scale experiments on Berea cores. Then, incorporating Sobol based sensitivity analysis, polynomial chaos expansion based surrogate modelling (PCE-proxy) and Genetic algorithm based inverse optimization, an optimized model parameter set is determined by minimizing the miss-fit between PCE-proxy response and experimental observations for quantities of interests such as cumulative oil recovery and pressure profile. The epistemic uncertainty in PCE-proxy is quantified using a Gaussian regression process called Kriging. The framework is then extended to Bayesian calibration where the posterior of model parameters is inferred by directly sampling from it using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Finally, a stochastic multi-objective optimization problem is posed under uncertainties in model parameters and oil price which is solved using a variant of Bayesian global optimization routine. <br>

O presente trabalho apresenta a carta de risco a movimentos de massa e enchentes em escala de semidetalhe (1:10.000) realizado na bacia hidrográfica das Furnas inserida no Município de Santana de Parnaíba-SP. Na bacia hidrográfica das Furnas foram identificados os inventários das ocorrências no bairro Cidade São Pedro, entre o período de 2002 a 2014 foram registradas 70 ocorrências provenientes dos processos de movimentação de massa e eventos hidrológicos (enchentes), causando prejuízos sócio-econômicos e ambientais. A partir desse conhecimento, essa pesquisa objetivou investigar a compartimentação da aptidão física e identificar os tipos de uso e ocupação da terra que atuam diretamente na potencialidade do risco. Na carta de risco a movimentos de massa e enchentes prepondera a avaliação de dano potencial à ocupação, determinado segundo diferentes graus de risco, resultante da conjugação da probabilidade de ocorrência de manifestações naturais ou induzidas e das consequências sociais e econômicas decorrentes. Para este documento, foram estabelecidos cinco unidades homogêneas correspondentes à aptidão física e às restrições para o assentamento urbano, definidas como área de instabilidade ocorrente, área de instabilidade ocorrente de forma pontual, área de instabilidade potencial iminente, área de instabilidade potencial e área de instabilidade potencial com cobertura vegetal. Os resultados da pesquisa podem subsidiar o poder público no planejamento urbano, direcionando as tomadas de decisões referente ao parcelamento do solo possibilitando à redução das potencialidades de risco, bem como a prevenção de medidas de mitigação dos eventos. / This study presents the mass movement and floods risk map of the Furnas basin, Santana de Parnaíba - SP in a semi-detailed scale of 1:10.000. There was identified, in the Furnas basin, the inventories of mass movement and flood occurrences at Cidade São Pedro neighborhood. In the period between 2002 and 2014. Were recorded 70 occurrences of mass movement processes and hydrological events (floods), causing socio-economic and environmental damage. Based on this records, this study investigated the partitioning of physical aptitude and identified the types of use and occupancy of land that act directly on the potential risk. The mass movement and floods risk map preponderates assessing potential damage to the occupation, determined by different risk levels, resulting from the conjugation of the probability of occurrence of natural or induced events and social and economic consequences arising. For this document, there was set out five homogeneous units corresponding to the physical aptitude and urban settlement restrictions, and defined as occurrant instability area, pontual occurrant instability area, imminent potential instability area, potential instability area and potential instability area with vegetation coverage. The research results may help guide the government in urban planningby directing decision making regarding the land subdivision allowing the reduction of potential risk as well as the prevention and adoption of mitigation actions to the events.

Two-phase flow, ubiquitous to waterflood oil recovery, geological CO2 storage, and groundwater remediation, is strongly influenced by wettability, and made more complex under mixed-wet conditions. Optimum wettability for such operations is not well established due to limited experimental data and difficulties in their interpretation. This thesis investigates the impact of mixed-wettability, characterised by advancing contact angle θa on capillary pressure, relative permeability, and waterflood displacement. Using a Darcy scale simulator, relative permeability kr, capillary pressure Pc, and residual oil saturation Sor were extracted by history matching production and pressure drop data from centrifuge brine invasion and waterflood displacements completed for a range of θa. As θa increased, a larger |Pc| was required to displace oil from mixed-wet cores at high initial oil saturation. End point oil and brine permeability decreased with increasing θa. A permeability enhancement, such that kr > 1, was measured both when the flowing phase was wetting and non-wetting and was attributed to a slippage at the oil/brine interface directly correlated to θa. Residual oil saturation decreased monotonically with increasing θa while core-averaged remaining oil saturation at the end of the waterflood exhibited a non-monotonic dependence on θa. Simulations of the waterfloods revealed that both significant capillary end effects and premature termination of the waterflood in the laboratory contribute to the deviation between remaining and residual saturations. This work demonstrates that the former is not representative of the latter, as it has been assumed in a number of studies in the literature. Both corefloods and microfluidic waterfloods show the importance of combining experimental studies with simulation for correct interpretation of the measurements especially under capillary dominated flow.

Orientador: Tatiane Maria Rodrigues / Resumo: Protium heptaphyllum (Aubl.) Marchand é uma espécie arbórea de Burseraceae importante na produção de resina com elevado valor econômico e ecológico bastante utilizada na produção de fármacos, cosméticos, repelentes, inseticidas e incensos. Apresenta grande plasticidade no que se refere aos ambientes de ocorrência, sendo encontrada em áreas com solos inundáveis, argilosos ou arenosos, secos ou úmidos, o que justifica sua ampla utilização em projetos de restauração em áreas inundáveis ou não. No litoral do Maranhão, populações de P. heptaphyllum ocorrem em áreas naturalmente alagáveis pelo pulso das marés e em áreas não-alagáveis. Sabe-se que o alagamento e a salinidade do solo podem influenciar o desenvolvimento das plantas promovendo alterações morfológicas que pode refletir na herbivoria. Entretanto, estudos sobre os aspectos estruturais de seus órgãos vegetativos estão faltando, principalmente no que se refere aos sítios secretores de substâncias bioativas. Diante disso, este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar as características anatômicas em caules e folhas de indivíduos de P. heptaphyllum em ambiente alagável pelas marés e não alagável na restinga maranhense; verificar se a tolerância ao alagamento influencia na herbivoria foliar, analisar e descrever a morfologia, distribuição, as principais classes de compostos produzidos, assim como os estágios iniciais de desenvolvimento dos espaços secretores. Amostras de folhas e caule em estrutura primária e sec... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Protium heptaphyllum (Aubl.) Marchand is a Burseraceae tree important in production of resin with high economic and ecological values, which is widely employed to produce drugs, cosmetics, repellent, insecticides and incenses. This species presents great plasticity concerning the growing environments and it is found in semideciduous forest, cerrado, restinga (“sandy coastal plains”) and riparian forests, in areas with flooding, clay or sandy, dry or wet soils, justifying its using in projects of degraded areas restoration. In Maranhão coast, populations of P. heptaphyllum occur in areas naturally flooded by the tide pulse and in non-flooded areas. It is known that the soil flooding and salinity can influence the plant development causing morphological alterations can reflect in the herbivory. However, studies on the structural features of its vegetative organs are lacking, mainly concerning the sites of production of the bioactive compounds. The objective of this study was to investigate the anatomical characteristics of P. heptaphyllum stems and leaves in tidal floodplain and not flooded in the Maranhão restinga, and if flood tolerance influences foliar herbivory, as well as describe the distribution, morphology, the main classes of compounds produced and the initial stages of development of secretory spaces. Stem and leaf samples were processed according to usual techniques in plant anatomy. Quantitative anatomical data were obtained under light microscope a... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Este trabalho investigou o comportamento dos resíduos sólidos ao longo de soleiras laterais de reservatórios de detenção urbanos (piscinões). Esses reservatórios foram projetados segundo uma abordagem puramente hidráulica, que consiste no armazenamento de água de chuva, resultando em amortecimento de pico de cheias e minimizando a questão das inundações, porém um impacto não considerado é o grande acúmulo de resíduos sólidos no interior dessas estruturas. Para estudar o fenômeno e na tentativa de quantificação do montante que se acumula nos reservatórios em relação aos resíduos veiculados pelos rios, foi construído um modelo físico representativo de um córrego urbano, provido de um vertedor lateral que dá acesso a um piscinão. Realizaram-se simulações, que consistiram no lançamento de resíduos no canal e na observação do seu comportamento na passagem pela soleira lateral. Algumas alternativas de direcionamento dos resíduos também foram testadas, através da implantação de vigas defletoras, cujos resultados comprovaram a sua eficiência no direcionamento dos resíduos para o piscinão ou canal. Por fim, as investigações realizadas resultaram em contribuições importantes para a gestão dos sistemas de contenção de cheias das grandes cidades. / The present research investigates the mechanisms of silting in detention reservoirs use for control of urban flooding caused by garbage, debris and rejects transported by urban runoff. Unfortunately the design of this reservoirs was based in hydraulics only, and the transport of siltation material by rivers was not considered. To study the phenomenon and in order to quantify the amount of accumulated waste according to total waste carried by rivers, a representative pilot scale model was built, provided with a lateral channel-shaped spillway that access the detention reservoir. Simulations have been ran, and the analysis method was to obtain a correlation between the waste entrainment rate from the side weir and the hydraulics variables. Some alternatives regarding the aiming of the waste were also tested by the implantation of deflector beams, whose efficiency in the aiming of waste to the reservoir or canal was proved. Finally, the inquires generated in the present research resulted in important contributions regarding the management of flood containment systems in big cities.