<p>  </p> <p>Although airports of all sizes have incorporated sustainability practices into planning, there is a gap in literature concerning the impacts of sustainability initiatives on airport operations and stakeholders. This multiple case study sought to explore the impact assessment methods used by six small hub airports (cases) that received the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport sustainability Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants to prepare airport sustainability planning documents.</p> <p>The objective of the study was twofold. The first objective was to gain in-depth understanding of sustainability metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and sustainability impact assessment methods and tools used by small hub airports. The second objective was to develop a preliminary framework for assessing the impacts of sustainability initiatives in airports. Three types of data were collected airport sustainability planning documents, archival records, and interviews with 14 airport executives and two airport planning consultants. Sustainability planning processes, sustainability assessment methods and tools, and sustainability metrics and KPIs were identified from data for each case and compared to one of the most comprehensive industry-specific airport sustainability rating systems, the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) <em>Report 119: Protype Airport Sustainability Rating System: Characteristics, Viability, and Implementation Options</em>. Interview responses from airport executives and consultants were used to corroborate information in the sustainability planning documents.</p> <p>The findings of this study showed more commonalities than differences in the approaches to sustainability impact assessment by the six small hub airports in this study. Commonalities were evident in the criteria for selecting sustainability initiatives, indicating that cost and return on investment were the major factors. In addition, small hub airports in this study reported similar challenges on tracking sustainability metrics and KPIs, indicating that more work is needed in this area. The differences noted were driven by airport operating conditions such as geographical location and local community goals. </p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:00:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2141.pdf: 1031354 bytes, checksum: 6c0fd946b7d77958fbe4905a437826fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-29 / Current subjects as the global heating, reduction in n the ozone layer and the loss of the biodiversity, among other, are resulted of centuries of human actions considered without importance by its low prompt significance and whose impacts had not been evaluated. Although the evaluation of environmental impacts - EIA the to have been instituted more than thirty years, its practical one more common it is in the project level and it is not common to evaluation of these impacts, called of cumulative impacts - IC. The need of the consideration of these impacts made a process that considered them to appear - the Cumulative Impact Assessment - CIA. CIA has been studied, practiced and argued at several countries, however in Brazil, its practice is not common. Although the legislation approaches the consideration of cumulative impacts, they don't know each other approaches and methodologies adapted for such analysis, nor as to consider IC in the process of environmental licensing. With base in this gap, this work had as aim to do a conceptual theoretical survey on cumulative impacts and its analysis process, identifying in the literature the conceptual framework, tools, methodologies, application forms and case studies. After the critical analysis of the data, it was traced a conceptual, theoretical and technical profile and presented as result proposed and recommendations for subsidy to a possible systematization of the procedures; aimed the application difficulties and adaptation needs so that the practice of AIC in Brazil is implanted, as well as in several countries. / Questões atuais como o aquecimento global, redução na camada de ozônio e a perda da biodiversidade, entre outros, são resultado de séculos de ações humanas consideradas sem importância por sua baixa significância pontual e cujos impactos não foram avaliados. Apesar da avaliação de impactos ambientais AIA ter sido instituída a mais de trinta anos, sua prática mais comum é no nível de projeto e não é comum a avaliação destes impactos, chamados de impactos cumulativos IC. A necessidade da consideração destes impactos fez surgir um processo que os considerasse a Avaliação de Impactos Cumulativos AIC (Cumulative Impact Assessment CIA). A AIC tem sido estudada, praticada e discutida em vários países, contudo no Brasil, sua prática não é comum. Embora a legislação aborde a consideração de impactos cumulativos, não se conhecem critérios e metodologias apropriadas para tal análise, nem como considerar os IC no processo de licenciamento ambiental. Com base nesta lacuna, este trabalho teve como objetivo fazer um levantamento teórico conceitual sobre impactos cumulativos e seu processo de análise, identificando na literatura o embasamento conceitual, ferramentas, metodologias, formas de aplicação e estudos de caso. Após a análise crítica dos dados, foi traçado um perfil conceitual, teórico e técnico e apresentado como resultado propostas e recomendações para subsídio à uma possível sistematização dos procedimentos; apontadas as dificuldades de aplicação e necessidades de adequação para que a prática da AIC no Brasil seja implantada, assim como em diversos países.

La construction et la réhabilitation des bâtiments et des quartiers induisent des dommages environnementaux de nature diverse (consommation de ressources, émissions de substances toxiques, atteintes aux écosystèmes). De plus, ces impacts peuvent être générés de manière indirecte (déchets radioactifs produits par la consommation d’électricité par exemple). D’où l’importance d’une approche d’évaluation environnementale holistique et multicritère. L’analyse de cycle de vie (ACV) correspond à ce cahier des charges. Cette méthode a été appliquée pour évaluer la contribution d’un bâtiment ou d’un quartier à un ensemble de thématiques environnementales (au contraire d’un outil monocritère comme le bilan carbone) et ce sur l’intégralité du cycle de vie : fabrication des matériaux, construction, utilisation, rénovation, démolition et traitement des déchets. Cette méthode peut être utilisée à différente étapes d’un projet : définition d’objectifs de programme, aide à la conception, aide à la gestion, aide à la rénovation, aide à la stratégie de déconstruction.Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’application de l’ACV à l’éco-conception des ensembles bâtis, de la maison individuelle jusqu’au quartier multifonctionnel. L’objectif est d’améliorer la qualité de l’aide à la décision fournie par les outils d’éco-conception en matière de réalisme et de précision des études.Trois axes de travail en interaction ont été explorés :- Conséquentiel : Quels apports conceptuels et pratiques peut-on mettre en œuvre sur la base des recherches sur l’ACV conséquentielle ?- Dynamique : Comment intégrer les interactions dynamiques entre le parc bâti et son système d’arrière plan, en particulier le système électrique?- Prospectif : Comment tenir compte de la longue durée de vie des ensembles bâtis ?La thèse propose premièrement un nouveau cadre conceptuel pour l’évaluation des projets de conception et de réhabilitation s’inspirant des récents travaux méthodologiques sur l’ACV conséquentielle. L’application pratique de cette nouvelle approche « conséquentielle-projet » nécessite la production de connaissances mobilisant l’ACV dynamique et l’ACV prospective.Concrètement, la thèse propose une modélisation dynamique du fonctionnement du système électrique dans un cadre « type » affranchi des aléas climatiques et économiques. Le modèle sert de base au développement de méthodes d’évaluation originales des impacts de l’électricité : une méthode dynamique moyenne et une méthode marginale. Ces méthodes améliorent la précision d’une étude d’analyse de cycle de vie, quel que soit l’objectif (certification ou écoconception) et l’approche méthodologique associée (attributionnelle ou conséquentielle-projet).La thèse propose ensuite l’intégration de scénarios prospectifs adaptés à l’étude des bâtiments et des quartiers. Celle-ci associe les recherches en prospective énergétique menées à l’échelle nationale et les recherches concernant l’impact du changement climatique sur le comportement thermique des bâtiments. Les effets conjoints de ces deux déterminants sont évalués au sein d’une approche originale et intégrée.La thèse explore également la question du changement d’échelle du bâtiment vers le quartier. Les cas du transport des occupants et du traitement des déchets sont analysés au prisme de l’approche « conséquentielle-projet ». Une méthodologie de couplage des outils de simulation transport au niveau local et de l’ACV est notamment proposée. Elle constitue un premier pas vers un couplage interdisciplinaire des outils d’analyse des projets urbains.Les différents développements méthodologiques sont finalement appliqués à une étude de cas afin d’analyser et d’interpréter l’effet des nouvelles approches sur l’aide à la décision fournie par les outils d’écoconception. / Environmental impacts induced by urban projects concern various topics (resources, health, biodiversity). Some are indirect impacts (for instance radioactive waste generated by electricity consumption). This calls for a holistic and multicriteria approach such as Life-Cycle-Analysis (LCA) in order to evaluate environmental performance of construction or retrofitting projects. Considering cradle to grave impacts this method is used at different project phases: program objectives, design aid, management strategies evaluation, retrofitting project, dismantling, and waste management.The thesis lies in the framework of life-cycle analysis applied to urban project design, from individual houses up to multifunctional neighborhoods. The underlying objective is to improve relevance and accuracy of the decision aid provided by LCA-based design tools.Three interacting topics have been investigated:- Consequential assessment: How can the results of current research on consequential LCA be implemented in Building LCA?- Dynamic: How to integrate dynamic interaction between buildings and the background system, mainly the electricity grid?- Prospective: How to take into account the long life span of buildings and urban districts?The dissertation firstly suggests a new framework for evaluating construction or retrofitting project, grounded in consequential LCA. The practical application of this consequential-project approach requires knowledge generation on dynamic and prospective LCA.A dynamic model of the electricity system has been developed. From this model, a reference operation year of the electricity system has been determined, mitigating climatic and economical hazards of real years. Based on this model, a dynamic average approach and a marginal approach are defined to assess life-cycle impacts of electricity consumption. These developments improve the accuracy of LCA independently of the chosen modeling approach, consequential or attributional.The prospective dimension is explored, through scenarios development. The suggested scenarios bring together national energy prospective research and global warming effects on buildings thermal behavior. The combined effects are evaluated using a novel and integrated approach.The thesis then addresses the scale issue when moving from building to district projects. Following the consequential-project approach principles, the focus is made on integrating daily transport and domestic waste models in LCA of urban projects. A method to combine local transport simulation models and building LCA is suggested. It establishes a first step towards integrated multidisciplinary assessment of urban projects.The developed approaches and methodologies are finally tested on a case study.

Dams and reservoirs are important components of water resource management systems, but their operational sensitivity to streamflow variability may make them vulnerable to climate change. Climate change is likely to affect the magnitude and timing of streamflow, motivating the assessment of potential impacts on dams and reservoirs. Here I examine a case study of Cougar Dam, a multipurpose dam in Oregon, USA, to assess potential impacts of future climate change on operational performance. In the first portion of this study, I examine the historical operation of Cougar Dam, to understand (1), whether operational objectives have been achievable in the past despite operational variability, and (2) how climatic variation is expressed in operational trajectories. By analyzing historical streamflow and operations data using a set of metrics, I characterize variability in past operations and how that variability relates to streamflow. I also employ a reservoir model to distinguish operational differences due to streamflow variability from variability due to other factors that affect operations. I find that operational objectives have been achievable, despite variability in operations and departures from the ideal operational trajectory. Throughout the historical period, flood control operations have almost always kept reservoir outflows below the desired maximum outflow. Although filling occurs 9 days late on average, the reservoir has filled in all but 6 out of 37 years. Although drawdown occurs 47 days early on average, early drawdown does not generally impact recreation and allows minimum outflows to be met every day during all but the driest year. I also find that total seasonal inflow is correlated with measures of operational performance, and that other factors besides climate play an important role in determining operational trajectories. I conclude that operations of Cougar Reservoir are vulnerable to climate change, but that operational flexibility may mitigate some of the potential impacts. In the second portion of this study I assume that current operating rules will be kept in place and I aim to understand what types of operational impacts may be expected, when they may be expected to occur, and whether the operational impacts may necessitate changing operational rules. I employ both a traditional climate impacts assessment approach to assess changes over time as well as a scenario-neutral approach to generalize relationships between streamflow and operations of Cougar Dam. I find that projected increases in winter streamflow could result in up to twice the number of downstream high flows than in the past and that projected decreases in summer streamflow could result in earlier reservoir drawdown by up to 20 days on average. Additionally, filling of the reservoir may occur up to 16% more often or 11% less often than in the past, depending on spring flow magnitude and timing. I also find that there are strong general relationships between total inflow volume and flood control performance, and that there are total inflow thresholds for whether or not the reservoir will fill or will be full enough for recreation in late summer. I conclude that future modification of operating policies may be warranted, but that there will likely be tradeoffs between operating objectives in the future even if operating rules are modified. / Graduation date: 2013