CARTIF Blog files - Page 31 of 59

Creating more liveable cities using nature

by Laura Pablos Lopez | Sep 13, 2018 | CARTIF Blog, Environment

More than a year ago, we invited you to think green and it has been almost two years since we presented the concept “re-naturing cities”. Time waits for no man and it is a great achievement for us to ascertain how these concepts, which we study theoretically, become projects.

For both concepts, the implementation is being carried out with the URBAN GreenUP project implementation. Coordinated by CARTIF, its objective is the development, application and replication of renaturing urban plans in a number of European and non-European cities with the aim of contributing to climate change mitigation, improving air quality and water management, as well as increasing the sustainability of our cities through innovative nature-based solutions. The urban renaturing methodology is going to be demonstrated in three front-runner cities, Valladolid (Spain), Liverpool (The UK) and Izmir (Turkey), with the purpose of becoming more liveable cities using nature. To achieve these objectives, the consortium is formed by 25 partners (now, friends) form 9 countries which involve 3 continents (Europe, South America and Asia).

But we should not be bothering ourselves with all these technical definitions, let us try to use our day-to-day language.

Why this project and its development is so important for the citizens of Valladolid?

… Because Santa María Street will no longer be “one of the pedestrian streets perpendicular to Santiago Street” to become the first street in Valladolid with a Nature-Based Solution installed, green covering shelters specifically. These infrastructures integrate specific vegetation in flat surfaces and their structural features allow provide water for plants, humidity for the ambient and shade for citizens. They contribute to the reduction of heat island effect and improve the well-being providing physical coverage for sun and rain and, moreover, they will allow that the green colour appears in a grey zone.

… Because the time before the bus appears in Plaza España will no longer be a moment of impatience (during which we cannot help feeling “when will the bus arrive!”) to become an instant in which we can feel comfortable seeing the green covering shelters installed that will serve as a support for local urban biodiversity.

… Because one of the main avenues of the city, with high traffic density, will incorporate green noise barriers, structures designed to allow passage of wind thus avoiding its fall and it will mobile characteristics. They will include innovative substrate and specific vegetal species in order to avoid the negative effect of traffic noise for our ears (even 15dB of reduction) to please the eye, improving the air we breathe indirectly.

… Because the widely held etymological theory about the name of Valladolid which suggests that it derives from the expression Vallis Tolitum (meaning “valley of waters”), will become “theoretical” more than ever. The city has suffered important floods over the years that honor the possible origin of its name, but the floodable park to be implemented at the entrance of Esgueva River will integrate several NBS to minimize flooding and allow water drainage when heavy rainfalls or extraordinary flooding episodes occur, in that they are becoming increasingly frequent due to climate change.

It will be in a 2-year time horizon when a total of 42 natured-based solutions will be implemented in several areas of the city, and all of them will contribute to transform Valladolid into a more liveable city and resilient to climate change.

For projects such as this, we are organising the “BY&FOR CITIZENS” conference on smart regeneration of cities and regions, with the collaboration of the Institute for Business Competitiveness of La Junta de Castilla y León. It will be held in Valladolid on September 20 and 21 and among the experts attending the conference are included Paul Nolan, the director of The Mersey Forest, and Ramón López, from the Spanish Climate Change Office, to present and moderate several sessions about integrating nature to create new city ecosystems .

As the psychologist Daniel Goleman says “Green is a process, not a status. We need to think of ‘green’ as a verb, not as an adjective”.

Laura Pablos & María González

How do we achieve a smart and sustainable city?

by Cristina de Torre | Sep 7, 2018 | CARTIF Blog, Energy

For some years, we have been listening to talking about smart cities, more sustainable environments… but, in some cases we do not know what kind of strategies could do our city to turn into one of them.

When we refer to Smart City, we talk about cities concerned with reducing energy consumption and emissions, cities that bring advances in information and communication technologies to their inhabitants and, ultimately, cities that seek improve the quality of life of its citizens taking advantage of many technological and non-technological solutions that are currently available in the market.

Although these solutions are available in the market, we have to wonder why these solutions are often not being applied. Sometimes, this is because of lack of funding; the least, of technical ignorance. But there is something in common when implementing this type of project; the difficulty of agreeing on all the agents involved in its execution. Citizens and experts, municipal agents and private companies, neighbourhood associations and users… all have to row in the same direction and work on the development of integral projects, instead of isolated solutions, in order to ensure cities of the future.

In CARTIF, we work to support European cities in this transition towards more intelligent and sustainable environments. Proof of this are the numerous projects that we are carrying out with this objective.

How can a city detect and analyse its needs and priorities? What technological solutions can be implemented to meet those needs? How a comprehensive project can be managed for the city? What business models or financial schemes can be applied? These are some of the issues which we address in this type of projects, and to answer them we work on methodologies that guide cities on the road towards their transformation into an Intelligent City.

One of the last lighthouse project in which CARTIF is working on is MAtchUP project (Maximizing the Upscaling and replication potential of high level urban transformation strategies), which has replicability as one of its main axes. When we look for solutions to satisfy the needs of our cities and their objectives, it is very important to have the experience of other European cities, where these solutions have already carried out. Knowing what has been the key to their success or how they have overcome certain barriers, is very useful information to achieve the replication of these solutions in other cities.

In MAtchUP, we not only work to ensure the success of the actions that are being carried out in its three demonstration cities: Valencia (Spain), Dresden (Germany) and Antalya (Turkey), but we work to ensure its future implementation in new scenarios: both within the same cities through the scaling of solutions in other areas of the city, and outside of them working on their replicability.

The actions can be framed in three fundamental pillars for urban regeneration: energy, mobility and information and communication technologies. These actions involve different agents, but above all, and fundamentally, involve citizens. They are the key factor of the new city model that promotes an integrating vision of all its agents. They create the city, live in it and enjoy it. And they are a primordial force that pushes the defined actions within the framework of the project.

MAtchUP continues the trajectory of demonstration projects at a city scale with which we have been working for years in CARTIF. But, unlike the previous ones, MAtchUP is not just a project for its lighthouse cities, but it delves much more into the work related to its follower cities; Herzliya (Israel), Ostend (Belgium), Skopje (Macedonia) and Kerava (Finland). In this way, the impact of the project will be much greater when working actively with seven cities, which will expand the useful and replicable results for all those cities that want to go further in their urban planning and in their transformation towards a more sustainable environment.

So, if we want to improve our cities, the best way is to take advantage of other experiences and replicating the successful solutions that have been carried out in other parts of the world. In CARTIF we want to collaborate with this dissemination of information and for this we have organized a conference in which smart cities will be the protagonists. BY & FOR CITIZENS will take place in Valladolid on September 20 and 21.

In this event, we will try to spread the experiences of a large panel of experts covering all aspects related to smart cities. We wait for you in Valladolid.

Yes, you should put the blame on REMOURBAN

by Miguel Ángel García Fuentes | Aug 29, 2018 | CARTIF Blog, Energy

I try to go there every time I can, to the FASA-Delicias district, and it still amazes me that, at the end, we have been able to make a small part of Valladolid a better neighbourhood for the people living there.

Most times I don’t stop there, due to lack of time. But only going over there and seeing from the San Agustín School the tower with the photovoltaics or the new colours of the buildings –you may like them or not– makes me feel a feeling of gratification difficult to be described.

Same happens when I happen to see the buses of line 7, those electric, and I can’t help thinking that we have contributed, even a little, to make out of this city a more sustainable place.

This path started now more than 5 years ago, and there is still more than one year in front, but now we can already see in place all the interventions that we planned in some areas of this city. Something that seemed to be impossible now is a reality.

Sometimes I feel that most of the citizens are not familiarised with this. There are not that many that have heard about REMOURBAN, and some of those that have, sometimes confuse it. Honestly, it is not difficult to understand that it is not easy to see all there is behind from outside. It is yet sometimes difficult from inside.

Long story short, you should blame REMOURBAN for the new 45 electric vehicles that we have today in Valladolid. For the new fleet that Correos, the post delivery service, has deployed with less contaminant vehicles. For the new fast charging point in CENTROLID, the logistics distribution centre, and the new 63 charging points installed by the Municipality and Iberdrola to be publicly used.

For the 950 tons of CO2 that the families living in FASA (around 400 families) have started to reduce (this is the equivalent of planting almost 2000 new trees). For having their homes at 19ºC when they wake up after having the heating system switched off the whole night, while they used to wake up at less than 15ºC in some dwellings. And moreover, for this improvements being paid with the savings in their energy bills, without investing a cent.

For the 2 new electric buses that the Municipality of Valladolid has deployed, plus other three that they have incorporated due to the leverage effect of the two firsts. Two buses that run the whole city centre without emitting contaminant gases. And also, for the other two (also electric) vehicles shared among the personnel of the city council.

For the new city information platform that contains a big amount of data and models the mobility and energy behaviour of some areas of the city. Data that will allow identifying new strategies and policies to continue improving the city.

All in all, for the improvement in the air quality of the city, for reducing the heat island effect or for the new information to make more informed decisions in the future of our city.

Also, you should blame REMOURBAN for positioning Valladolid in the map of pioneering cities through its strategy to develop a more efficient, intelligent and sustainable city.

You should blame REMOURBAN for all these issues, and also, in CARTIF, we feel a bit responsible of all them.

But REMOURBAN is not the unique project that is working to make out of Valladolid a referent in sustainability and smart city. R2CITIES, CITyFiED or UrbanGreenUp should also blamed for this, through their efforts to renovate Cuatro de Marzo or Torrelago districts, making them more efficient, or to implement nature-based solutions in the city.

Something that we have learnt along this entire path is that there is still a big barrier that prevents that all these actions can be successfully replicated to other areas of the city or other cities. And this is the lack of contrasted and credible information about the benefits and implications of these projects.

We are, thus, working hard to fight against this barrier trying to achieve that all cities in Europe can learn from our successes and failures. And in CARTIF this has been our objective in the recent years, where we have started to export this knowledge to other cities as Palencia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Valencia, Helsinki, Hamburg or Nantes.

And giving a step forward in this path, we have embraced the challenge to organise a conference that pretends that Valladolid shines a bit more in this “Hall of Fame” of the Smart and Sustainable Cities. By & For Citizens is going to take place in Valladolid on September 20-21.

A conference where are aiming at bringing all these experiences to cities, architects, engineers, urbanists, investors, public administrations and, beyond that, to the citizens, who are the key player on the city transformation. You can’t miss this unique opportunity!

A pilot experience with a constructed wetland

by Teba Torres Zapata | Aug 23, 2018 | CARTIF Blog, Environment

Aquamundam project was briefly introduced in the previous chapter of this constructed wetland series. CARTIF is currently participating in the pilot setting and analysis within Aquamundam project.

One of the main approved actions in this cross-border project is the restoration and optimization of a constructed wetland in Flores de Ávila, a small municipality in Castilla y León. This waste water treatment system allows the flow of purified wastewater back to the river Trabancos, with enough quality as not to modify the native ecosystem.

The building of this constructed wetland is framed in one of the pilot actions defined in Aquamundam Project, and it is being developed by Confederación Hidrográfica del Duero and CARTIF, both partners of the project consortium.

This activity has the aim of demonstrating that the proposed solution (the constructed wetland in this particular case) effectively improves the efficient integral water management. This demonstrative pilot experience will allow constructed wetlands introduction as a natural strategy for diversifying wastewater treatment technologies and will check its application for emergent contaminants in urban wastewater at the same time that could provide other environmental advantages in the selected sensitive locations.

The new installation will be a submerged surface flow constructed wetland with five different plant species sited in 10 cells separated by a sheet of water. 5 cells will be seeded with Phragamites australis, and the other 5 cells will be in parallel to the first 5 with different plant species for the analysis of the wastewater treatment effectiveness of the two different configurations and the various species.

This purification system will be supplied with caudalimeters for measuring the input and output flow of water and evapotranspiration and, furthermore, a weather station to collect climate data during the pilot working time.

During the project development, physico-chemical and microbiological data will be collected and analyzed. Monitoring of each cell will allow testing the effect of plant biodiversity over microbial communities responsible for wastewater treatment. Finally, metabolic activity and bacterial species effect over priority and emergent contaminants removal will be assessed.

These tasks will permit information gathering about this wastewater treatment usefulness as an integrated solution in a natural ecosystem. The location of the pilot was chosen in order to demonstrate that constructed wetlands could be integrated in ecosystems with extreme weather conditions, especially considering raining patterns. The area near river Trabancos is affected by the seasonality of its flow, due to drought and flood periods in the river channel. This river hosts the endemic species Achondrostoma arcasii (vermillion), and the study of this species evolution will be a key indicator of this wastewater treatment integration in the natural environment.

Trashcooking: the circular economy of food

by Laura Fernandez Casal | Jul 19, 2018 | Agrofood, CARTIF Blog

Who has not practice “trashcooking” in his kitchen? Aren’t you? It is high time to start. Keep on reading to know how.

“Trashcooking” is the new concept to call the old law of “the food is not pulled” coming from our grandmothers or what today could be called “the circular economy of food” in any article of an R & D + i magazine. That is, reusing the leftovers of one meal to make another or take advantage of the remains of an ingredient to make a new recipe. Some easy examples are cannelloni or croquettes with the leftover meat of the stew, the puree with the vegetables that the child did not want to eat the night before or the colorful and sweet fruit salad made with the fruits about to spoil of the fruit bowl.

Currently, the “trashcooking” especially in vegetables, but also in low-priced fish and meat, is putting to the test the knowledge and techniques of the best chefs to take exquisite dishes in which everything is used and nothing is thrown away. This way of proceeding has increasing support both of the heavyweights of haute cuisine who bet on sustainability through creativity, as well as consumers.

This incredibly beneficial initiative for the environment, it would be much more if it began to become fashionable in all European households as up to 88 million tons of food are wasted every year in the EU. These figures are alarming when we value them on the total: 20% of the food produced in the EU ends up spoiling. Food is wasted during all phases of the food chain, from agricultural production to final consumption. However, it is in households (53%) and in the transformation process (19%) where the most food waste is produced.

On average, a European citizen throws away 173 kilos of food a year. With the Netherlands at the top of the list (541 kg of waste per inhabitant per year) and Slovenia as the country that best manages the use of food (72 kg of waste per inhabitant per year). Spain is below the average (135 Kg), in place 17 of the list of a total of 27 countries. However, there is still a long way to go in improving the management of food. (Eurobarometer and FAO data, 2010 estimates).

And it is not the accumulation of waste itself that is solely responsible for the damage to the environment, but that wasting food also supposes an unnecessary use of scarce resources such as land, water and energy. For every kilogram of food produced, 4.5 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) is thrown into the atmosphere.

Faced with this worrying situation, the European Parliament is proposing measures to reduce these 88 million tons of food waste by 30% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030. Among the proposals include facilitating food donations, allowing VAT exemptions, or to emphasize the need to put an end to consumer confusion between the labels of preferential consumption and the expiration date.

At CARTIF, we have been thinking about circular economy for years, not yet in your kitchen, but in the revaluation of the by-products of livestock, agriculture and industry and its use in the elaboration of other components of added valued that might be used in human, animal, cosmetic, energy generation, etc. Now it’s your turn, you’re in charge of practicing “trashcooking” in your kitchen and helping our environment.

Edible flowers; the most glamorous realfooding

by Laura Fernandez Casal | Jul 11, 2018 | Agrofood, CARTIF Blog

Perfect for decorating, giving, perfuming, infusing… and why not to eat? A few days ago we talked about “Realfooding”, an initiative that is fortunately taking positions in social networks and at the tables of many houses. For those who need a little more variety, color, taste or simply visual impact in their culinary preparations of real food, today we bring you this post in which we explain how to use this maximum exponent of “Realfooding”.

The use of flowers as part of our cuisine dates back centuries. Specifically known is the use of the pumpkin flower in Mexico, the violets in Roman culture, or in India, where the rose petals are part of the decoration of their most typical desserts. In Spain, this practice has not been so common, although perhaps unknowingly we are already using them in our kitchen because the cauliflower, artichoke, broccoli or chamomile are considered flowers.

Currently they have been in vogue thanks to international chefs who are introducing them in their creations, so that now it would not be strange to find as a starter of a menu a roasted artichoke perfumed with pink garlic flower, as a main dish a lamb shank confit with potato flower or as dessert a violets ice cream. And what a good idea! Because flowers, besides giving the dishes a great variety of colors, flavors and different aromas, improving the organoleptic characteristics, also help to increase the nutritional value of the meal.

Flowers are vegetables, with a water content higher than 80% and therefore have a low energy value, but with a high nutritional value, as they provide vitamins such as A, C, riboflavin or niacin; and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium. In some publications, flowers have been considered functional foods, since they contain bioactive substances such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids or anthocyanins with antioxidant properties.

There are more than 55 species of edible flowers known, with many applications and utilities at culinary level, both in salads and soups and accompanying white and red meats, fish, pasta and rice or desserts. For example, the seeds of the poppy are used to flavor pastry products and their petals for wines and oils; the chrysanthemum confers different colors and bitter taste to salads and sauces; or jasmine, with white and sweet flavor is used in bird or fish dishes. Of course, all of them “Realfooding 100%”

But beware! Not all flowers are edible. There are some toxic species such as belladonna, hemlock, oleander flower, aubergine flower or dulcamara, among others. Although there is not much regulation in this regard, in Europe they are considered traditional foods (EFSA Journal 2016; 14 (11): 4590) and as such, in order to be used in food, flowers must fulfill certain characteristics regarding their chemical composition and the form of cultivation (free of pesticides, herbicides and non-organic fertilizers) as well as being microbiologically harmless. Regarding the use of pesticides, edible flowers must follow Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 February 2005 on the maximum residue limits for pesticides in food and feed of origin plant and animal, which has been modified by EFSA on two occasions to change the maximum residue level of ametoctradin (fungicide) to 20 mg/kg and that of flonicamide (insecticide) to 6 mg/kg (EFSA Journal 2017; 15 (6):4869).

The impossibility of using pesticides and herbicides, together with the highly perishable nature of edible flowers, means that this product has a short shelf life and that during its cultivation, preparation and packaging it is necessary to take care of every detail. The temperature is one of the factors that most affects the quality of the flower, existing different needs between species. In general, refrigeration extends the shelf life of the product, but some species may be sensitive to cold. Another factor to consider is the reduction of perspiration to avoid losses due to dehydration. The high relation between the surface and the volume of the flower, and also the thin cuticle of the petals, makes it highly susceptible to the loss of water. Likewise, packaging will be important, which should be rigid, similar to that of strawberries and other delicate and highly perishable products.

There are already companies that grow, prepare and package flowers for use in gastronomy. Are you one of them? Do you need to expand your product portfolio, improve the performance of your process, change the packaging or increase the half life of your product? In CARTIF we can help you, contact us.

If on the contrary you are not interested in edible flowers at business level, from CARTIF we encourage you to make your own floral menu and to enjoy the real real food. Bon Appetite!

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