Medium-Deep or Very Deep Disposal of Highly Radioactive Waste？

Commonly proposed concepts, like KBS-3V, for disposal of highly radioactive waste imply construction at medium depth （400-600 m） in granitic rock, which is excellent for constructing a stable repository. VDH （very deep boreholes） represent an altemative concept with the advantage that the rock is much less permeable and that the very salt, heavy groundwater is stagnant. Both require engineered barriers in the form of canisters and waste-embedding clay but for somewhat different purposes. Canisters are the most important waste-isolating barriers for KBS-3V but are less important for VDH. The waste-embedding clay is needed for preserving the KBS-3V canisters by being tight and ductile, but plays a minor role for the VDH. The backfilled deposition tunnels in a KBS-3V repository provide very limited hindrance of radionuclides to move to the biosphere while the clay seals of VDH effectively prevent possibly released radionuclides to reach up to the biosphere. Comparison of the KBS-3V and VDH concepts indicates that the last mentioned one has several advantages but that certain issues remain to be worked on for becoming a number one candidate.     

Net-Zero Energy Building Enhancement for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum Educational Facility

In the United States, university buildings use 17% of total non-residential building energy per year. According to the NREL （National Renewable Energy Laboratory）, the average lifecycle of a building in a university is 42 years with an EUI （energy use intensity） of 23 kWh/m^2/y. Current building and energy codes limit the EUI to 16 kWh/m^2/y for new school buildings; this benchmark can vary depending on climate, occupancy, and other contextual factors. Although the LEED （leadership in energy and environmental design） system provides a set of guidelines to rate sustainable buildings, studies have shown that 28%-35% of the educational LEED-rated buildings use more energy than their conventional counterparts. This paper examines the issues specific to a LEED-rated design addition to an existing university building. The forum, a lecture hall expansion of to an existing building at the University of Kansas, has been proposed as environmentally friendly and energy-efficient building addition. Comfort and health aspects have been considered in the design in order to obtain LEED platinum certificate. The forum＇s energy performance strategies include a double-skin facade to reduce energy consumption and PV （photovoltaic） panels to generate onsite energy. This study considers various scenarios to meet NZEB （net-zero energy building） criteria and maximize energy savings. The feasibility of NZE criteria is evaluated for： （a） seasonal comparison; （b） facility occupancy; （c） PV panels＇ addition in relation to double skin facade. The results of NZEB approach are compared to LEED platinum requirements, based on Rol （return on investment） and PV panel＇s efficiency for this specific educational building.     

The Industrial Heritage and the New Architecture： Teaching, Researching, Designing the Place Identity

The new architecture may provide unusual opportunities for the abandoned areas involved by former industrial processes, both in the city centers and in the landscape. In fact, it may create new centralities and give new collective function for deprived areas. The case study of the architectural and educational project for a new museum park devoted to the technique and the science in the Apennine＇ s landscape near Parma （Italy） may give an interesting point of view about the role of the teaching and the research of the architecture in the former industrial heritage, and to avoid the abandonment and the pauperization of the territory around.     

Guidelines for Low-Cost,Energy-Efficient House in Iraq

The goal of this study is to determine specific guidelines for Iraqi architects to contribute to the design and composition of energy-efficient housing units within the limits of a normal budget, locally available materials and technologies. These units can provide comfort despite the current energy situation in Iraq. The study is based on a computer simulation for a reference building in Baghdad, which has been selected according to the urban conditions, building legislations, housing market and statistics. The final results displayed the main recommendations and the possibility to achieve up to 50% energy reduction with a pay-back period not exceeding two years in some cases. There are some measures that have big energy saving potential. Yet, some of the measures may require big investment or have some bad environmental impacts. Some other good measures are already being implemented.     

A Case Study for End of Life Reuse and Recycling Survey Methodologies： The Hollentalanger Cottage

Up to now, reuse and recycling of existing buildings have not been examined widely. This paper discusses the theories, methods and practicalities of buildings＇ end of life with a main focus on planning and managing reuse and recycling of existing buildings. Our aim is the realistic modelling of theoretical scenarios for end of life based on a case study. The methods of building survey, material classification and documentation for reuse, recycling and disposal of existing constructions are presented. Investigations and calculations were done on an existing cottage in the Alps. The ecologically most beneficial disposal phase of the old wooden hut is our main objective. Critical questions arise from the quality of the material and how it can be extracted, separated and balanced in an appropriate way. A systematic survey of the building by inspection of constructions and materials in iterative steps allows a detailed material balance with condition and property information. This information is crucial for scenarios and material flow analysis of demolished and rebuilt building in environmental system analysis. For future planning, the reuse and recycling of existing buildings should be integrated quite early in the planning process so that we can use the materials in the best way.     

Teaching Sustainability in Design without Greenwashing

Teaching design incorporating a sense of sustainability to architecture students is a challenge today, primarily because of the trend to label every design as sustainable or green even though it is no different from a more traditional one. The result is a ＂green-washed＂ education in architecture. To address this issue, this paper describes a teaching methodology of architectural design with a special focus on sustainability implemented in the Graduate School of Architecture in Clemson. This method includes an analysis of the location, the climate conditions, the materials needed and the construction process. Knowing that sustainable design is generally perceived as being expensive, there is a special focus on simplicity and affordability. Rather than relying on expensive technical solutions, students are encouraged to design for the given environment and apply passive strategies. In the approach discussed in this paper, the design process is a number of logical scientific decisions rather than an intuitive draft. The goal of this pedagogy is to raise awareness about how to handle global resources carefully and to show the importance of the later performance of the project as a key to design. The teaching strategy is described here along with the successful participation by our graduate students in a number of refereed competitions.     

On-Demand Post-Disaster Emergency Shelters

In post-disaster emergency shelter aid, various relief agencies and other actors with different backgrounds need to cooperate in a tremendously short amount of time and under very different circumstances. In this article, we describe a research project that develops and tests a new approach in which the demands for shelters in a specific situation are methodically connected with available, innovative and sustainable shelter solutions, a DSS （decision support system）. The DSS is a digital tool that translates the gathered evidence on needs, solutions and location including long-term effects of shelter provision into advice for the provision of sustainable, integral broader shelter solutions and designs. The outcome is a set of characteristics for a DSS for the provision of on-demand emergency shelters. A DSS that meets these characteristics leads to the provision of sustainable shelters that meet the needs of the users and, therefore, have higher performance in long term.     

Fuel Poverty and Comfort in Modern Residential Apartments in Developing Countries： A Case from Jordan

Energy is one of the most important resources in the economy of developing countries. Jordan depends mainly on imported oil and gas at international prices. This creates a heavy burden upon Jordanian national economy, which is reflected in the same time on other sectors of the Jordanian society. The ever increasing fuel prices make it very necessary to look for new renewable energy resources. Jordan as a developing country with its fast growing urban development and construction projects will be studied. It is worthy to study the dynamic relationship between end user, fuel and comfort in the residential sector. Energy is a chronic problem in Jordan, due to lack of non renewable energy resources, the end consumer is influenced by this fact, in achieving his basic energy needs. This study tries to shed light on the fuel poverty line, definitions and parameters of fuel poverty. And to study what has been done in this regard on both international and local level. No studies have been identified in Jordan which, explore the problem of fuel poverty, especially after the vast and recent increase in fuel prices internationally and locally. This study will follow theoretical and field survey to understand the relationship between comfort, energy and building fabric. Method will depend mainly on field survey and statistical data, and necessary measurements, questionnaires will be adopted when necessary to explore comfort levels related to fuel consumption. Summary and recommendations will be concerned with how thermal comfort could be achieved within the ranges of fuel accessibility, building fabric, minimum pollution and cost.     

Existing Building Challenge and CONCERTO Project

If Europe is to achieve the planned transition to a low carbon economy by 2050, succeeding in improving the energy efficiency of the largely inefficient existing building stock will be pivotal. Certain energy efficiency retrofitting obligations have now emerged as part of the EU＇s Energy Performance in Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. Challenges for retrofitting currently include gaps in technical skills both amongst building trades and professionals, a lack of awareness of building owners and users, concerns about compromising cultural heritage as well as a lack of viable business models, comparatively high cost and resulting long pay-back periods currently hamper the progress. Lessons can be drawn here form the EU-funded initiative CONCERTO, which helped 58 communities in 23 countries to reduce their dependence on conventional energy supply by implementing energy efficiency measures and integrating renewable energy sources not at single building scale but community scale. Almost all of these entailed retrofitting activities bad to find solutions to the issues mentioned. This paper presents a selection of conclusions regarding retrofitting to be drawn from the analysis undertaken under the project CONCERTO premium, which analysed outcomes across the 58 projects on behalf of the European Commission and focuses in particular on the political relevance of outcomes.     

Images of the Future from the Past： The Metabolists and the Utopian Planning of the 1960s

During the 1960s, many changes reshaped the economy, the society and the arts. The Cold War, the Space Race, the construction of a new middle class in most western societies led by the postwar economic prosperity with unprecedented urban growth followed by severe environmental problems fostered the design of spectacular urban utopian cities and mega-architectures. In those years, Japan was the source of highly influential bold and visionary urban and architectural ideas which relied on advanced technology. These ideas were conceived on the thought that cities could be seen as gigantic but impermanent entities able to transform itself according to an organic process of adaptation of its elementary components. This paper briefly revisits and critically discusses the legacy of the iconic mega-strnctural projects of Japanese Metabolist Movement and other visionary architects and planners of the 1960s, such as Paolo Soleri, Buckminster Fuller, Archigram. It attempts to enlighten the continuity with contemporary innovative and experimental urban models and ideas for the society and the city of the future, such as the Smart Cities, Eco-Cities, Green Urbanism, whose design is led by concerns related to climate change, the necessity of energy efficiency, the improvement of urban landscape and the valorization of depleted natural resources.     

Volumetric Variation and Rheology of Cement Based Mineral Additions （Blast Furnace Slag and Silica Fume）

The partial substitution of clinker by mineral additions offers very significant, both economical and environmental benefits. This adds value to industrial waste, and contributes also in the preservation of natural resources, like clay and limestone, as well as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions （CO2）. This study is interested in the simultaneous effect of BFS （blast furnace slag） and SF （silica fume） on setting time and water requirement of cement paste. The volumetric variations are tested in mortars, prepared in the same mixture of pastes, and the tests indicate that the addition of slag increase the fluidity, reduce the water demand, shrinkage and expansion, compared to the mortar, containing ten percent （10%） of Silica Fume only. The images of pastes obtained by SEM （scanning electron microscopy）, are indicated an improvement of the microstructure of the paste with a large amount of slag, which leads to improve durability.     

Climate Change and Future Long-Term Trends of Rainfall at North-East of Iraq

Iraq is facing water shortage problem despite the presence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In this research, long rainfall trends up to the year 2099 were studied in Sulaimani city northeast Iraq to give an idea about future prospects. The medium high （A2） and medium low B2 scenarios have been used for purpose of this study as they are more likely than others scenarios, that beside the fact that no climate modeling canter has performed GCM （global climate model） simulations for more than a few emissions scenarios （HadCM3 has only these two scenarios） otherwise pattern scaling can be used for generating different scenarios which entail a huge uncertainty. The results indicate that the average annual rainfall shows a significant downward trend for both A2 and B2 scenarios. In addition, winter projects increase/decrease in the daily rainfall statistics of wet days, the spring season show very slight drop and no change for both scenarios. However, both summer and autumn shows a significant reduction in maximum rainfall value especially in 2080s while the other statistics remain nearly the same. The extremes events are to decrease slightly in 2080s with highest decrease associated with A2 scenario. This is due to the fact that rainfall under scenario A2 is more significant than under scenario B2. The return period of a certain rainfall will increase in the future when a present storm of 20 year could occur once every 43 year in the 2080s. An increase in the frequency of extreme rainfall depends on several factors such as the return period, season of the year, the period considered as well as the emission scenario used.     

Integration Possibility of Urban Public Bus System and Cable Car in Maribor

Combination of a bus system and cable car system can reduce the overall congestion of traffic in urban areas, where surrounding hills or mountains hold larger settlements or tourist and recreational infrastructure. With this kind of integration number of individual car trips can be significantly reduced. In this paper, the authors present an analysis of the pilot project implementation, which was held in Maribor. The authors conducted a limited test trial of two means of transportation, combining them into a single operating transport offer for inhabitants and tourists. Combined transport option proved to be a good starting point for reduction of traffic and parking congestion during winter tourist season and beyond. Method used in the research, in order to gain actual potential of integrating two systems and improving public transport offer, was establishment and implementation of the pilot project in Maribor during January 2011. Data was gathered through interviews of two interest groups. The first covered the users who were brought to the foothills of Pohorje＇s ski center by bus. The second covered the cable car users that were traveling to the top of Pohorje. For a limited time period, a trial principle of a single ticket was established, which gave ski-pass holders free bus ride on bus line No. 6. With the aim of reducing CO2, test drives of hybrid bus and compressed natural gas bus were conducted alongside many promotional activities with which users were informed of importance of environmentally friendly mobility options.     

Organizational Trouble Shooting through Integration between the Theory of the Restrictions Thinking Process and Lean Tools

The theory of constraints thinking process, created by Israeli physicist Eliyahu M. Goldratt, has emerged as a tool for achieving competitive advantage. Many researches also focused on the application of lean thinking developed by Toyota and proposed by Ohno. This philosophy has been proven to be effective in several production processes. This paper aims to propose a method of problem solving through the integration of theory of constraints thinking process and the principles of lean production. As a tool for problem identification, the method defends the use of current reality tree and, to solve problems, the lean thinking tools, proposed by Picchi. The developed method was implemented in a contractor. The research methodology was research-action. Among the results, there was a realistic diagnosis about the core problems in company. According to this, the core problem of the contractor is “the lack of commitment of manpower” that results in the main problem “the financial loss”. The principle of perfection was verbalized as a proposal to solve the problems and the tools to be implemented for solving problems were “commitment of senior management to employees” and “simplicity in communication”.     

Improvement Properties of Cohesion-Less Soil Using Recycled Bassanite

Solid waste management is a serious problem over the world. Therefore, reduction, re-use and recycling of waste have become major issues in recent days. Gypsum waste plasterboard is considered one example of these waste materials. This study evaluates the use of recycled bassanite, which is derived from gypsum waste plasterboard, to enhance the performance of two types of cohesion-less soil. Recycled bassanite was utilized as a stabilizing agent to improve both compressive and splitting strengths of the tested soil. The effect of bassanite content, soil type, water content and curing time were investigated to explore the behavior of treated soil with recycled bassanite. Test results showed that increase of bassanite content is associated with increase in optimal moisture content, while no significant increase in the dry unit weight was observed. Both compressive and splitting tensile strengths enhanced with the additives of recycled bassanite. The increase of bassanite content had a more significant effect on the compressive strength compared with the effect on tensile strength. The use of recycled bassanite to enhance the strength of sandy soil had a more significant effect compared with silty soil. The effect of curing time on the strength of treated samples was more significant in early curing ages compared with late curing ages. The strength decreased significantly in case of stabilized samples prepared with water content at the wet-side of the compaction curve. However, insignificant decrease in the strength of the stabilized sample was detected with moisture content at the dry-side of compaction curve. This research meets the challenges of our society to reduce the quantities of gypsum wastes, producing useful material from waste materials that will help to a sustainable society.     

Energy Consumption,Thermal Performance and Thermal Comfort in Public School Buildings in Jordan

Good learning outputs in schools require an acceptable physical environment inside schools. Whatever the climatic context that surrounds any school buildings, energy flows of different types should be provided. Concerns may include thermal environment, luminous environment and acoustics environment. Types of energy used are an important variable that contributes to thermal comfort. Physical structure of the school building is another factor to be taken into consideration. This article established a relationship between thermal comfort inside schools and types of energy flows which have been consumed to maintain the level of comfort required, controlled by the building fabric and consequent economic factors that affect energy consumption of school buildings. Different approaches were applied in order to achieve the research objectives. Field surveys, field measurements and analyzing historical data were the most approaches followed to implement this study. The final outputs of this work have a national value nationwide： establishing a relationship among thermal comfort, energy flows and building fabric is of importance. Furthermore, it is of great importance to the decision maker for educational facilities. Research will also establish a wide platform based on scientific investigations for developing climate responsive school architecture in Jordan.     

A Comparative Study on the Flexural Behaviour of Waffle and Solid Slab Models When Subjected to Point Load

The determinations of flexural behavior of some engineering structures are based on different theories and equations, but it has been observed that some of these equations may not give true representation. This work has looked into the difference that may occur between theoretical and experimental results. An experimental test carried out on models of waffle and solid slabs structures were described and results from twenty test samples are presented. Each specimen was subjected to an incremental axial loading of 1 kN interval after 28 days of casting. The flexural moments, deflections and crack width at failure were obtained. The experimental flexural crack and theoretical flexural cracks for both types of slabs were compared. The result for flexural moments for waffle was 5.526 kNm, while solid slab was 3.684 kNm. The deflections showed that waffle slabs has 3.64 mm while solid has 9.28 mm, hence waffle has a higher structural stiffness than solid slabs, but the flexural cracks did not give the same results especially for the estimated crack width. It was concluded that estimated results based on developed equations may not be accurate because it is based on ideal situation.     

A User-Oriented Implementation of Risk Breakdown Structure in Construction Risk Management

The construction industry works under conditions of uncertainties and risks leading to poor performance, increased cost and time and decreased quality. In these conditions, the dynamic identification and assessment of project risks among a vary range of potential factors is considered of vital importance. The introduction of RBS （risk breakdown structure） as a hierarchically organized depiction of identified risks was considered a suitable tool in risk management, especially in construction, due to its many advantages in synthetic representation and dynamic nature. This paper presents a user-oriented implementation of RBS to assist the project managers in identifying and assessing potential risk factors affecting construction process. The evidential analogies between WBS （work breakdown structure） and RBS are captured and used in the proposed framework which interconnects them into a 2D （two dimensional） matrix used to associate risks to the specific project activities. The proposed framework is applied to a government funded design-bid-build project. The obtained results clearly demonstrate the advantages in identifying the most risky activities, as well as the most important risk factors affecting the whole project.     

Strengthening of the Territorial Position of Valladolid through Planning Strategies： Networks,Patterns and Centralities

The urban condition of the European territory requires new approaches to explain the current development of cities and to propose new planning tools. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that we can support an innovative perspective based on intermediate geographical scales, more useful for outlining the specific features of territory. While we analyze the territory, we should overcome the strictly local scale of the administrative boundaries and create new relationship between contemporary urban concepts （metropolization of territory and metapolis） and the regional ecological patterns. In the case of Valladolid （E） urban/metropolitan area, we focus on both causes and process of city growth. We have understood that it could be inefficient for planning forgetting the real spatial configuration （the city is located in an intersection between two territorial corridors） and misunderstanding the territorial role of the city at different scales （the double centrality in the emerging urban area and in the region）. The significance of this case is to reveal the inter-scalar condition of places as generators of constraints in the contemporary urban fabric and, at the same time, to show the quality and the potential of places in the future urban realm.