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- Aromatic plants for water treatment in Green roofs technologyPublication . Monteiro, Cristina M.; Calheiros, Cristina; Castro P. M. L, Paula M. L
- Potentialities of infrared thermography application to green roofs aromatic plants surface temperature evaluationPublication . Monteiro, Cristina; Calheiros, Cristina; Palha, Paulo; Freitas, Sara; Ramos, Nuno; Castro, Paula M. L.
- Assessment of culturable endophytic community of Canna flaccida plants growing in a constructed wetlandPublication . Calheiros, Cristina; Pereira, Sofia; Castro, Paula M. L.Sustainable water management urges for the treatment of wastewater in an efficient way. With the latter purpose, ecotechnologies arise as promising solutions for rural and mountain areas lacking a sewage network. Constructed wetlands (CW) coupled with preliminary/primary systems foresee enhancement of the water quality and its possible reuse. The challenge presented in this work reflects the application of a CW to domestic wastewater treatment coming from a tourism house, situated in a rural area. The use of different ornamental plants species to treat the wastewater was an important component of the system, increasing biodiversity and supporting the local ecosystem. Performance of the CW was assessed in terms of physic-chemical and microbial parameters. The endophytic culturable bacteria of a selected plant species, Canna flaccida, were evaluated.
- Aromatic plants for water treatment in Green roofs technologyPublication . Monteiro, Cristina M.; Calheiros, Cristina; Castro, Paula M. L.
- Contributos para a adoção dos telhados verdes como tecnologia de retenção e aproveitamento de águas pluviaisPublication . Monteiro, Cristina; Calheiros, Cristina; Pimentel-Rodrigues, Carla; Silva-Afonso, Armando; Castro, Paula M. L.Os telhados verdes são uma solução arquitetónica que consiste na aplicação de substrato e vegetação sobre a cobertura impermeável de um edifício. A sua aplicação tem vindo a aumentar nos últimos anos, pelo facto de apresentar inúmeras vantagens, nomeadamente melhoria da qualidade do ar em áreas urbanas, promoção de ecossistemas nas cidades, redução do efeito “ilha de calor” e melhoria da eficiência tanto energética como acústica dos edifícios. Os telhados verdes reduzem também os caudais de ponta na drenagem pluvial, contribuindo para amortecer os picos de cheia em ambiente urbano, e são uma solução promissora para a melhoria da qualidade da água de escoamento, visando um posterior aproveitamento. Neste trabalho, desenvolveu-se um telhado verde experimental utilizando plantas aromáticas autóctones, com o objetivo de avaliar a qualidade da água da chuva após passagem por um substrato selecionado, bem como caracterizar o ciclo da água (escoamento, retenção, etc.) de forma a fornecer contributos para a expansão da aplicação deste tipo de tecnologias conjuntamente para o aproveitamento de águas pluviais em edifícios. Os principais resultados obtidos permitiram o desenvolvimento de um modelo referente à determinação do coeficiente de escoamento, bem como a caracterização da qualidade da água na perspetiva de posterior reutilização.
- Potentialities of infrared thermography application to green roofs aromatic plants surface temperature evaluationPublication . Monteiro, Cristina M.; Calheiros, Cristina; Palha, Paulo; Freitas, Sara de; Ramos, Nuno M.M.; Castro, Paula M. L.
- Biocenoses de eucariotas em leitos de plantas para tratamento de águas residuaisPublication . Sepúlveda, Goreti; Mina, Isabel A. P; Calheiros, Cristina; Castro, Paula M. L.Os Leitos de Plantas ou Leitos de Macrófitas constituem o tratamento secundário de água residual, dos sistemas de baixa tecnologia conhecidos por FitoETARs. Em casos concretos, as FitoETARs apresentam vantagens relevantes em relação aos sistemas de tratamento de águas residuais mais conhecidos. Com vista ao estudo das biocenoses rizosféricas de uma FitoETAR localizada na Unidade de Turismo de Habitação do Paço de Calheiros (concelho de Ponte de Lima), análises microbiológicas de amostras de água e análises microscópicas de amostras de substrato e raízes do leito foram acompanhadas pela monitorização de parâmetros físico-químicos e bioquímicos, tais como temperatura, pH, Carência Bioquímica de Oxigénio (CBO5) e Carência Química de Oxigénio (CQO). A eficiência de remoção da CBO5 e da CQO foi em média de 96% e 92%, respetivamente. Nas amostras analisadas ao microscópio observaram-se alguns metazoários e foram identificados 20 taxa de protozoários, 15 dos quais ciliados. Foi também constatada uma certa variação espacial e temporal da densidade e diversidade dos eucariotas. Sendo já reconhecido o importante papel dos diferentes grupos funcionais de protozoários nos sistemas de lamas ativadas onde são utilizados como bioindicadores, a sua monitorização em FitoETARs adivinha-se muito vantajosa.
- Contributions to the improvement of green roofs in Mediterranean climate, including rainwater harvestingPublication . Monteiro, Cristina; Calheiros, Cristina; Pimentel-Rodrigues, Carla; Silva-Afonso, Armando; Castro, Paula M. L.Green roofs (a type of construction that uses vegetation on the top of buildings) present the opportunity to contribute to the ecological sustainability of the urban environment in many ways, such as favouring the thermal performance of buildings and increasing humidity and contributing to CO2 sequestration in cities. On the other hand, rainwater harvesting is also important in urban areas, not only as a contribution for the global sustainability of buildings, through the increase of their water efficiency, but also to reduce flood peaks on public stormwater drainage systems. Green roofs and rainwater harvesting systems are technologies already known in the world, but for which there are a wide possibility of development and improvement, especially with regard to their adaptation to regional climates, such as the Mediterranean one. These technologies are particularly important in the Mediterranean basin, at risk of high water stress, and must be combined properly in view of the climate specificity. This paper describes the studies in this area conducted by Portuguese Catholic University/College of Biotechnology, in collaboration with ANQIP, a Portuguese Civil Society Association working on water efficiency in buildings, in terms of substrates, runoff coefficients and water quality collected in a pilot green roof. This study seeks to improve the basis for the design of rainwater harvesting systems in buildings with green roofs and a new expression is proposed for calculating monthly runoff coefficients under Mediterranean climate in extensive green roofs.
- Green roofs as a technology for rainwater retentionPublication . Monteiro, Cristina; Calheiros, Cristina; Pimentel-Rodrigues, Carla; Silva-Afonso, Armando; Castro, Paula M. L.Green roofs (GR) or living roofs are a technology of roof construction with a vegetation layer on the top of a building, which has a growing dissemination. Advantages include improvement of air quality in urban areas, generation of life ecosystems in urban cities and enhancement of both energetic and acoustic efficiency of buildings. Nowadays, they arise as potential solution for the improvement of the quality of stormwater runoff for later reuse, as well as rainwater retention in the urban scenario, decreasing water runoff. In that context the major goal of the present study is to establish a GR, with autochthonous aromatic species, aiming at evaluating the characteristics of rainwater runoff after crossing a selected substrate and its retention capacity, with a view to expand the technology application. The main outcomes allowed developing a model regarding the runoff coefficients and aspects of water quality and its reuse, promoting the development of GR technology and also the improvement of the design of rainwater harvesting systems in buildings with GR.
- Green roofs as contributors for water management schemes within urban areas : a pilot study in PortoPublication . Monteiro, Cristina; Calheiros, Cristina; Pimentel-Rodrigues, Carla; Palha, Paulo; Silva-Afonso, Armando; Castro, PaulaWater scarcity is an issue of worldwide concern and a holistic approach to water management is needed to overcome the potential threats that climate change brings to water availability and security in many parts of the globe. Societal and economic challenges need to be addressed when implementing technological solutions to environmental problems. The fact that green areas in the cities have been reduced and replaced by impervious buildings and paved streets has caused a number of problems, such as an increase in the amount of stormwater runoff discharged into the public drainage system. Green roof (GR) structures promote several ecosystem services and can counteract such effect and contribute to manage stormwater floods within city settlings, at the same time allowing for their storage for later reuse by collecting some of the rainwater into the growing substrate and reducing the runoff into the public drainage system (Schroll et al., 2011), and these advantages can be enhanced with the installation of a system of rainwater harvesting in the buildings. At the same time, Mediterranean countries are among those with high risk of water stress and rainwater harvesting in buildings can be a measure to promote water use efficiency. The present research study shows an example of established GRs at a pilot scale in the city of Porto (fig 1) (Monteiro et al., 2016). Different growing substrates and aromatic plants species were used to evaluate the runoff coefficients applicable to our Mediterranean climate, in order to assess the GR capacity for rainwater runoff delay. This contributes to improve the basis for the design of rainwater harvesting systems in buildings with GR in Mediterranean climate, particularly in regard to runoff coefficients and aspects of water quality and its reuse.