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Environmental Assessment of Residential Building Renovations
Struhala, Karel ; Ostrý, Milan (referee) ; Lupíšek,, Antonín (referee) ; Košíčková, Ivana (advisor)
One of the methods utilized for quantification of environmental impacts of human activities is Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). This dissertation applies the method on renovations of residential buildings in the Czech Republic. The reason is high potential for environmental savings in existing building stock and lack of such works in the Czech conditions. Therefore the dissertation deals with LCA of building renovations to increase the knowledge in this field. Moreover it also questions and evaluates accuracy of building LCA in general to increase understanding of differences and inaccuracies that are often admitted, but seldom analysed in literature. The dissertation includes five LCAs of two case studies: a block-of-flats in Brno and a terraced house in a nearby village. First case study includes LCAs of the original state and renovation of the block-of-flats. The second case study describes LCAs of the original state, partial reconstruction or demolition and new construction of the terraced house. The LCAs are performed in two software tools: Eco-Bat 4.0 and GaBi 4. Detailed models of the evaluated buildings are based on available designs. Environmental impacts are calculated in four impact categories predefined in Eco-Bat 4.0 to enable comparison of results: Ecological Scarcity, Cumulative Energy Demand (or Primary Energy in GaBi 4), Non-Renewable Energy and Global Warming Potential. The accuracy of the performed LCAs is tested in up to 324 different scenario combinations considering variable service life of building materials, construction waste quantities, waste management and transport distances. Generally, the results confirm environmental efficiency of building renovations. The renovation of block-of-flats results in 17.39% average reduction of total environmental impacts. Demolition and new construction of the terraced house result in 76.83% average savings. However, the variation of results is rather high due to tested scenario combinations: up to 56.06%.
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Assessment of natural and recycled materials in buildings
Stránská, Zuzana ; Ostrý, Milan (referee) ; Lupíšek,, Antonín (referee) ; Sedlák, Jiří (advisor)
Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an analytic method for evaluation of environmental impacts of products, services and technologies. It is associated with all the stages of a product's life. The environmental impacts are evaluated on the basis of material and energetic flows, which are in influence with the environment. These impacts are always determined in the relation with the function of the product or the service and so it is possible to compare them with the other alternatives. One of the most important reasons why I have chosen this dissertation thesis subject was the growing public interest in impacts of the building constructions on the environment and human organism. Only a few experts and scientific research centres deal with the problem of environmental impacts of the buildings in the Czech Republic so the main goal of this thesis is to help with a spreading a knowledge about it. There are four main problems to solve in the thesis: determination of environmental impacts of selected materials which are missing in available databases, creation of life cycle models of evaluated buildings, determining the most appropriate functional unit and determining the contents of the recommended LCA protocol for building analysis. In the first phase of the thesis there was built a detailed life cycle model of the reference building on the basis of available documents and databases. This "cradle to cradle" LCA model was then optimized for a large number of life cycle scenarios to determine the significance of the impact of individual variables on the overall environmental impact of the building. The knowledge gained from this analysis was applied to the lifecycle models of other buildings and then there was assembled the recommended form of the LCA protocol. In the final stage, the results of the environmental impacts were quantified on the different functional units which were used for determining the appropriate form.
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Udržateľný cestovný ruch jako nástroj znižovania chudoby v Zambii
Ďurinová, Tatiana
The diploma thesis deals with sustainable tourism in Zambia and its use for reducing poverty in Zambia. The first part focuses on the definition of basic concepts relating to sustainable tourism, the characteristics of tourism in Zambia, Zambia tourism profile, SWOT analysis and the factors that influence the development of tourism in Zambia. Another section is devoted to the potential environmental and socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Zambia and represents the key documents in the field of sustainable tourism adopted by the Zambian Government and projects related to sustainable tourism development in Zambia.
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Material Flows and Environmental Impacts of s-WEEE in the Czech Republic
Polák, Miloš
This thesis is a comprehensive study describing and quantifying material flows of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the Czech Republic; specifically the material flow of small waste electric and electronic equipment (s-WEEE) as well as representative substances. The studied material flows were estimated regarding aspects of the environmental impact. The End-of-Life mobile phone is seen as a typical representative of s-WEEE ; therefore material flows of mobile phones are described in this thesis as well. To put it in concrete figures, approximately 124 thousand tons of WEEE from households originated in the Czech Republic in 2010, where each inhabitant got rid off 4 pieces of WEEE in average. Further, total production calculating also consumer-like WEEE from companies and institutions was around 141 thousand tons in 2010. S-WEEE present around 15% from the total amount of WEEE originating in 2010; however it is more than 80% as regards the number of pieces. Despite of that fact the recycling potential of Au for instance is slightly higher by s-WEEE than by large WEEE (63kg/year compared to the 59kg/year respectively). As regards estimation of the total production of EoL mobile phones, around 45 thousand pieces originated in the Czech Republic between the years 1990-2000 and 6,5...
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Material Flows and Environmental Impacts of s-WEEE in the Czech Republic
Polák, Miloš ; Hák, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kočí, Vladimír (referee) ; Vladík, Jaroslav (referee)
This thesis is a comprehensive study describing and quantifying material flows of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the Czech Republic; specifically the material flow of small waste electric and electronic equipment (s-WEEE) as well as representative substances. The studied material flows were estimated regarding aspects of the environmental impact. The End-of-Life mobile phone is seen as a typical representative of s-WEEE ; therefore material flows of mobile phones are described in this thesis as well. To put it in concrete figures, approximately 124 thousand tons of WEEE from households originated in the Czech Republic in 2010, where each inhabitant got rid off 4 pieces of WEEE in average. Further, total production calculating also consumer-like WEEE from companies and institutions was around 141 thousand tons in 2010. S-WEEE present around 15% from the total amount of WEEE originating in 2010; however it is more than 80% as regards the number of pieces. Despite of that fact the recycling potential of Au for instance is slightly higher by s-WEEE than by large WEEE (63kg/year compared to the 59kg/year respectively). As regards estimation of the total production of EoL mobile phones, around 45 thousand pieces originated in the Czech Republic between the years 1990-2000 and 6,5...
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Life Cycle Assessment of water treatetment technology
Cabejšková, Zuzana ; Kočí, Vladimír (advisor) ; Pivokonský, Martin (referee)
Charles University in Prague Faculty of Science Institute for Environmental Studies Ecology and Environmental Protection Environmental Protection Bachelor Thesis - Abstract Life Cycle Assessment of Water Treatment Technology Posuzování životního cyklu výroby pitné vody Author: Zuzana Cabejšková Supervisor: Doc. Ing. Vladimír Kočí, Ph.D. Prague, May 2012 Abstract (English) This bachelor thesis consists of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of two water treatment plants (WTP) in the Czech Republic. The first WTP is situated in Hrdějovice in South Bohemia and treats underground raw water. The second WTP is in Central Bohemia and treats surface water from the Želivka reservoir. The pumping of raw water and its subsequent treatment were considered for the purposes of LCA; other phases of the life cycle of potable water such as distribution weren't taken into account. Waterworks companies provided data on consumption of energy and materials. Based on this data, the environmental impacts of 1m3 of treated water were calculated and a comparison of the two WTPs within different impact categories was performed. It was found that WTP Hrdějovice has a four-time lower overall environmental impact than WTP Želivka. Global Warming Potential, Acidification Potential and Abiotic Depletion of fossil fuels were identified as the...
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Comparison of production and conditions of use of liquid biofuels in different countries
Semerák, Adam ; Pecen, Josef (advisor) ; Krepl, Vladimír (referee)
Biofuels production has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Many countries initiated legislative measures to promote their development, production and use in the transport sector. However, there are also growing concerns about the economic, environmental and social sustainability of biofuels, as well as their ability to truly meet the expectations of energy security.
This paper attempted to point out the complexity and diversity of the production and use of liquid biofuels in the transport sector while using available information resources. More specifically, bioethanol and biodiesel which are most commonly used biofuels. Furthermore, he also tried to point out the diversity of characteristics and impacts in production and use of liquid biofuels, as well as the importance of consideration of the specific local conditions. That was examined from four perspectives of sustainability: technological, economical, socioinstitutional, and environmental. To illustrate the diversity and interdependence of the impacts of this whole issue two countries with very different human development indexes were selected. The Malaysia and India.
At the basis of this paper the author concluded that for successful and sustainable production of liquid biofuels there must be taken into account all the factors examined equally. He also emphasized the importance of further research of this renewable energy source in terms of ensuring future energy security.
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Analýza environmentální situace lyžařských sjezdových areálů ve vybraném chráněném území
Rejchrt, Pavel
This thesis titled The analysis of the environmental situation of the downhill ski centres in the chosen protected area is aimed at identification of downhill skiing centres in the Protected landscape area (PLA) Orlické hory and evaluation of environmental impacts of their operation. For this purpose, I firstly defined potential impacts of skiing centres on the environment and society. Afterwards, I characterized the region of Protected landscape area Orlické hory putting emphasis on natural conditions and touristic utilization of the territory. Subsequently, I described particular skiing centres and pointed out the high-risk environmental factors. The evaluation shows, that the strongest environmental impacts in the area are caused by production of artificial snow, sound system installation, or noise in general and lighting during night skiing. Further impacts are caused by additional activities in the centres. With the skiing centres is also connected development of tourism in the PLA Orlické hory, which has impacts on the environment as well.
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