João Joanaz de Melo

• PhD in Environmental Engineering
• Associate Professor at NOVA University Lisbon - NOVA School of Science and Technology

Smart Tourism (ST) stems from the concepts of e-tourism, which is focused on the digitalization of processes within the tourism industry, and digital tourism, which also considers the digitalization of the tourist experience. The earlier ST references found regard ST destinations and emerge from the development of Smart Cities. Our initial literatu...

Energy efficiency is vital for energy transitions, and energy-poor, vulnerable, and hard-to-reach groups are at risk of being left behind. In this context, local middle actors have been suggested as partners in deploying targeted energy support. Nevertheless, scarce research has engaged with them to assess if they are willing and capable of contrib...

Abstract: Healthy functioning ecosystems are a prerequisite for creating the potential for flows of ecosystem services (ES) as natures benefits obtained from ecosystems. Meeting future demands for ES, as intergenerational equity, is fundamental to sustainable development. So too is the ecological restoration (ER) of degraded and destroyed natural e...

Introduction. In 2003, this team was contacted by a citizen of the existence of low frequency noise in his home. Inability to concentrate, increased irritability, and lack of response from the local authorities, were the most important issues. An investigation of this case was undertaken. Methods. Low frequency noise (LFN, <500 Hz including infraso...

Livro sobre a água e os rios no futuro em Portugal. A publicação integra um conjunto de contributos temáticos de vogais do Conselho Nacional da Água, bem como um capítulo final de discussão. Espera-se que o conteúdo deste documento possa ser útil nos próximos ciclos de planeamento de recursos hídricos e nas decisões políticas de fundo que forem tom...

Science-tourism communication and collaboration

Portugal has committed to become a carbon neutral economy by 2050, a goal that will require a profound transformation of Portuguese economy and society. This research is dedicated to the development of sustainable solutions for energy policy. Two overarching principles were followed: the need for lower-intensity lifestyle, and the need to involve a...

Studies on the service sector in the European Union have identified an economic saving potential between 20 and 30% of current energy consumption, which remains mostly untapped. Although the topic of energy efficiency has been explored in depth before, there is little organized information about service activities and especially about small busines...

The studies on the electricity sector are usually focused on the supply side, considering consumers as price-takers, i.e. assuming no demand elasticity. The present paper highlights the role of consumers on the electricity sector, assuming that consumers react to electricity prices and make decisions. Many studies focused on the demand side disaggr...

Energy is a crucial challenge for sustainable development. Among the options to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency is recognized as the most promising one. In the EU, a number of studies have identified an economic saving potential between 20% and 30% for the service sector, which remains mostly untapped. Although th...

Environmental Impact Assessment is well established in higher education worldwide, with a history going back to the 1970s. In contrast, the teaching and training of Strategic Environmental Assessment is a relatively novel, less consolidated and implanted, but of growing importance as a decision support tool in planning and policy. Therefore, traini...

Portugal has strong difficulty to control the adopted currency (since the transition from Escudo to Euro), is with imposed wider rules (European Union legislation and international agreements) and has global goals (as handle the climate change). In this global context, fiscal measures and price adjustments appear to be the most cost efficient way a...

Although the environmental issues are becoming more perceptive in the public opinion as well as the awareness and understanding from the governments and the stakeholders, the proposal of a taxation shift focus from labour productivity to resources and energy usage (as the environmental tax reform) effect is still to be proven. This paper gather inf...

Land use management is one of the least studied, more difficult, but possibly one of the most important fields for the application of economic instruments in environmental policy. Present biodiversity loss is a consequence of the decisions of many individual users of environmental products and service ?ows. This is a result of the ‘unpriced scarcit...

The environmental performance evaluation (EPE) of organizations is becoming an autonomous management tool. The main goal of this research was to assess the state of EPE practice in the Portuguese defence sector, as a particular part of public services. A questionnaire survey was conducted involving all Portuguese military units that have a person i...

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) education has been a reality for years in many graduate and undergraduate programs worldwide. As EIA has grown as a widely accepted environmental policy tool, several professions have tried to incorporate these skills into their academic training. The main aim of this research was to assess the Portuguese profi...

Public institutions are beginning to realise that they must shift their management towards sustainability. Thus, public sector, including defence services, environmental performance evaluation is a growing reality. The main objective of this research was to assess the environmental pressures and impacts profile of the Portuguese defence sector. A q...

The development of environmental performance policy indicators for public services, and in particular for the defence sector, is an emerging issue. Despite a number of recent initiatives there has been little work done in this area, since the other sectors usually focused on are agriculture, transport, industry, tourism and energy. This type of too...

At an international level, the implementation of environmental management practices in military facilities is now a growing reality, particularly with the implementation of environmental management programmes and/or systems. The main goal of this research was to assess the Portuguese military sector's environmental performance through an index – th...

Low frequency noise (LFN) (≤ 500 Hz, including infrasound) exposure causes different types of damage to different organs. In the pericardium – a translucid sac that surrounds the heart - it causes the formation of a new layer of tissue, increasing pericardial thickness 100 to 300%. In the blood vessels, LFN exposure induces thickening of the vessel...

Low frequency noise (LFN) (≤ 500 Hz, including infrasound) is a genotoxic agent of disease which impinges on the respiratory tract. In LFN-exposed rat models, the respiratory tract cellular populations become dramatically altered: a) tubulin-based structures, such as tracheal cilia, lose tension becoming wilted, or appear sheared, as if clipped, de...

Low frequency noise (LFN) (≤ 500 Hz, including infrasound) exposure causes thickening of cardiac structures, namely the pericardium – a < 0.5 mm thick, 3-layer, translucid sac that surrounds the heart. In LFN-exposed individuals, microscopy studies of their pericardia disclosed the existence of a 5-layered organ, up to 2.33 mm thick. The biomechani...

Environmental management practice in the military is a growing reality in many countries. The goal of this research was to assess Portuguese military environmental profile, as a first step towards evaluating environmental performance. This paper assesses how environmental practices have been adopted in this sector, based on a self-assessment by the...

Introduction. In 2003, this team was contacted by a citizen of the existence of low frequency noise in his home. Inability to concentrate, increased irritability, and lack of response from the local authorities, were the most important issues. An investigation of this case was undertaken. Methods. Low frequency noise (LFN, <500 Hz including infraso...

Monitoring is fundamental to environmental impact assessment (EIA) both to assess adherence to standards and to support management options. The use of indicators assures that a monitoring program addresses only the key variables associated with significant environmental impacts and also improves monitoring communication and reporting processes. Thi...

Noise-induced pulmonary pathology is still an issue that is regarded with much suspicion despite the significant body of evidence demonstrating that acoustic phenomena target the respiratory tract. The goal of this review paper is threefold: a) to describe acoustic phenomena as an agent of disease, and the inadequacies of current legislation regard...

Portugal has a number of important estuaries, which fall under the category of transitional waters – two of these, and parts of the rivers which flow into them, form the northwestern and southeastern borders with Spain. Portugal has an extensive coastal area, which delimits the country to the west and to the south. The Typology and Reference Condit...

Desenvolve-se uma metodologia de avaliação do desempenho ambiental que pode ser utilizada como referência para o cálculo das pressões ambientais. Entende-se aqui por pressão ambiental qualquer factor de produção que represente um consumo de recursos naturais ou potencial degradação ambiental (consumo de materiais e água, ocupação de área, potencial...

The problem of the optimization of regional wastewater systems may be generally formulated as follows: to define the transport and treatment system in a region or water basin, which assure compliance with given pollution control criteria, with minimum cost. In addition, one may try to satisfy other objectives, such as minimum environmental impact,...

A new methodology to optimize regionalized wastewater treatment systems is presented. The approach, developed for the River Ave basin, relies upon a clustering analysis algorithm to identify independent sub-sets of polluting sources within the basin. Then for each cluster, heuristic methods are used to generate a network representing the most promi...

Of the numerous problems affecting environmental management, inadequate base legislation is but one. However, it is a key factor that should deserve greater attention both from scientists and policy-makers, since it may severely impair effective management efforts, especially in such dynamic environments as coastal areas. The case of the Tróia peni...

Portugal has an EEZ of 1.6 million square kilometres. The importance of the EEZ is primarily related to economic activities such as fisheries and tourism, and eventually offshore mining; but also to broader issues such as environment, internal security and geo-strategy. Maritime surveillance is a keystone for the control of the EEZ. The authors dis...

Introdução Alqueva é um dos maiores empreendimentos já realizados em Portugal. É certamente o mais polémico, o mais emblemático deste estilo de desenvolvimento, o causador de maiores impactes ambientais e de mais medidas para a sua mitigação, num século XX recheado de obras públicas mais ou menos problemáticas. Alqueva tem sido defendido apaixonada...

Resumo Foi aprovado pelo Governo Português em 2007 o Programa Nacional de Barragens com Elevado Potencial Hidroeléctrico (PNBEPH). O Programa foi sujeito a um trabalho de avaliação ambiental estratégica (AAE), sem precedentes neste tipo de programa. A AAE do PNBEPH tem o mérito de desenvolver uma análise de âmbito nacional de um conjunto de barrage...