The relationship between economic growth, expansion of urban land area and the broader issue of cultivated land conversion in China has been closely examined for the late 1980s and 1990s. Much less is known about recent urban expansion and if the effects of economic growth on this expansion have...

The thermal and acoustic properties of innovative insulating systems used as building coatings were investigated: Granular silica aerogel was mixed with natural plaster in different percentages. This coating solution is transpiring and insulating, thanks to the use of a natural lime coat and...

Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of energy resources. The production of energy resources in Russia is profitable both economically and in terms of energy production. Currently, Russian oil and gas companies have a policy of increasing energy efficiency, which will led to an...

Cooling load in highly glazed residential building can be excessively large due to uncontrolled solar energy entering the indoor space. This study focuses on the cooling load reduction and changes in the daylighting properties via the application of a double window system (DWS) with shading with...

Schedule risks are the main threat for high efficiency of schedule management in power grid engineering projects (PGEP). This paper aims to build a systematical framework for schedule risk management, which consists of three dimensions, including the personnel dimension, method dimension and...

This paper presents results from comprehensive field surveys of jatropha projects in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali in 2012. The article singles out the salient economic and social impact results and derives lessons. The results clearly demonstrate the weak business case for jatropha biofuel...

On the periphery of most urban centres in the tropics, many new houses are being constructed in previously rural areas. However, the design of these houses shows little respect for local climate or local lifestyle, as they are now developer-constructed brick-and-concrete houses on smaller lots...

Accelerating demand to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels has been driving widespread attention to renewable fuels, such as biogas. In fact, in the last decade numerous policy guidelines and laws regarding energy, the environment and agriculture have been issued to encourage the use...

With the increasing of labor salaries, the RMB exchange rate, resource product prices and requirements of environmental protection, inexpensive labor and land are no longer the decisive factor of regional competitiveness. From this perspective, China needs to shift from the extensive development...

This article investigates the transition dynamics related to Jatropha developments in Mozambique. The analysis focuses on how structural conditions (infrastructure, institutions, interaction and collaboration and capabilities and resources) enable or constrain interactions between niche-level...