Estimation of the Relationship among Fractional Vegetation Cover, Land Surface Temperature and Electricity Consumption in Taipei City

The cooling effects of urban green vegetation cover, which can help decrease LST （land surface temperature） in urban area. When air temperature decreases, the electricity consumption of household will also mitigate loading. Meanwhile, that lack of assessment of green vegetation coverage impact to LST and electricity consumption, so that it could not clearly quantify the environmental contribution of green coves. In Taipei city, for example, FVC （fractional vegetation cover） value and LST was collected from Aster satellite remote sensing images, and data of household electricity consumption was acquired from Taiwan Power Company. Based on these three factors, it analyzed relative model. In the urban area, fractional vegetation cover might influence with land surface temperature and electricity consumption. The result shows that when the value of fractional vegetation cover is low, the air temperature is high. While fractional vegetation cover is increase, not only the land surface temperature is decreasing but the electricity consumption is also reducing. This study hopes can be the reference materials for the future metropolis plan and to inhibit the spread of urban thermal environment.

Combinatorial Optimization for Electric Vehicles Management

Growing concerns about environmental quality of cities are calling for sustainable road transportation technologies. EV （electric vehicles）, for public and private transport, can contribute significantly to the lowering of the current pollution levels. However, the EV use is currently facing several weaknesses among which are： limited driving range, high cost and overall limited efficiency. Electric vehicles management is a relatively recent problem; its purpose is to expedite the establishment of a costumer convenient, cost-effective, EV infrastructure. Inspire the relevance of the problem, a few small research communities in this field work on some of its aspects. In this work, some important issues of this problem are discussed and the contribution of combinatorial optimization tools for solving some challenging subproblems is studied.

A Decision Support System for Energy Trading and Portfolio Optimization

In the new competitive environment of the electricity market, risk analysis is a powerful tool to guide investors under both contract uncertainties and energy prices of the spot market. Moreover, simulation of spot price scenarios and evaluation of energy contracts performance, are also necessary to the decision maker, and in particular to the trader to foresee opportunities and possible threats in the trading activity. In this context, computational systems that allow what-if analysis, involving simulation of spot price, contract portfolio optimization and risk evaluation are rather important. This paper proposes a decision support system not only for solving the problem of contracts portfolio optimization, by using linear programming, but also to execute risks analysis of the contracts portfolio performance, with VaR and CVaR metrics. Realistic tests have demonstrated the efficiency of this system.

Gasification of Municipal Solid Waste for Power Generation in Brazil, a Review of Available Technologies and Their Environmental Benefits

This article reviews the literature on thermochemical processing of municipal solid waste as the final disposal in Brazil, explores recent publications in the field of solid waste generated, its origin, characteristics and removal mechanisms currently employed, in the same way, available technologies for the thermochemical treatment of MSW with an emphasis on gasification and clean technology are evaluated, highlighting the current technical and reported in the literature in order to identify indicators of efficiency and flexibility of the technology. From the review it is concluded that gasification is a technically feasible option for the thermochemical conversion of municipal solid waste and subsequent power generation, besides being a technology that meets the applicable emission limits. Some of the main advantages of gasification of municipal solid waste are： （a） the sharp reduction in the waste mass （about 70-80%） and volume （approximately 80-90%）; （b） the drastic reduction in land use, 1：3000; （c） destruction of organic pollutants and other halogenated hydrocarbons; （d） concentration and immobilisation of inorganic contaminants so that they can be used effectively and safely removed; （e） use recyclables, such as ferrous metals, ferrous ash and slag materials; （f） reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by anaerobic decomposition of organic waste and （g） power generation.

UAQ4 Magnetic Levitating Train： Propulsion System for Urban Transportation

This paper discusses the design of the propulsion system of the UAQ4 （University of L＇Aquila, model 4） magnetic levitating train which is used for transportation applications in urban environments. UAQ4 is the only magnetic levitating vehicle with resistance motion, except for aerodynamic drag and with energy consumption near zero at low speed. The feasibility of the system has been successfully verified and tested in the laboratory. Propulsion and braking are provided by a novel direct-current linear stepper motor, with the primary formed by permanent magnets distributed on central beam of the track, and the secondary by coils on board the vehicle, instead of the present alternate current linear motors that have well-known disadvantages. The motor working principles are described, and its performances are analyzed, by a finite element numerical model which allows modifying the most important parameters of the system. The main components of a full scale motor for urban transportation are measured and discussed.