Search Results (13)

This research seeks to understand the link between urban heat island and urban cool island, which are the Local Climatic Zones (LCZ) and atmospheric systems during the winter season in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Southern Brazil. First, meteorological data on the urban environment was collected at 11 permanent points in the Balneário Camboriú metropolitan region. Next, a synoptic analysis of the dates was performed to understand the atmospheric systems operating in the region. Finally, the LCZs map created for the city in the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools was used to correlate the magnitudes of the heat and cool islands found in Balneário Camboriú in the winter period. The results indicate that the increasing verticalization as a result of the construction of skyscrapers in Balneário Camboriú has a significant influence on local conditions for the occurrence of heat and cold islands. The findings indicate that LCZs with sparsely distributed buildings (LCZs 6, 8 and 9) and LCZs with dense vegetation (LCZ A) have lower intensity magnitudes of heat and cool conditions. The biggest magnitudes of heat and cool islands were reported in LCZs 1 and 3 during the timeframe. The synoptic analysis supports earlier research that points to atmospheric stability (Anticyclonic domain) as a favorable atmospheric setting for the emergence of urban heat and coolness islands. Full article

Achieving universal access to water and sanitation services in developing countries requires a coherent legal, political, and institutional environment, along with a clear financial strategy. Regionalizing utilities may be crucial for addressing disparities, economic inequalities, and governance challenges. Regionalization offers economies of scale, resource efficiency, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. The cornerstone will be ensuring the financial-economic viability of regional utilities, considering their social impacts in terms of affordability. A case study of the state of Santa Catarina (Brazil) is assessed. In the case of Santa Catarina, only four regional utilities currently generate sufficient revenue, without factoring in necessary investments, indicating the need to review design parameters to improve operational efficiency and increase revenues. Additional financial support may be required to ensure universal access. Tariff adjustments must strike a balance between cost effectiveness and affordability for families. Full article

Multi-phase flow, characterised by the presence of both liquid and gas phases, often occurs in riser pipes during oil extraction. These flows can be problematic because they can cause oscillations due to the formation of bubbles within the pipes, which can negatively impact the safety and efficiency of offshore production operations. One solution to this problem is to use a gravitational oil separator, which is designed to dampen these oscillations. The separator is equipped with a control system that uses liquid level and gas pressure sensors to stabilise the flow by adjusting the positions of its valves. This paper presents the use of a specific type of model-based predictive controller to control the level and pressure of a biphasic oil separator, particularly in the presence of slug disturbances. The designs of the separator model and controller are discussed in detail, with a focus on the advantages of using an unrestricted horizon predictive controller, such as its ability to make predictions over a long horizon and its relatively low computational requirements. For the sake of comparison, a linear quadratic regulator is also evaluated. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control system is able to effectively regulate the separator’s liquid level and gas pressure within a magnitude range of ${10}^{-4}$ m for the liquid level and ${10}^{-3}$ bar for the internal pressure. Aside from that, the dynamics of the closed-loop system is six times faster than the plant’s for the liquid behaviour and 30 times faster for the pressure, while also presenting sharp attenuation characteristics for the input disturbances of nearly 50 dB for the pressure output and 68 dB for the liquid level. Full article

This research is concerned with understanding the degree of human thermal (dis)comfort in connection with the various microclimates present in the vicinity of bike trails in Balneário Camboriú/SC, Brazil, throughout the summer. Local Climate Zones were determined using the Sky View Factor and were identified along research routes and schedules at 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on a subtropical summer day (14 January 2022). Data were collected with weather devices attached to the bicycle, measuring air temperature, relative humidity, and globe temperature, from which the mean radiant temperature was calculated. The PET and UTCI indices were used to assess outdoor thermal comfort in the summer. The findings revealed that at 9:00 a.m., the eastern half of the city had a higher tendency for thermal discomfort; however, at 4:00 p.m., this same location had thermal comfort for users along bike routes. At 4:00 p.m., the PET index indicated that 24% of the bike paths were pleasant, and the UTCI index indicated that 100% of them were in thermal comfort. At 9:00 a.m., the majority of the city was under discomfort conditions. The index values reflect the morning time, and the study shows that there is now a negative correlation between the SVF and the indexes, which means that the greater the SVF computations, the lower the values are. The PET and UTCI indices revealed a positive association in the afternoon period: The greater the SVF values, the higher the PET and UTCI indices. Further research should be conducted in the future because many parameters, such as construction, position, and urban (im)permeability, as well as sea breeze and solar radiation, can have a significant impact on outdoor human thermal comfort in Balneário Camboriú, and when combined with the type of LCZ and the SVF, it is possible to understand how all of these active systems interact and form microclimates that are beneficial to bike path users. Full article

For this study on urban climatology, the study area is the city of Balneário Camboriú, belonging to the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (SC), located at 26°59′42″ south latitude and 48°37′46″ west longitude. As it is the most vertical city in the entire Southern Hemisphere, Balneário Camboriú was selected as the study area for the development of this climate analysis. Then, this study was concerned with analyzing the formation of urban heat islands throughout the daytime and nighttime in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on some days in October 2020, from the perspective of the local climatic zones. Seven fixed sampling points and one official weather station were selected for this research. These points were selected in order to facilitate analysis of the climatic behaviour of the urban area throughout the day, comparing it with the other points, and also to verify possible changes in the local climate in the most diverse types of LCZ. At these same points, the Sky View Factor (SVF) measurements were taken. to elaborate the map of LCZ of Balneário Camboriú, the WUDAPT method was used. There was a great variation of the SVF between the collection points, and different LCZs were mapped, which contributed to the formation of urban heat islands whose maximum magnitude was 10.8 °C and islands with freshnesses of magnitudes of −4.5 °C. Full article

Classification problems are common activities in many different domains and supervised learning algorithms have shown great promise in these areas. The classification of goods in international trade in Brazil represents a real challenge due to the complexity involved in assigning the correct category codes to a good, especially considering the tax penalties and legal implications of a misclassification. This work focuses on the training process of a classifier based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) for tax classification of goods with MCN codes which are the official classification system for import and export products in Brazil. In particular, this article presents results from using a specific Portuguese-language-pretrained BERT model, as well as results from using a multilingual-pretrained BERT model. Experimental results show that Portuguese model had a slightly better performance than the multilingual model, achieving an MCC 0.8491, and confirms that the classifiers could be used to improve specialists’ performance in the classification of goods. Full article

Extensive urbanization around the world has resulted in the consumption of massive vegetated areas and natural resources. To this end, one strategy for urban development is to consolidate urban areas. In Balneário Camboriú/SC, Brazil, this trend has transformed the city into a vertical built-up area on its coastal strip, accommodating a large amount of buildings both in terms of quantity and number of floors. This research aims to quantify the thermo-hygrometric fluctuation on the waterfront of Balneário Camboriú, in negative radiation balance. To acquire the data on air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (RH), two mobile transects and measuring at two fixed points were made in a situation of negative radiation balance on 26 August 2019, in the winter period of the Southern Hemisphere. The collection work began at 06:00:00 a.m. (before sunrise, the peak of the negative radiation balance), on Atlântica Avenue (waterfront) and Brasil Avenue (parallel to the waterfront). It was verified that the Ta varied from 16.0 °C to 19.0 °C, and the RH remained over 80% during the entire route. At the meteorological shelters, the temperature presented a variation from 14.4 °C to 17.7 °C, and the RH ranged from 79.6% to 91.3% between the two points. The spatial variability in the Ta and RH along the paths travelled and at the fixed points is directly related to the land cover, represented especially by the buildings’ verticalization and data collection time. Full article

Item response theory (IRT) is a psychometric method that provides probabilistic model-based measurements. Its use is relatively recent in the assessment of food consumption, especially through dietary assessment tools. This study aims (1) to develop a food-based diet quality scale for Brazilian schoolchildren using IRT, and (2) to apply the scale to a representative sample of schoolchildren from a Southern Brazilian city. The scale was developed with daily consumption frequency of foods from 835 students who completed the Food Intake and Physical Activity of Schoolchildren questionnaire. Questionnaire foods were grouped into 10 items according to their nutritional similarities and were evaluated by full-information factor analysis that indicated a dominant factor explaining 28% of the variance. Psychometric item analysis was performed using Samejima’s model. The scale covered all levels of diet quality, from “very poor” (scores < 95) to “very good” (scores ≥ 130). Children who had higher diet quality scores consumed beans, meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and water more frequently, while reducing the consumption of ultraprocessed sugary foods, ultraprocessed savoury snacks and sausages, and sugary drinks. Of 6323 children, an average of less than 10% consumed the highest diet quality scores (good or very good diet quality) and about 60% of children consumed low diet quality scores. The scale can be applied to other schoolchildren with the same measure precision. Full article

Tourism is an expanding sector, and it is one of the priorities of individuals seeking leisure. While the activity is developing rapidly, the increase in the flow of tourists in localities has interfered with the residents’ subjective well-being, generating a feeling of “excess of tourism.” Overtourism is associated with destinations that suffer from the tension of tourism when the maximum number of people who can visit a tourist destination at the same time is exceeded. Therefore, this study aims to correlate the relationship between the subjective well-being of the residents of Blumenau and the perceptions of excessive tourism in their territory of residence. To this end, a survey was carried out, with a quantitative approach with 400 residents of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The survey results demonstrate that the subjective well-being of the autochthonous population correlates with tolerance to overtourism. Thus, the research has practical and managerial implications for tourist destinations. Managers must develop means for the subjective well-being of the population to be high, thus contributing to the decrease in the feeling of overtourism. Full article

In this paper, we introduce the themes and approaches that are covered in this special issue on tourism, governance and sustainable development. Firstly, we present a discussion of the themes and topics that have informed the creation of this special issue and, secondly, we provide an overview of the content of each paper that is included within it. This editorial piece provides a useful introduction to the relationship between tourism, governance and sustainable development that can be used by researchers as a starting point for their own research. The special issue itself helps to address the relative lack of research in this area in the context of developing countries and emerging economies. Full article

Studies of collaborative arrangements are usually based on socioeconomic interpretations, with little research exploring the socio-spatial perspective. The assumption is that space (as an epistemic category) can promote collaborative arrangements. Thus, the objective of the research was to describe the spaces of rural accommodation establishments as a sign of collaboration, which is understood as a socio-spatial entity. For this purpose, Pouso dos Paula (Nova Friburgo, RJ, Brazil) was the object of the study. This study was qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive in nature with a phenomenological approach. Primary data was collected from websites, leaflets, and videos about the object of study and in situ (photographic and architectural survey and reading of space). Secondary data was collected from the literature. The data collected were analyzed in the light of the theory of montage, based on the idea of abduction of Peircean semiotics. The results showed collaboration in spaces of the rural accommodation studied, which generally signifies and reveals spatial conditions for carrying out civic initiatives, meets social demands, and for gives rise to collaborative arrangements in rural areas which, together, can lead to political empowerment in rural Brazil, which are understood as a factor of social sustainability. The originality of the study lies in the recognition of the role of space of rural accommodation in promoting social sustainability. Full article

Objective: The development of tourism is one the main objectives of managers seeking a greater competitive advantage for destinations. To achieve this objective, the political-institutional structure related to public and private organizations involved in the Brazilian scenario of tourism activities deliberately operate in the format of Regional Tourism Organizations—RTOs, which started in 2004. In this context, the aim of this study arose, which is to analyze the power relations of Regional Tourism Organizations of tourist regions. Design/Methodology: This research adopted a qualitative and quantitative approach, with data collection through documents, laws, reports and information about the RTOs and questionnaires in forms applied to 27 representatives of the public sector, 14 representatives of private sector and six representatives of the third sector, from a total population of 89 active members of the Regional Tourism Organizations: Costa Verde e Mar (state of Santa Catarina), Hortênsias (state of Rio Grande do Sul), and Costa das Dunas (state of Rio Grande do Norte). During the application of the forms, interviews were carried out, totaling 47 interviews with members of the RTOs. Quantitative analyses were generated by mean, mode, absolute and relative frequencies, multiple responses and dispersion graph, with the use of descriptive analyses. The qualitative analyses involving documents were descriptive, and those involving oral information were carried out using analysis of content of Bardin (1977). The different methods that were used in an interrelated manner and helped in the analysis of the data coming from the application of forms (quantitative), official documents (laws/decrees, regulations and statutes), and interviews with actors of the regional tourism organizations (qualitative), enabled the measurement of the effectiveness of the process of management of RTOs in relation to the dimension Power Relationship and the variables analyzed Representativeness, Harmony, Trust and Decision-Making Power. Results: As a result, it was seen that the regional tourism organizations of the tourist regions operate in an effective manner in the public or private sectors and that they involve the management of shared practices by the regional tourism organizations in the destinations studied in terms of representativeness, harmony, trust and decision-making power. Novelty/Value: This research theoretically deepened for the academy the theme of regional governance and power relationship between public and private actors in tourism who are important for the competitive performance of a tourist destination. It also analyzes how the management and governance of regional tourism organizations behaves in terms of power relationships. Full article

This paper conducts a study on brand image formation. In this sense, this research was developed to contribute to the tourism sector, and to do so, it had two major aims. The first one was to evaluate if destination branding factors influence the image assessment of a specific tourist destination: the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The second aim was to estimate if the image of this tourist destination is directly related to loyalty. Therefore, this paper provides a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the theme by using a set of destination branding dimensions to evaluate the image of Rio de Janeiro and to test its influence on destination loyalty. This research follows a quantitative exploratory approach, and in order to reach the designated aims, two research techniques were used: exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The results confirmed four out of the five hypotheses established a priori in the proposed model. It can be concluded that the structural model is a reliable model. Full article