C-MADE - Center of Materials and Building Technologies
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C-MADE, Centre of Materials and and Building Technologies, is a research unit in civil engineering and related areas, formed by consortium between the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) that have complementary resources for research, advanced training, technological development and innovation, within its scientific objectives.
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Browsing C-MADE - Center of Materials and Building Technologies by Author "Abbara, Arwa"
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- Dubai: A Pioneer Smart City in the Arabian TerritoryPublication . Virtudes, Ana L.; Abbara, Arwa; Sá, João Paulo Costa eNowadays, one of the main issues that the cities are facing is related with how they are dealing with the challenges toward smartness, including infrastructures, economic, social and environmental aspects. In this sense, some of the current challenges on the global scale, trying to find solutions regarding urban societies, are based on the concept of “smart city”. Therefore, is clear that new ideas regarding the cities improvements, which are on the top of global agenda, could be found at the concept of “smart city”. As the literature reveals, this is a topic reason among the researchers, which is in a continuous development, in particular regarding societies, countries or regions where it is emerging, such as in the Arabian territories. Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates, is an example where in a short period of time, after the oil discovery in the decade of 1970, one small and badly known urban settlement became a pioneer reference in terms of smart cities requirements. Thus, this article presents background information about smart cities, their assets and key pillars, their smart infrastructures and features in cultural, social and environmental terms. The main goals are based on a theoretical approach, developed in order to get more details about smart cities, regarding the features of the Arabian territories. It argues around the case of Dubai, as a pioneer smart city in the Arab world. Among of the main conclusions, there is the idea that the urban transformation process in contemporary societies to secure the smartness, should apply to the use of ICT / information and communication technologies. This use will increase the efficiency concerns to the natural resources, and provide a high quality of life for citizens. The example of Dubai has shown that the decision-makers have built each sector and part of the city in a solid performance, in order to achieve the smart sustainability concept. This city is nowadays a reference on this matter, not only in the Middle East but also considering the global scale.
- Soft Mobility as a Smart Condition in a Mountain CityPublication . Virtudes, Ana L.; Azevedo, Henrique Oliveira de; Abbara, Arwa; Sá, João Paulo Costa eNowadays soft mobility is a crucial issue towards a most sustainable urban environment. Not only because it promotes a less polluted atmosphere among the always dense and busy urban fabric, but also because it avoids several traffic problems. The use of bicycles, or mechanic mechanisms to support the pedestrian mobility is an emerging requirement of cities’ quality. In this sense, this article aims to discuss the soft mobility as a requirement of smart cities having as a case study one mountain urban area. It refers to the urban area of Covilhã on the highest mountain of Portugal with nearly two thousand meters high. During the last decades, this city’s transformation process has driven to an urban sprawl to the suburbs, increasing the efforts in terms of transportation required by the commuters. In fact, the number of inhabitants living in the city centre is decreasing in favour of the peripheral neighbourhoods. At the same time a set of several mechanic mechanisms such as public lifts, has been built in order to promote a soft pedestrian mobility. However, in many cases, because of the lack of connection and continuity of pedestrian paths in between these mechanisms, they are not allowing a pedestrian mobility network at the city scale. Thus, this paper aims to present a set of good practices in terms of pedestrian mobility network at the city scale, in order to promote a smarter urban environment. The principal results are that soft mobility is a key issue in order to turn cities smarter, among several other factors such as smart economy, smart people, smart governance or smart living. The major conclusions show that the concerns with mobility are key tools to achieve the smart city sustainability, providing and efficient and flexible traveling across the urban fabric, boosting the use of non-polluting ways of mobility. At the same time, there is the conclusion that the underlying areas of development for a smart city, despite its cultural or territorial environments, include several aspects such as reducing the transportation problems as congestion, traffic jams or painful accidents.