This paper presents three tools developed within the framework of the project EDINSOST2-SDG, aimed at embedding and assessing the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Engineering curricula. ESD is promoted through the introduction into engineering curricula of learning outcomes related to sustainability and, specifically, to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The first tool, the “Engineering Sustainability Map”, contains ESD-related learning outcomes that any engineering student should have acquired upon completion of their studies. These learning outcomes are described according to four sustainability competencies: (1) Critical contextualization of knowledge, (2) Sustainable use of resources, (3) Participation in community processes, and (4) Application of ethical principles. The second tool, the “Sustainability Presence Map” of a degree, shows the percentage of the presence in the curriculum of each sustainability competency. The calculation of the presence of each competency is based on the effective integration of the related learning outcomes into a specific curriculum. Respective data are provided by teachers responsible for the coordination of the different subjects of the degree, collected by means of a questionnaire. The third tool presented is a questionnaire aimed at measuring the level of ESD that students perceive they have acquired through each competency. The comparison of data resulting from the Sustainability Presence Map with the data from the student questionnaire is the first step that allows the effectiveness of embedding ESD in a degree to be determined, a proper learning assessment will confirm such effectiveness. The three tools presented in this work have undergone a validation process and are currently being used in a set of engineering degrees related to the EDINSOST2-SDG project. The results of the application of these tools are part of the future research work of the authors.
[1] An innovative technique has been developed to assess moisture sources contributing to precipitation. It represents an advance with respect to previously developed methodologies because it allows to discriminate more effectively between terrestrial versus oceanic sources, and also to detect with greater precision the relative importance of remote versus local sources together with the sequence of evaporation associated with a rainfall event. It is based upon the use of a mesoscale model to simulate a selected precipitation episode and a Lagrangian trajectory model to evaluate three-dimensional back-trajectories in order to track the vapor parcels transporting the target precipitation to their surface evaporative sources. An extreme sequence of rainfall events occurred over central Europe between August 11th and 13th is chosen to put the methodology into test. A domain centered in the region and spanning 6372 km in the W-E direction and 5940 km in the N-S direction is chosen to assess moisture sources. Results show the evolving role of various sources throughout the duration of the event, indicating that they shift from the southern to northern and eastern source regions, while a simultaneous decrease of marine sources with respect to terrestrial sources occurs from the onset of the event to its ending phase. The capability of discriminating moisture sources with precision is an important requirement to better understand the mechanisms of extreme rainfalls.
This article investigates an extreme rainfall event occurred over wide areas of central Europe on August 11–13, 2002. By using a synergistic approach that includes regional modeling, air mass tracking, and observational data sets, the importance of moisture accumulation processes in the Western Mediterranean basin (WMB) is acknowledged as an important mechanism responsible for the magnitude of this event. The RAMS‐HYPACT modeling system is used to track air masses from potential marine sources of evaporation. MODIS water vapor products, wind profilers and surface rain gauge measurements are used to substantiate our simulations. Results show that most of the precipitation occurring in central Europe during the initiation of the rainfall episode (August 11) came from vapor accumulated over 4 days (August 6–9) within the WMB: the vapor was transported, after the irruption of the Vb cyclone Ilse, through the Italian Peninsula and the Adriatic Sea, into the target area, causing the precipitation episode. On August 12 and 13 the marine sources of evaporation changed to include the north‐Atlantic region. The north‐African convergence region, the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea are revealed to be sources more related to the intense rainfall experienced in eastern Europe. The subsidence‐related processes through which pollutants and water vapor can accumulate for several days in the WMB are shown to be very relevant for this event. The quantification of the evaporative sources, responsible for the extreme rainfall events in central Europe, and the relative importance of marine and terrestrial sources within a chosen regional domain are discussed in the companion following article.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.