The Environment & Society Research Group is headed by Dr. Celia Dias-Ferreira and brings together a group of experts on chemistry, environment, ecology, economy and rural development, to conduct innovative and forefront research.
Our common interest is to improve production systems, decrease the ecological footprint of processes and promote networking between the companies/technicians and researchers in central region of Portugal to endorse environmental, economic and social sustainability. We aim to develop avant-garde solutions for specific environmental problems and to explore sustainable solutions to optimize natural resources.
Our research falls in the following areas:
- Ecosystem conservation and resilience
- Rural and urban development
- Environmental economics
- Resource efficiency and cradle-to-cradle approaches
Some examples of our most recent research in each field area:
1. Ecosystem’s conservation and resilience
- Antibiotic resistance
- Photodegradation of fungicides in aqueous media
- Remediation of soil contaminated with pesticides and PCBs using iron nanoparticles
- Analysis of the ecological evolution of an area in the Setúbal Peninsula (Apostiça) caused by changes in land use patterns
- First Report of Phytophthora xalni and Phytophthora lacustris associated with common alder decline in Portugal
- Nutrient removal using Azolla-Anabaena
2. Rural and urban development
- Organic agriculture values and practices in Portugal and Italy
- The importance of regional pear cultivars for the Portuguese consumers
- The importance of regional and local origin in the choice of wine: Hedonic models of Portuguese wines in Portugal
- Impact of land-use changes on soil properties
3. Environmental economics
- Hybrid modeling to support energy-climate policy: Effects of feed-in tariffs to promote renewable energy in Portugal
- PAYT (Pay–as-you-throw) waste tariffs as an economic instrument in South European Countries
4. Resource efficiency and cradle-to-cradle approaches
- Recycling pulp mill sludge to improve soil fertility using GIS tools
- Phosphorus sorption and desorption properties of soils developed on basic rocks under a subhumid Mediterranean climate
- Multi-layer stream mapping as a combined approach for industrial processes eco-efficiency assessment
- From waste into a fertilizer: closing the phosphorus cycle
- Biowaste treatment through composting
- Hospital food waste and environmental and economic indicators – A Portuguese case study
A full list of our work can be found here
