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INCREaSE Proceedings of the 1st

International Congress on Engineering


and Sustainability in the XXI Century
INCREaSE 2017 1st Edition António
Mortal
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António Mortal · Jaime Aníbal
Jânio Monteiro · Cláudia Sequeira
Jorge Semião · Manuela Moreira da Silva
Miguel Oliveira Editors

INCREaSE
Proceedings of the 1st International
Congress on Engineering and
Sustainability in the XXI
Century – INCREaSE 2017
INCREaSE
António Mortal Jaime Aníbal

Jânio Monteiro Cláudia Sequeira


Jorge Semião Manuela Moreira da Silva


Miguel Oliveira
Editors

INCREaSE
Proceedings of the 1st International Congress
on Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI
Century – INCREaSE 2017

123
Editors
António Mortal Jorge Semião
Institute of Engineering Institute of Engineering
University of Algarve University of Algarve
Faro Faro
Portugal Portugal

Jaime Aníbal Manuela Moreira da Silva


Institute of Engineering Institute of Engineering
University of Algarve University of Algarve
Faro Faro
Portugal Portugal

Jânio Monteiro Miguel Oliveira


Institute of Engineering Institute of Engineering
University of Algarve University of Algarve
Faro Faro
Portugal Portugal

Cláudia Sequeira
Institute of Engineering
University of Algarve
Faro
Portugal

ISBN 978-3-319-70271-1 ISBN 978-3-319-70272-8 (eBook)


https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70272-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017956754

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
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Printed on acid-free paper

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The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

It is our pleasure to present the proceedings of the 1st International Congress on


Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI Century, INCREaSE 2017. INCREaSE
is a multiple-track congress consisting of high quality, previously unpublished
papers, intended to act as a forum for research groups, engineers, and practitioners
to present recent results, improvements, and promising future directions in engi-
neering and sustainable development.
The contribution to the engineering and sustainable development is made in a
multidisciplinary way, reflected by research and technology in the fields of civil,
electronics, food and mechanical engineering. The work presented in the event
includes several transversal challenges, such as natural and anthropogenic risks,
tourism and sustainability, healthy food, water and society, sustainable mobility,
renewable energy and energy efficiency, and other subjects related to the sustain-
able development.
This year’s INCREaSE was held on October 11–13, 2017, in Faro, Portugal,
organized by the Institute of Engineering and hosted by University of Algarve.
There was a very positive response to the Call for Papers for INCREaSE 2017. We
received 108 works, from 318 different authors, from 17 countries, being accepted
for publication 53 full and short papers, where at least three reviewers reviewed
each paper.
The essential actors of any conference are the authors, who submitted their
scientific contributions. They are the main responsible for the high quality of the
scientific program of INCREaSE 2017. The reviewers, members of the Scientific
Committee and all the other committees, also played a key role with their dedicated
and thorough work.
INCREaSE 2017 had an excellent group of invited speakers: Andrew Patton
McCoy (Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University), Cristina Silva
(ESB/Universidade Católica Portuguesa & International Journal of Food Studies),
Jorge de Brito (Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa), Katherine
Flynn (The European Association for Food Safety—SAFE consortium), Marc
Hilbert (Volkswagen AG), Marco Ottavi (University of Rome Tor Vergata), and
Mariana Golumbeanu (Balkan Environmental Association—BEnA). We are

v
vi Preface

grateful to these leading experts for their inspiring participation in INCREaSE


2017.
We wish to express our gratitude to all of the above participants that enabled the
success of first edition of INCREaSE.
Finally, we look forward to meeting you again at the next edition of INCREaSE,
in 2019.

Faro, Portugal António Mortal


October 2017 Jaime Aníbal
Jorge Semião
Miguel Oliveira
Cláudia Sequeira
Jânio Monteiro
Manuela Moreira da Silva
Organization

INCREaSE is an international congress organized by the Institute of Engineering


from the University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal.

Coordinating Committee

António Mortal (Director of the Institute of Engineering (ISE), University of


Algarve (UAlg))
Manuela Moreira da Silva (President of the Technical-Scientific Council of the
Institute of Engineering, University of Algarve)

Honorary Committee

António Branco (Rector, University of Algarve)


António Raposo de Lima (IBM Portugal)
António Tadeu (ITeCons)
Carlos Mineiro Aires (Ordem dos Engenheiros)
Desidério Silva (RTA)
Francisco Serra (CCDR Algarve)
João Guerreiro (CRIA, UAlg)
Luciano Lourenço (RISCOS)
Luís Chícharo (ICCE-UNESCO)
Maria João Bebianno (CIMA)
Rogério Bacalhau (Câmara Municipal de Faro)
Vitor Aleixo (AREAL)

vii
viii Organization

Organizing Committee

Augusto Candeias (ISE/UAlg)


Cláudia Sequeira (ISE/UAlg)
Francisco Calhau (ISE/UAlg)
Ilídio Mestre (ISE/UAlg)
Isabel Ratão (ISE/UAlg)
Isménio Martins (ISE/UAlg)
Jaime Aníbal (ISE/UAlg)
Jânio Monteiro (ISE/UAlg)
Jorge Semião (ISE/UAlg)
Miguel Oliveira (ISE/UAlg)
Paulo Santos (ISE/UAlg)
André Botelheiro (Director of Communication Office, UAlg)
Ana Paula Ferreira (Director of Technical Services, UAlg)

Invited Speakers

Andrew Patton McCoy (Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University)


Cristina Silva (ESB/Universidade Católica Portuguesa & International Journal of
Food Studies)
Jorge de Brito (Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa)
Katherine Flynn (The European Association for Food Safety—SAFE consortium)
Marc Hilbert (Volkswagen AG)
Marco Ottavi (University of Rome Tor Vergata)
Mariana Golumbeanu (Balkan Environmental Association—BENA)

Scientific Committee

Ana Cristina Figueira (ISE/UAlg & CIEO, Portugal)


Ana Isabel Renda (ESGHT/UAlg, Portugal)
Anabela Rebelo (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente)
Andrew Patton McCoy (Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University)
Antonio Javier Barragán Piña (Universidad de Huelva, Spain)
António Martins (Águas do Algarve/Grupo Águas de Portugal)
António Silva (ISE/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
Arnaldo Carneiro (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brasil)
Carla Antunes (FCT/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Celestino Ruivo (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Célia Quintas (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Organization ix

Cláudia Almeida (ESGHT/UAlg, Portugal)


Cristina Silva (ESB/Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal)
Cristiano Cabrita (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Duarte Nuno Duarte (FCT/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
Eduardo Gorbeña (UAlg, Portugal)
Eduardo Esteves (ISE/UAlg & CCMAR, Portugal)
Eladio Durán Aranda (Universidad de Huelva, Spain)
Elisa Silva (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Fátima Farinha (ISE/UAlg & CERIS, Portugal)
Fernando Alves da Silva (INESC-ID, Portugal)
Flávio Martins (ISE/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
Gabriela Schutz (ISE/UAlg & CEOT, Portugal)
Gil Fraqueza (ISE/UAlg & CCMAR, Portugal)
Gonçalo Prates (UAlg, Portugal)
Gustavo Nolasco (FCT/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Helena Fernandez (ISE/UAlg & CIEO, Portugal)
Ivo Martins (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Jeff Camkin (CENRM & University of Western Australia)
Jessie Melo (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
João Estêvão (ISE/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
João Gomes (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
João Paulo Teixeira (INESC-ID, Portugal)
João Rodrigues (LARSyS/UAlg, Portugal)
João Santana (IST & INESC-ID, Portugal)
Jorge de Brito (IST, Portugal)
Jorge Isidoro (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Jorge Pereira (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
José António Monteiro (FCT/UAlg & CEPAC, Portugal)
José Bastos (FCT/UAlg, Portugal)
José Gonçalves (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
José Luís Estrelo Gomes de Sousa (ESTS/IPS, Portugal)
Juan Manuel Enrique Gomez (Universidad de Huelva, Portugal)
Katherine Flynn (The European Association for Food Safety—SAFE consortium,
France)
Ludovina Galego (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Luís Oliveira (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Manuela Rosa (ISE/UAlg & CIEO, Portugal)
Marc Hilbert (Volkswagen AG, Germany)
Marco Ottavi (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy)
Margarida Vieira (ISE/UAlg & ISEKI Food Association, Portugal)
Maria de Belém Costa Freitas (FCT/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Maria Natividade Vieira (Faculdade de Ciências/Universidade do Porto &
CIIMAR, Portugal)
Mário Serafim Nunes (INESC Inovação, Portugal)
Mariana Golumbeanu (Balkan Environmental Association—BEnA, Romania)
x Organization

Mauro Figueiredo (ISE/UAlg & CIMA/CIAC, Portugal)


Nelson Sousa (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Patrícia Nunes (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Paula Cabral (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Paula Correia (IPV/CI&DETS, Portugal)
Paula Laurêncio (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Paulo Felisberto (ISE/UAlg & LARSyS, Portugal)
Paulo Relva (FCT/UAlg & CCMAR, Portugal)
Paulo Silva (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Pedro Cardoso (LARSyS/UAlg, Portugal)
Peter Schmid (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
Rafaela Matos (LNEC, Portugal)
Raúl Barros (FCT/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
Roberto Lam (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Roberto Quental Coutinho (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco/GEGEPE, Brasil)
Rui Costa (ISE/UAlg & ICIST, Portugal)
Rui Cruz (ISE/UAlg & MeditBio, Portugal)
Rui Guerra (FCT/UAlg & CEOT, Portugal)
Rui Lança (ISE/UAlg, Portugal)
Sara Raposo (FCT/UAlg & CIMA, Portugal)
Sérgio Manuel Machado Jesus (FCT/UAlg & LARSyS, Portugal)
Sofiane Ahmed Ali (ESIGELEC, France)
Susana Neto (IST & CERIS, Portugal)
Tiago Silva (FCT/Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Tomás Figueiredo (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança & CIMO, Portugal)
Vasco Peixoto de Freitas (Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto,
Portugal)

Institutional Support

UNIVERSIDADE DO ALGARVE
CIMA—UNIVERSIDADE DO ALGARVE
ITeCons - Instituto de Investigação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico para a
Construção, Energia, Ambiente e Sustentabilidade
CRESC ALGARVE 2020, Portugal 2020 and FEEI
Organization xi

With Participation of

IBM

Endorser

ISEKI Food Association

Sponsors

ORDEM DOS ENGENHEIROS


ÁGUAS DO ALGARVE
UNESCO—Chair on Ecohydrology: Water for Ecosystems and Societies
ICCE—UNESCO
EVODECK
TALURDINHA
STAP—Reparação, Consolidação e Modificação de Estruturas, S.A.
FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
IBERWIND

Media Partner

SUL INFORMAÇÃO
Contents

Part I Climate Changes and Environmental Protection


The Environmental Protection in South-American Integration
Process: A Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Isabela Battistello Espíndola and Celso Maran de Oliveira
Renewing Terraces and Drystone Walls of Algarvian Barrocal:
Cultural and Touristic Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Marta Marçal Gonçalves, Gonçalo Prates, and Stefan Rosendahl
Rockfall Risk Assessment Along Cliffed Coastlines of Algarve,
Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
José Viegas, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves, and Luís Andrade Pais
The Development of Indicators of Sustainable Mobility Associated
with an Urbanism of Proximity. The Case of the City of Faro . . . . . . . . 47
Manuela Pires Rosa, Catarina Martins, and José Rodrigues
Low-Emission Rural Development in the Amazon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Fronika Claziena Agatha de Wit
The Importance of Improved Cooking Stove for Forest Conservation,
Economic Benefits and Climate Change Mitigation—A Bangladesh
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Bishwajit Roy, Md. Habibur Rahman, and Palash Sarker
Culture Strategies for Lipid Production Using Low-cost Carbon
Sources by Rhodosporidium Toruloides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Valdemira Afonso, Laura Tangerino, Daiana Oliveira, and Sara Raposo
Bioclimatic Analysis of Public Roads in the City of Manaus Through
Computational Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Larissa Galvão

xiii
xiv Contents

Part II Healthy Food: Safety and Innovation


Development of New Pastry Products and Jams with Shiitake
Mushrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Paula M. R. Correia, Jéssica M. Monteiro, and Raquel P. F. Guiné
Arbutus Unedo L. Fruit Distillate from Tradition to Innovation . . . . . . . 151
Ludovina Galego, Vera Francisco, and Isabel Ratão
Freshness and Nutritional Composition of Several Species of Chilled
Seafood Marketed in Luanda (Angola) and in Faro (Portugal) . . . . . . . 158
Mirian Inocência de Sousa, Eduardo António Panguila,
Ana Cristina Figueira, and Eduardo Esteves
Evaluation of the Freshness and Shelf-Life of Fresh and Chilled
Mackerel (Scomber Spp.) and Horse Mackerel (Trachurus Spp.),
Marketed in Luanda (Angola) and in Faro (Portugal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Eduardo António Panguila, Mirian Inocência de Sousa, Eduardo Esteves,
and Ana Cristina Figueira
Formulating Snacks to Increase Pulses Intake by Children and the
Elderly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
M. Guerra, A. Pires, A. Nunes, A. Fernandes, A. Lopes, J. Costa,
O. Gonçalves, and C. Brandão
Healthy, Tasty and Sustainable Mediterranean Food. UMAMI Taste
and Polyphenols of Twiggy Glasswort (Salicornia ramosissima) . . . . . . . 191
Abílio Guerreiro, Carimo Rassal, Carlos M. Afonso, Ludovina Galego,
Manuel Serra, and Maria A. Rodrigues
Flavonoid Profiles of Arbutus unedo L. pomaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Maria A. Rodrigues, Ludovina Galego, and José P. Da Silva
Arbutus unedo L. Spirit: Does the Water Addition Before
Fermentation Matters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Ilda Caldeira, Filomena Gomes, and Goreti Botelho
Influence of Carob Pod (Ceratonia siliqua L.) Variety and Processing
on the Antioxidant Capacity and Total Phenolic Content of Carob
Liquors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Raquel Rodríguez-Solana, Miguel Dantas, and Anabela Romano
Estimation of Proximate Composition of Quinoa (Chenopodium
quinoa, Willd.) Flour by Near-Infrared Transmission Spectroscopy . . . . 227
Christian Encina-Zelada, Vasco Cadavez, Jorge Pereda,
Luz Gómez-Pando, Bettit Salvá-Ruíz, Martha Ibañez, José A. Teixeira,
and Ursula Gonzales-Barron
Contents xv

Assessment of the Microbiological Quality of Dried Aromatic Herbs


Commercialized in the Algarve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
M. Oliveira, D. Silva, and C. Quintas
Effects of Spoilage on Nitrogen and Carbon Stable Isotopes Signatures
of the Clam Ruditapes decussatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Jaime Aníbal, Cristina Veiga-Pires, and Eduardo Esteves
Microbiological Quality of Seeds Sold at Supermarkets in Southern
Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
D. Silva, M. Oliveira, and C. Quintas

Part III Innovative Solutions in Electric, Electronic and Computer


Systems
An Open Hardware Electronic Controller for Motorized Rotary
Injection Valves Used in Flow Injection Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
J. D. Mozo, J. I. Otero, E. Durán, and Jorge Semião
Analysis of Parameters that Affect Service Quality Indicators of a
Medium Voltage Feeder Belonging to a Substation Ensemble of the
Distributor Energisa Mato Grosso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Arnulfo Barroso de Vasconcellos, Saulo Roberto Sodré dos Reis,
Priscila Costa Nascimento, Teresa Irene Ribeiro de Carvalho Malheiro,
Reginato Domingos Scremim, Lourival Lippmann Junior,
Giancarlo Covolo Heck, Mateus Witter, Savio Ricardo Muniz Aires da
Costa, and Priscilla Cristina Rodrigues de Lanas
The Influence of Electric Loads Switching on the Reactive Flow of a
Voltage Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Arnulfo Barroso de Vasconcellos, Fabricio Parra Santilio,
José Mateus Rondina, Willian Gustavo dos Santos, Gabriela Nunes Lopes,
Gabriela Pessoa Campos, Igor Rossini Smerecki,
and Teresa Irene Ribeiro de Carvalho Malheiro
An Application of Interleaved Zeta-Buck-Boost Combination
Converter in Distributed Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
E. Durán, M. B. Ferrera, S. P. Litrán, A. J. Barragán, J. M. Enrique,
J. M. Andújar, Jorge Semião, Jânio Monteiro, and I. Martins
Portable Device for Touch, Taste and Smell Sensations in Augmented
Reality Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
J. D. P. Sardo, J. Semião, J. M. Monteiro, João A. R. Pereira,
Marco A. G. de Freitas, E. Esteves, and João M.F. Rodrigues
MIRAR: Mobile Image Recognition Based Augmented Reality
Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
João A. R. Pereira, Ricardo J. M. Veiga, Marco A. G. de Freitas,
J. D. P. Sardo, Pedro J. S. Cardoso, and João M. F. Rodrigues
xvi Contents

A Non-intrusive IoT System for the Detection of Faults in Internal


Combustion Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Sergey Nogin, Jorge Semião, and Jânio Monteiro
Analysis of the Influence of Water Trees Geometrics’ Shapes in the
Level of Degradation of the Power Cable’s Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Fernando N. de Lima, Marina T. de Sá, Igor R. Smerecki,
Bismarck C. Carvalho, and Antonio de Pádua Finazzi
Power-Delay Analysis for Subthreshold Voltage Operation . . . . . . . . . . 369
Hugo Cavalaria, Ruben Cabral, Jorge Semião, M. B. Santos, I. C. Teixeira,
and J. P. Teixeira
Performance Sensor for Subthreshold Voltage Operation . . . . . . . . . . . 387
R. Cabral, H. Cavalaria, J. Semião, M. B. Santos, I. C. Teixeira,
and J. P. Teixeira
Development of a Measurement System for Assessment of Bubble
Production of Seagrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
João Parente Silva, Diogo Nunes, Paulo Santos, Paulo Felisberto,
and António J. Silva

Part IV Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency


Evaluation of Predictive Based Electric Vehicle’s Charge Scheduling
Algorithms in Self-consumption Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Dario Cruz and Jânio Monteiro
Case Studies on Energy Retrofitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Fátima Farinha and Eurídice Cristo
Comparative Analysis of the Tracking Efficiency of a Maximum-
Power Point Tracker Based on Maximum-Power Point Resistance
Modeling Versus a Classic P&O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
J. M. Enrique, A. J. Barragán, E. Durán, J. M. Andújar, J. Ríos,
M. B. Ferrera, I. Martins, J. Monteiro, and J. Semião
Sustainable Energy Communities: Implementation Study of a Wind
Community in Algarve (Portugal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Francisco Calhau, Pedro Pintassilgo, and João Guerreiro
Promotion of Higher Penetration of Distributed PV Through Storage
for All (StoRES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
S. Afxentis, M. Florides, C. Yianni, V. Efthymiou, I. Papageorgiou,
G. Partasides, G. Papagiannis, G. Christoforidis, S. Mocci, A. Rubiu,
J. Oliveira, J. Sancho, N. Poize, T. Pristovnik, and G. E. Georghiou
Contents xvii

Part V Sustainable Planning and Construction, Maintenance and


Rehabilitation
Light Steel Framing Social Housing as a Sustainable Construction
Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Daiane Romio Duarte and Adnauer Tarquínio Daltro
Temporary Housing Made from Recycled Paper Tubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Luana Toralles Carbonari and Lisiane Ilha Librelotto
Damage Evaluation of Rammed Earth Walls Subjected to Offshore
Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
João M. C. Estêvão and Alfredo Braga
Sustainable Rehabilitation of an Old Building in Monchique . . . . . . . . . 521
Alexander Vailant da Silva, António Morgado André,
and Mónica Alexandra Moreira
Validation of Structural Reinforcement Solutions,
in Execution Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Patrícia Barros, Carlos Martins, and Jorge Renda
Earth construction in the Algarve—Past and future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Alfredo Manuel Braga, Miguel José Oliveira, Elisa M.J Silva,
and Luís Filipe Viana
New Modular Bridges Solutions—A sustainable Solution
to Connect People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
António André, José Fernandes, Igor Soares, and Pedro Pacheco
Green Facades and Living Walls: The Portuguese Experience . . . . . . . . 562
Andreia S. B. Cortês, João A. S. Almeida, Myriam Kanoun-Boulé,
and António Tadeu
Impact of Density on Thermal Conductivity of an Insulation Layer
Composed of Rice By-Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Beatriz Marques, João Almeida, Jorge de Brito, and António Tadeu

Part VI Water for Ecosystems and Societies


Public Participation: A Tool for Water Conservation and
Environmental Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Albertina Raposo, Anabela Durão, M. Manuela Morais,
and Lia Vasconcelos
Conceptual Approach for the Modernization of Sanitation
Systems in Peri-Urban Slums and Its Application in
Maputo City, Mozambique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Miguel Subtil, José Saldanha Matos, and Rui Ferreira Santos
xviii Contents

Treatment Optimization of a Landfill Leachate Testing a Flotation


Before the RO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
Tiago Barradas, Sanae A. El Gueriri, Nuno Gomes, Miguel Nunes,
Conceição Ribeiro, and Manuela Moreira da Silva
Exploration of Constructed Wetlands WWTPs: Seven Years of Águas
do Algarve Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Ana Pereira, Rui Fernandes, António Martins, and Joaquim Freire
Nickel and Nitrogen Phytoremediation by Cyperus involucratus:
Nickel Impairs Biomass Production and Nitrogen Removal . . . . . . . . . . 624
Manuela Moreira da Silva, and José A. Monteiro
The Best Destination to an Urban Treated Effluent in Algarve:
Aquifer Recharge or an Ecohydrological Solution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
Noémia Bento, Yasmina Ben Abdessadak, Joaquim Freire,
Elisa Maria J. da Silva, and Manuela Moreira da Silva
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Part I
Climate Changes and Environmental
Protection
The Environmental Protection
in South-American Integration Process:
A Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) Perspective

Isabela Battistello Espíndola1(&) and Celso Maran de Oliveira2


1
Departament of Geography, USP, São Paulo, Brazil
isaespindola@hotmail.com
2
UFSCar—Federal University of Sao Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil
celmaran@gmail.com

Abstract. The present article analyze how the environment is treated in


UNASUR, one of the latest regional integration projects in South America,
which currently presents itself as an important space for the resolution of
regional conflicts and establishment as a supranational institution to integrate the
countries of the region. For the theoretical development of this research, a
bibliography review process was made, acquiring the bibliographical references
and applicable legislations to the subject to compare the similarities and dif-
ferences between the member countries of UNASUR. The analysis begins with
the Constitutive Treaty of UNASUR, the principal legal system within the
Union, to see how the environment is considered in this regional integration
process. Then, it is studied the environmental legislation of each country that are
part of UNASUR. It is concluded that the Union recognizes that preservation of
the environment as fundamental for the very maintenance of life and to achieve
the development of its member states, highlighting the environmental debate as
a premise for the South American policies processes of the Union itself.

Keywords: UNASUR  Environment  Regional integration

1 Introduction

In recent years, South America has undergone several sociopolitical, economic and
cultural processes, which have been responsible for the path that the countries of the
region had follow. Among these processes, those that focus on regional integration
stands out. In other words, processes that led to the establishment of a type of society
among its member states, impacting on the intensification and development of regional
integration of the South American countries. These processes resulted in the emergence
of international organizations, legal entities under international law, such as MER-
COSUR (Common Market of the South), CAN (Andean Community of Nations) and
UNASUR (Union of South American Nations), one of the most recent attempts at
regional integration among almost all South American countries.

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018


A. Mortal et al. (eds.), INCREaSE,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70272-8_1
4 I.B. Espíndola and C.M. de Oliveira

UNASUR is considered one of the most important regional integration initiatives


[19], and it just started on 2008 with the signature of the Brasilia Treaty, aiming as a
regional organization to transcend all the previous attempts to integrate and converge
the South American countries [11, 22]. Besides being a privileged space for the con-
cerns of its members, the Union is a reference to political discussions, economic, social,
cultural and even environmental, representing a new phase of regional integration in
the South American region [32].
Concomitant with the intensification of the integration processes in South America,
the environmental issue has become more present in most international discussions
forums, especially after the decade of 1970–1980 with the Stockholm Conference in
1972 and the release of Brundtland report in 1987 [20]. According to Alves [2], Díaz
[11] and Gurski et al. [17], this environmental debate and, consequently, widespread
acceptance of the environment as a global theme is based on the recognition that
environmental damages have increased mainly due to the intensification of techno-
logical development, agricultural expansion, industrialization and population increase,
putting the protection of the human being at risk [15].
Ribeiro et al. [27] points out that this growing concern with environmental issues
has enabled the development of mechanisms to regulate the environment, resulting in
the signing of agreements, protocols and other documents that also affirm, such as
Gurski et al. [17] remembers, that the environment is linked to all aspects of life,
impacting on all sectors of society. In addition to this argument, there is a connection
between the environment and the security issue, a controversial issue on the defense
agenda of almost all nations [30] Senhoras et al. [31] points out that the South
American region, focus of this study, strategically places itself in the international
geopolitics of natural resources, and can become true arenas of wars due to its richness
of biodiversity and natural resources.
According to Altomonte and Sánchez [1], the conflicts over natural resources in the
South American region are mainly related to the exploitation of these resources, being
largely related to those classified as non-renewable. For those authors, this directly
affects the development of the countries of South America, affecting the quality of life
of the communities and directly affecting the environment, which is increasingly suf-
fering from the spread of these conflicts. As Lorenzetti and Carrion [20] point out, the
environment is a transboundary and global good, which allows the occurrence of
conflicts. Moreira [22] argues that in all processes of cooperation or regional inte-
gration, environmental protection must be a key factor, since it is not possible to
achieve sustainable economic development that does not include concern for the
environment. Oliveira [24] follows the same thinking, because it asserts that conflicts
and environmental damage need regional and global cooperation to be solved.
In this context, a new dynamic begins to be consolidated in the legal political space
of UNASUR, focusing on the environment as a central reality and paradigm for the
development of the Union. To Moraes and Júnior [21, p. 44] this feature “is linked to
the sustainable use of natural resources and necessarily goes through the
legal-constitutional regulation of the millenarian and symbiotic relationship between
the human being and Planet Earth”. It is also associated with the fact that South
America is rich in natural resources, harboring extensive reserves of minerals, water
and great biological diversity [22, 11].
The Environmental Protection in South-American Integration Process 5

It is true that there is a great debate about the environment, especially regarding to
the natural resources available in UNASUR, given that these are considered indis-
pensable tools for the successful realization of the development of the region, as well as
their access is an indispensable mean to guarantee all the fundamental rights of the
South American population. The discussion about natural resources should be a priority
in the public policy agenda of UNASUR countries, since the region has a large part of
the world reserve [32] and that the simple absence of policies that regulate the sus-
tainability of resource exploitation May entail a communal tragedy for the population
of the Member States of the Union.
Considering the scenario that the environmental issue must be key in all integration
processes and that the development of all nations is linked to the environmental pro-
tection, the present work, of theoretical nature, aims to discuss the representativeness of
the environment to UNASUR and its members.

2 Method

As the main objective of the present research is to discuss the representativeness of the
environment to UNASUR and its members, the traditional bibliography review process
was used to the theoretical development. The bibliographical references were acquired
at electronic sites of official public entities, verifying the applicable legislations related
to the subject, and consulting official data and reports of political and social activities of
UNASUR. The accomplishment of this research was done by raising data and com-
paring the results obtained in order to demonstrate and explain similarities and dif-
ferences between the member countries of UNASUR.

3 Results and Discussion

The concern about the environment and its problems are of a supranational nature, and
in recent years several international institutions and organizations have emerged to
meet this growing demand [27], which represents a difficult challenge, especially for
the countries of South America region, where natural resources act with great
emphasis, whether for the economy, well-being or growth [1, 12]. The regulation of the
environment has intensified since the recognition that environmental problems lacks
mechanisms of control and prevention that are developed jointly between the States
Oliveira [24].
Fonseca et al. [15] estimates that of the more than 500 existing international
environmental treaties, 320 refer to the regional ones, thus showing an intense multi-
plication of agreements and legal instruments related to the environment among the
regional regimes. In this scenario, the emergence of UNASUR may represent a pos-
sibility for a debate on environmental issues to be related to regional development,
since, as Domingues [12, p. 99] mentions, South American integration is a result of A
similar desire of the countries of the region to seek common public policies that benefit
them mutually, and that are based on the “exchange of experiences of the peoples in the
fields of the arts, education, health, safety and environmental protection.” In addition,
6 I.B. Espíndola and C.M. de Oliveira

unlike other economic and trade integration processes, UNASUR is recognized as a


forum for negotiating the most diverse South American political crises [23].
It was verified that South America is a region well benefited by its diverse reserves
of natural resources. While UNASUR covers practically the entire South American
continent (with the exception of the territories of French Guyana), it can be said that the
UNASUR region is therefore strategically geographically Senhoras [7, 31], because in
a global board in which natural resources become key pieces, the countries that hold the
world’s main reserves of these goods assume a great importance in determining this
competition game and constant conflict of interests [29].
However, this apparent environmental advantage that UNASUL has does not
exempt it from difficulties and problems related to the environment. According to the
European Commission for Development and Cooperation [14] and the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC 2014) UNASUR member
countries face serious environmental problems such as biodiversity loss, soil degra-
dation, conflicts, among others. Many of these problems are common between
UNASUR member countries, so this panorama of increasing environmental impacts
demonstrates that at a time of building and consolidating South American integration,
conserving natural environmental heritage should be a guiding principle, not only for
its magnificence, but also for its influence and effect in all UNASUR countries. As
Rodrigues [28] argues, there is, therefore, a need for the UNASUR countries to couple
up environmental issues to other topics of interest to UNASUR, such as security,
telecommunications, intellectual property, among others. In addition to this internal
demand, there is an entire international context that asks for new positions of the States,
one that includes the environment in the institutional and legal framework of each
country.
When analyzing the preamble of the Constitutive Treaty of UNASUR, it is verified
that the member states of the Union affirm their “determination to build a South
American identity and citizenship and to develop an integrated regional space in the
political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, energy and infrastructure dimen-
sions” (UNASUR 2008, p. 7). The preamble is also the first place in which the member
states ratify that among the guiding principles of integration they aim to include “re-
duction of asymmetries and harmony with nature for a sustainable development”
(UNASUR 2008, p. 7). The next mention of the environment is presented in the second
objective of the Treaty, which elucidates that the Union is anxious to build an inte-
gration space that prioritizes the environment. Another antecedent related to the
environment, its protection and development is exposed in the specific objectives of the
Constitutive Treaty.
Based on these mentions, it can be inferred that since the Constitutive Treaty of
UNASUR, the member states consider that the environment is a fundamental condition
to accelerate and expand the integration processes of the region, as well as the
achievement of regional development. However, it should be mentioned that, like the
Constitutive Treaty of MERCOSUR (Treaty of Asunción), the Constitutive Treaty of
UNASUR does not discipline the preservation of the environment in a specific way,
since it does not establish the necessary paths to follow in order to preserve the
environment, nor the environmental legal rules that ensure the conditions to safeguard
the environmental domain.
The Environmental Protection in South-American Integration Process 7

Since it does not stablish common legal standards for environmental preservation, it
can be concluded that the Treaty does not prioritize the environment, but the Treaty
considers the preservation of the environment as fundamental to the integration pro-
cess. In this way, the environment is presented as a concern both related to its
preservation and to a more effective use of the environmental assets found in the
region. Díaz [11] also presents this possibility, because for the author the inclusion of
environmental issues within UNASUR may have been influenced by commercial and
economic requirements.
The countries that are part of UNASUR introduced the protection of the environ-
ment in their respective Constitutions, demonstrating that it is an indispensable factor
for the integration processes that occur or may occur in the South American continent
[11]. According to Bruckmann [6] this movement is favored in the region as a result of
the development of visions committed to the preservation of nature according to the
principles of the original peoples of the region, who value a deep connection between
the land and the community.
In the Table 1 it is listed the main texts in the Constitutions of UNASUR members
that refer to the environment, its protection and the duty of the State to ensure that
nature is protected.
The Brazilian environmental legislation, for example, is considered “one of the
most advanced in the world” [18, p. 155], while Ecuador was the first country to
guarantee constitutional rights to nature [8]. For Moraes and Júnior [21], Ecuador and
Bolivia serve as perfect examples of the recognition of the environment as a common
and unprotected patrimony. According to these authors, the Constitutions of Ecuador
(2008) and Bolivia [4] reflect the construction of an environmental paradigm in the
region, providing for “the right of the population to live in a healthy and ecologically
balanced environment that ensures sustainability and good living” [21, p. 60] and
declaring that it is in the public interest to preserve the environment, as well as to
conserve ecosystems, protect biodiversity and prevent environmental damage. In
addition to Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia, the other members of UNASUR also have
their respective laws and regulations regarding environmental protection.
It is important to remember that in the last fifty years all UNASUR member
countries have promulgated new Constitutions or reformed existing ones, including
specific chapters for the environment. The existence of environmental laws and policies
within each UNASUR member country reflects that the countries’ environmental
patrimony has been raised to a matter of national interest, necessary for the protection
of human dignity and a condition for guaranteeing socio-economic development.
Although countries have their own environmental laws, Campos [7] argues that
there is still a lack of common public policies for UNASUR countries that aims to
protect, preserve and use the resources in South America, as the one that exist to
regulate and price products or services from these shared environments. In the same
line of reasoning, Castro et al. [8] defend that in the absence of an integrated program
between States, as well as the lack of a multidisciplinary dialogue, and the reduction of
the discrepancy between knowledge and its application. According to Senhoras et al.
[31] the valuation of natural resources based on a geopolitical and strategic connotation
is still preponderant, since a scarce natural resource becomes a key piece of disputes
and conflicts. In other words, a conflicting component for the States and other actors of
8 I.B. Espíndola and C.M. de Oliveira

Table 1. The environment in the Constitutions of UNASUR members


Country Main text Year
Argentina Article 41—All inhabitants enjoy the right to a healthy, balanced 1994
environment, suitable for human development and for productive activities
to meet present needs without compromising those of future generations;
And have a duty to preserve it
Bolivia Article 33—People have a right to a healthy, protected and balanced 2009
environment. The exercise of this right should enable individuals and
collectives of present and future generations as well as other living beings
to develop in a normal and permanent manner
Brazil Article 225—Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced 1988
environment, a common good used by the people and essential to a healthy
quality of life, imposing on the Government and the community the duty to
defend and preserve it for present and future generations
Chile Article 19, §88°—The right to live in a pollution-free environment. It is the 1980
duty of the State to ensure that this right is not affected and to protect the
preservation of nature. The law may establish specific restrictions on the
exercise of certain rights or freedoms to protect the environment
Colombia Article 79—Everyone has the right to a healthy environment. The law will 1991
guarantee the participation of the community in the decisions that can affect
it
Ecuador Article 14—It recognizes the right of the population to live in a healthy and 2008
ecologically balanced environment, which guarantees sustainability and
good living, sumak kawsay. It is declared of public interest the preservation
of the environment, conservation of ecosystems, biodiversity and the
integrity of the country’s genetic heritage, prevention of environmental
damage and recovery of degraded natural areas
Guyana Article 36—In the interests of the present and future generations, the State 1980
will protect and make rational use of its land, mineral and water resources,
as well as its fauna and flora, and will take all appropriate measures to
conserve and improve the environment
Paraguay Article 7—Everyone has the right to live in a healthy and ecologically 1992
balanced environment. The preservation, conservation, recomposition and
improvement of the environment, as well as their reconciliation with
integral human development, are priority objectives of social interest. These
purposes will guide legislation and relevant government policy
Peru Article 2, §22—Everyone has the right to peace, tranquility, the enjoyment 1993
of free time and to be free, as well as to enjoy a balanced and adequate
environment for the development of his life
Suriname Article 6—The social objectives of the State shall aim at the identification 1987
of the to ever more expand those potentialities
Uruguay Article 47—The protection of the environment is of general interest. 2004
Persons must refrain from any act that causes serious predation, destruction
or pollution to the environment. The law shall regulate this provision and
may provide for penalties for offenders
(continued)
The Environmental Protection in South-American Integration Process 9

Table 1. (continued)
Country Main text Year
Venezuela Article 127—It is a right and duty of each generation to protect and 1999
maintain the environment for the benefit of itself and the future world.
Every person has the individual and collective right to enjoy life and a safe,
healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The State will protect the
environment, biological diversity, genetic resources, ecological processes,
national parks and natural monuments and other areas of particular
ecological importance. The genome of living beings can not be patented,
and the law that refers to bioethical principles will regulate matter
Source prepared by the authors [3] [4] [5] [9] [10] [13] [16] [25] [26] [33] [35] [36]

the international relations. Among these positions, Domingues [12] argues that envi-
ronmental concern can be understood by its fundamental aspect for life, or by means of
an economic side, approaching the defense of Senhoras et al. [31], linked to the scarce
nature of resources. In the case of the South American countries, Domingues [12, p. 93]
includes this economic logic as justification for the concern for the environment and
also for the “propulsion of regional integration” itself.
Between the recent experiences of UNASUR in environmental matters, it can be
said that these are incipient on the subject. For Castro et al. [8] and Campos [7], the
South American region needs a multidisciplinary, inclusive and adaptive environmental
program, aimed at the development of true environmental governance between coun-
tries. However, UNASUR reveals itself as a relevant legal space to develop themes on
the international environmental agenda, fundamental for the evolution of the integra-
tion process at the regional level, mainly because it involves and cherishes cooperation
in several areas, and has an ideological pluralism that past integration processes did not
have it [23]. Thus, for Castro et al. [8], it would be possible to enhance a greater
understanding of the region’s environmental challenges by adapting local and regional
specificities.

4 Conclusion

Since the 1970s environmental issues have become more present in international
relations, increasingly evidencing that environmental protection is directly connected
with the survival of the human being. Concern about environmental issues, respect for
nature and the quest for sustainable development have become part of States agendas,
being grounded and protected by bilateral, regional and international agreements and
treaties. This finding has resulted in important changes over the last few years, opening
up space for new policies to be developed in favor of environmental governance in
order to overcome the environmental challenges and social and environmental
dilemmas that constantly arise in everyday life.
The elaboration of this article analyzed how the environment is included in the
construction and conception of UNASUR, one of the most recent integration processes
10 I.B. Espíndola and C.M. de Oliveira

in South America, addressing its representativeness to the member countries and to the
Union itself. Initially it was discussed the relevance strategic importance of the region’s
natural resources and the importance of preserving the environment for the region’s full
advancement and development. It has been demonstrated that UNASUR does not have
an exclusively commercial and economic agenda, presenting from its birth diverse
approaches, such as social, political, cultural and environmental. Despite being a recent
integration process, UNASUR does not qualify as a simple sum between the former
regional integration processes of South America.
The analysis made it possible to conclude that the environment is presented as one
of the objectives of this regional integration process, as it is mentioned in the Con-
stitutive Treaty of UNASUR, and its conservation is one of the premises for the full
scope of regional integration. It was not the purpose of this paper to judge or even
analyze the common and particular reasons that led to the introduction of the envi-
ronment in the Constitutive Treaty of UNASUR, but rather to emphasize that the Union
recognizes that preservation of the environment as fundamental for the very mainte-
nance of life and to achieve the development of its member states, highlighting the
environmental debate as a premise for the South American policies processes of the
Union itself.
It is recognized that environmental protection has gained significance as a public
policy in all countries. Though, it is still imperative that the States begin to exercise
their obligation to guarantee the best living conditions for their population, involving
all the necessary actors to reach consensus and to establish the necessary agreements.
UNASUR has conditions for this to happen, coordinating the interests and actions to
face the threats, making the development agenda compatible with the protection of the
environment. However, for this to happen, the environmental policy among UNASUR
member countries must be clear and precise, not presenting any differences in the
environmental issue to avoid any possible instabilities and conflicts due to the absence
of harmonious and common norms concerning to the theme, thus making environ-
mental protection effective.

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Renewing Terraces and Drystone
Walls of Algarvian Barrocal: Cultural
and Touristic Values

Marta Marçal Gonçalves1(&) , Gonçalo Prates1,2,3 ,


and Stefan Rosendahl4
1
Instituto Superior de Engenharia, Universidade do Algarve, Campus da Penha,
Faro 8005-139, Portugal
mgoncal@ualg.pt
2
Centro de Estudos Geográficos, IGOT, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon,
Portugal
3
Laboratorio de Astronomía, Geodesia y Cartografía, Universidad de Cádiz,
Cádiz, Spain
4
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande 376,
Lisbon 1749-024, Portugal

Abstract. This paper aims to enhance the functions of terraces and drystone
walls as structural elements and distinctive factors of the traditional rural zone
known as the barrocal of the Algarve, south of Portugal. In fact, such elements
define the character of the landscape that forms the background of a traditional
touristic region along the coast. The core of this paper will be the knowledge of
construction processes, spatial distribution, and hydrological, ecological, eco-
nomic and social functions, once it is quite necessary for the Algarve region.
Some projects and studies have been developed in the Mediterranean context,
but there is not enough research on this subject in the south of Portugal. Sec-
ondly, the social meaning, or acknowledgement of the landscape characterized
by drystone wall structures, will be the key for finding real possibilities of
renewing the terraces. Therefore, the landscape will be assumed as a common
good. In this subject, we take into account the potential role and sensibility of
tourists and resident population. Beyond static patrimonial statutes, we can
design some practical possibilities to enhance plastic features and new uses
leading to an acknowledgement of the Algarvian drystone wall structure,
referred as a part of Mediterranean coastal landscapes. Some examples that can
add cultural and touristic value could be: recreation areas for urbanites, new
cooperative forms of agriculture, hobby farming, workshops about harvesting
traditional products, circuits and pedestrian paths, and interchange with similar
Mediterranean regions defining broader circuits.

Keywords: Drystone walls  Heritage  Algarve  Portugal

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018


A. Mortal et al. (eds.), INCREaSE,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70272-8_2
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
atmosphere of mystery; as it was this mysterious element that
complicated the situation, some explanation of it is necessary.
Sidi Mohammed Ben Ali Senussi, the founder of the Senussi
dervishes, while travelling, in 1830, from Morocco to Mecca,
divorced his wife, Menna, who had proved unfruitful, with the result
that, being wifeless, some natives of Biskra took compassion upon
him and presented him with an Arab slave girl. This woman is
supposed to have borne him a son—Sidi Ahmed el Biskri—who
played a somewhat prominent part later on in the history of the
Senussia. By another wife he had a son, Mohammed, whom he
declared on his deathbed to be the long-expected Mahdi.
These two half-brothers, Mohammed and Ahmed, are said to
have borne a striking resemblance to each other.
An old Senussi that I met in Dakhla, who professed to have seen
them both, said that not only were they of the same height and
figure, but that even their voices and manner were so much alike
that no one could distinguish between them.
There seems to be little doubt that when the Senussi Mahdi did
not wish to interview a visitor himself, he sent his double, Sidi
Ahmed, to do so instead. This deception was made easy by the fact
that the Senussi Mahdi, during the latter part of his life, was a veiled
prophet who concealed his face whenever he appeared in public by
covering his head with a shawl; it is reported that he never even
showed his face to his most intimate followers.
The interviews that he accorded to his visitors were few and
difficult to obtain. They were invariably short—the Mahdi himself
timing the interview with his watch—and the conversation, so far as
he was concerned, consisting of a few questions, followed, if
necessary, by a decision; his remarks being made in the low dreamy
voice of one who received his inspirations from on high—a method
of procedure that could hardly fail to impress, as it was evidently
intended to do, the credulous followers who came to see him with his
extreme sanctity and importance.
This Mahdi was reported to have died some years prior to my visit
to Dakhla, and although news of the happenings in the inaccessible
parts of North Africa is apt to be unreliable, there was little doubt that
he had.
The native version was that he had gone off into the desert and
disappeared; but probably he only followed the example of Sheykh
Shadhly, the founder of the great Shadhlia sect, and of several other
noted Moslem saints, and went off into the desert to die, when he felt
his end approaching.
There was, however, a pretty general feeling in the desert that the
last of him had not been seen—an impression that the Senussi
endeavoured to keep alive by the vague statement that he was
“staying with Allah,” and hints that he might at any moment reappear.
There was never much love lost between the Senussia and the
Turks. About a year before my visit to the desert, a Turkish official
had been sent down to Kufara Oasis, with orders to formally assert
the Sultan’s authority over the district, and to hoist the Turkish flag.
The fanatical inhabitants, however, had hauled down the flag, torn it
to ribbons, trampled it under foot, severely beaten the Turkish officer
and expelled him from the oasis, so the annexation of any part of the
Turkish Empire would have been a scheme well calculated to appeal
to the Senussi.
Ahmed el Biskri—the Mahdi’s double—was also reported to have
died. But nothing would have been easier than for the leading
Senussi sheykhs to find someone to personate their veiled prophet
on his return from “staying with Allah,” and to have used the
immense prestige that their puppet would have obtained amongst
their credulous followers to increase the influence of the sect, to
attract new followers and to work upon their fanaticism. The
“reappearance” of the Senussi Mahdi in this way is still a possibility
that is worth remembering.
News as to the doings of the leaders amongst the Senussia living
in the wilds of the Libyan Desert has always been very difficult to
obtain; but at that time they were reported in Dakhla to be
somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tibesti, which lay to the south-
west of Dakhla Oasis, in the direction of the road we had been
following, and it seemed likely, if they were really contemplating a
descent upon Egypt, that they might attempt, if water existed upon
this road, to make their way along it into Dakhla, and so on to the
Nile Valley.
With these considerations in view, I decided to make another trip
into the desert before returning to Egypt, to see if we could not
manage to reach the well, or oasis, to which the road ran, and to
ascertain if the road we had found was feasible for a large body of
men.
I sent a note to one of the British officials I had met in Cairo to let
the authorities have news of the rumoured invasion, for what it was
worth, and set to work to prepare for the journey.
I had not calculated on staying out in the desert so late in the
season, so my provisions had almost run out. The few tins of
preserved meat that remained had all suffered considerably from the
heat and were not fit for use. I had, however, still a few tins of
sardines, which in spite of their pronounced tinniness were still quite
edible, and a number of emergency rations, which had not suffered
in the least from the heat. These with a large skin of Arab flour and a
few pounds of mulberry jam, which Dahab made from some fruit that
the good people of Rashida sent me, provided ample food for
another journey.
After a few more days spent in feeding up the camels and
restoring them to a suitable condition for a long desert journey during
the hot weather, Qway thoroughly inspected the beasts, dug his
thumb into their quarters to test the consistency of their flesh,
expressed himself satisfied with the distended state of their tummies,
buttered the red camel again for mange, and then, as he declared
the beasts to be in first-rate condition, we prepared to start.
CHAPTER X

T HE discovery of the five green bushes that we had made on our


last journey, insignificant as it may appear, proved of the greatest
value to us.
I calculated that by the time we reached the bushes we should
have about consumed a camel-load of water and grain; so by taking
with us just sufficient firewood to last us till we reached them, and
then, loading up the unloaded camel with fuel from the bushes, we
should be able to devote yet another camel to the water and grain—
so on this journey we had three extra baggage beasts, in addition to
my hagin, loaded with these indispensable commodities. We hoped
in consequence to be able to cover considerably more ground than
on our previous attempts.
I had already surveyed the route, and as a second mapping of the
road was unnecessary, we were able to travel a great part of the
time by night, when the temperature was at its lowest. By rapid
marches we were able to reach the pass leading down into Khalil’s
“Valley of the Mist” on the fifth day.
With hardly an exception, the numerous rocky hills that rose
above the plateau were so shaped that it was quite impossible to find
any shade under them during the middle of the day, so we were
obliged to rig up such shelter as we could by stretching blankets or
empty sacks from one water-tank to another, or by supporting them
from any framework that could be rigged up on the spur of the
moment. Qway usually tied one end of his blanket on to the
pommels of his saddle and then stretched the other end over a tank
or two that he placed on end, or else secured it on to his gun, which
he fixed up as a kind of tent pole.
On descending from the plateau into the “Valley of the Mist,” we
continued in the same line of march. The floor of the depression
proved excellent going, consisting as it did of hard smooth sand,
containing a sprinkling of rounded pebbles; there was hardly even a
ripple to break the evenness of its surface. Here and there a few
stones showed up above the sand that covered the remainder of the
surface; from these it was clear that we were still on the same
Nubian sandstone formation as the plateau. In one place we found a
huge slab of the stone propped up to form an ’alem, and here and
there we came across white pulverised bones, that from their size
must have belonged to some camel that in the distant past had died
in that part of the desert, all showing that we were still on the line of
the road we had been following.

OLD ’ALEM, “VALLEY OF THE MIST.”

Soon after descending into the depression we sighted a double


peaked hill almost straight ahead of us that, as it stood completely
alone in the midst of the level sandy plain, promised to give a wide
view from its summit. On sighting the hill, I suggested to Qway, who
was riding alongside of me, that it might be a good plan to send Abd
er Rahman to climb to the top, to see if anything were to be seen.
Qway looked at the hill doubtfully for a moment. “I think that hill is
a long way off,” he said. “We shall not reach it before noon.”
But distances on these level plains, where there are no natural
features with which the size of an object can be compared, are often
extraordinarily deceptive—even Qway with all his experience was
often taken in by them. We had not reached that hill by noon, and
though we continued our march for two hours in the afternoon, at the
end of the day it appeared to be no nearer—if anything it looked
farther off than it had done in the morning. As there was nothing
whatever to survey, we set off again at half-past eleven that night,
and continued our journey towards the hill till four next morning.
Rather Thin.
Long journeys in the hot weather on a short water supply are very exhausting to the
camels; the camel drivers did not consider this one to be in a very bad condition. (p. 181).

But at dawn the hill appeared to be no nearer, and as we


continued our march it seemed actually to recede and became
noticeably smaller.
Qway was completely puzzled by it, and declared that it must be
an afrit. As we continued to advance, however, it suddenly appeared
to come nearer; then after a time it receded again.
Qway seemed seriously to imagine there was something
supernatural about it. The men, too, evidently began to think that
they had got into a haunted part of the desert, for they stopped their
usual chaffing and singing and trudged along in stolid silence. It
certainly was rather uncanny.
It was an unusually bad piece of desert. The scorching noontide
sun caused the whole horizon to dance with mirage, and it was
impossible to tell where the horizon ended and the sky began—they
seemed to merge gradually into each other—strips of the desert
hanging some degrees above the horizon in the sky, while large
patches of sky were brought down below the horizon, producing the
appearance of sheets of water—the Bahr esh Shaytan, or “devil’s
lake,” of the natives.
But that hill was no mirage. We reached it at noon on the third day
after we had sighted it, and it proved to be about four hundred and
twenty feet high above the plain, and not an optical illusion. On
account of the peculiar way in which it seemed first to recede as we
approached it, and then to leap suddenly towards us, only to recede
again, the men gave it the name of the “Jebel Temelli Bayed”—“the
ever distant hill”—which they afterwards abbreviated to Jebel el
Bayed. I was for a long time puzzled by the way in which it seemed
to alter its position as it was approached; but came to the conclusion
that this effect was produced by the fact that the road, by which we
were travelling over the desert, though apparently of a dead level,
was in reality slightly undulating, while the hill itself was of a shape
that merged very gradually into the surrounding desert.
Consequently, while standing in a position such as A (Fig. 2), on
the top of one of the undulations, we were able to see over the next
ridge, E, down to the line A, B (Fig. 1 and 2) almost to the foot of the
hill. When, however, we got into a trough between two of the
undulations, as at C, we could only see the portion of the hill
showing above the line C, D (Figs. 1 and 2), and it consequently
appeared to be much smaller, and so more distant, than when seen
from A. But on reaching the top of the ridge E, the whole hill down to
its base came into view, rapidly increasing in size, and so appearing
to leap forward, as we ascended the slope from C to E.
DIAGRAM OF JEBEL EL BAYED.

I explained this view to Qway, who at once accepted it as correct,


and was evidently much relieved, for, as he half laughingly admitted,
he was beginning to believe that the hill had been enchanted, and
did not like having anything to do with it.
From the top of the hill a very wide view was obtainable. Towards
the north, the pass by which we had descended from the plateau,
was invisible, owing to a rise in the intervening ground; but farther to
the west, the southern cliff of the plateau was visible and the surface
of the plateau itself in this direction could also be seen, showing that
it sloped fairly sharply towards the south; but this part of it seemed to
be much less thickly studded with hills than the portions over which
we had travelled.
Towards the north-west I saw a line of sand dunes running over
the tableland, and the point where they came over the scarp, and
their continuation on the floor of the depression could also be seen
through my glass. They evidently passed some little distance to the
west of us.
The cliff of the plateau became much lower towards the west, and
looked as though it were going to die out altogether, and the
tableland to become gradually merged into the floor of the
depression; but the view in this direction was cut off by a long range
of hills, with a very jagged outline, that ran from north to south from
the neighbourhood of the scarp, and hid most of the view of the
horizon between north-west and south-west.
South of this range of hills was a vast plain of open sandy desert,
falling towards the west, and so far as we could see containing no
sand dunes, but here and there a single low rocky hill.
Right ahead of us to the south-west, standing alone in this sandy
plain, about two days’ journey away, was a very conspicuous hill, or
cluster of hills, with a jagged skyline. This broken outline, and that of
the range of hills to the west, may possibly indicate a change in the
geological formation. The hills of Nubian sandstone to be seen on
the plateau and in the surrounding desert were, with a few
exceptions, all of certain definite types—flat topped, domed or
conical—and the irregular skyline was only rarely to be seen in the
Nubian sandstone formation.
The desert remained of the same monotonous level, sandy nature
all round from south through east to nearly north, though on this side
of our position the isolated rocky hills appeared to be rather more
plentiful. It was an extraordinarily featureless landscape. From our
exalted position we must have been able to see without difficulty for
well over fifty miles in almost all directions, but there was hardly
anything to go down on a map. I took a few bearings, and jotted
them down and minutely examined the rest of the landscape through
my glasses to see if there was anything to note. In about five
minutes I had collected all the available material for mapping about
ten thousand square miles of desert, and left the greater part of it
blank—there was practically nothing to record.
When I had finished, Qway borrowed my glass and gazed through
it for some time, declaring that it was useless to look for water
anywhere near in that part of the desert as it all lay at a very high
level, adding that we were getting near the country of the Bedayat,
and had better return to Mut.
It was clear that what he said was right. There was no chance of
finding water for another three days, and we had not got sufficient
supplies with us to go so far, so, very reluctantly, I climbed down
from the hill and prepared for our return journey.
Before starting, I had a look round our camp. Close to the foot of
the hill I found an ’alem and one of the low semicircular walls of
loose stone that the bedawin erect at their halting places as wind
shelters; so if any further proof was necessary, that we were still on
the line of the road we had been following, these relics of a bygone
traffic appeared to settle the point conclusively.
One’s beasts during a hot weather journey in the desert require
rather careful management. We left Mut on the 3rd of May. On the
8th we gave the camels a drink, and afterwards I sent Abd er
Rahman back to Mut with all the empty tanks, telling him to fill them
up and return again along our tracks to meet us on our homeward
journey. In the event of his not meeting us, he was to leave the tanks
behind him and return at once to Mut to await our arrival, taking with
him only just enough water for himself for the return journey. The
latter instructions were designed to provide for the contingency of
our finding water out in the desert and continuing our journey.
We reached Jebel el Bayed on the 12th May, and, as the camels’
drink on the 8th had not been nearly enough to satisfy them, the
poor beasts were already showing obvious signs of want of water.
Even as far back as the 9th, two of them had left part of their feeds
uneaten; on the 10th all of them had done so, and two of them had
refused their food altogether—a very bad sign. Qway had then
wanted me to return; but in spite of their obvious thirst, the camels
seemed to be going strongly, and I had made up my mind to see
what was to be seen from the top of that hill, before returning, even if
we had to run for it afterwards; so, strongly against his advice, and in
defiance of his statement that I should lose two or three of the beasts
and should not be able to get back if I went on, I had risked it.

OLD WIND SHELTER, “VALLEY OF THE MIST.”

But it was clear that the camels were at their last gasp for want of
water, and the two weaker ones could hardly even stand. There was
only one way of getting those beasts back to Dakhla, and that was to
keep just enough water in the tanks to take the men back to our
rendezvous with Abd er Rahman, and to give the camels all the rest.
This had the double advantage of not only quenching their thirst, but
also of lightening considerably the loads that the poor brutes had to
carry; but it spelt disaster if Abd er Rahman failed to turn up.
In travelling in the desert during the hot weather, when the whole
caravan was on a limited water ration, I usually took the occasion of
watering the beasts to have a bath. The water was poured into a
folding canvas arrangement, in which—without using any soap—I
performed my ablutions, and the camels were allowed to drink out of
it afterwards. As a camel is not a fastidious beast in his diet, the
arrangement worked very well. But on this occasion I was deprived
of my wash, as, owing to the necessity of reducing the weight of the
baggage, I had been obliged to leave the bath behind in Mut.
The difficulty of keeping oneself properly clean on a limited water
supply constituted perhaps the greatest trial in a desert journey. The
baths I obtained when the camels drank were a great luxury, but my
washing in between their drinks was of the scantiest possible
description. The method that I found made the water go farthest was
to scrub myself clean with the moistened corner of a towel and rub
myself vigorously with the drier part of it afterwards. Sometimes the
supply was insufficient for even this economical method. I then
usually retired behind a rock, stripped and rolled in the sand like a
camel. This, though not so cleansing as the damp towel method,
was distinctly refreshing.
We got what rest we could during the early part of the evening,
and got off about two in the morning, marched throughout the night
until we halted for the midday rest. We were off again at five in the
evening and marched, with only one halt near midnight, to eat a
meal, till nine o’clock on the following morning, by which time we had
reached the top of the Bab es Sabah. We had then had enough of it
and camped till sunset, when we resumed our journey and marched
throughout the night till dawn.
The stars in the clear desert atmosphere shine with a brilliance
altogether unknown in our more northerly latitudes. The Milky Way
appears as a filmy cloud, and is so distinct that, when first I saw it in
the desert, I took it to be one. We were practically on the line of the
tropic of Cancer, and, in that southerly latitude, many stars appeared
that never show above the horizon in England, conspicuous among
them being that rather overrated constellation the Southern Cross.
Wasm, or Brand, of the Senussia.
Each Arab tribe has its own camel brand. The Wasm of the Senussi
Dervishes is the word “Allah” branded on the neck. (p. 24).

Breadmaking in the Desert.


The bedawin roll their dough into a thin cake and toast it on an iron plate.
(p. 207).
Sieving the Baby.
This baby is being shaken in a sieve, containing grain, etc., while a
woman beats with a pestle on a mortar, to ensure that he shall not starve
when he grows up or be afraid of noise, and shall become a fast runner.
(p. 249.)

The bedawin Arabs, owing to their making so much use of the


stars as guides during their night journeys, know them all, and have
names, and often stories, to tell concerning them. The Pole Star, the
one that they use most as a guide, is known as the Jidi, or he-goat,
which the stars of the Great Bear—the Banat Nash, or daughters of
Nash, are trying to steal, being prevented from doing so by the two
ghaffirs (watchmen), which are known to us also—perhaps from this
same Arab legend that has been forgotten—as the “guardians” of the
Pole Star. In some parts the Great and Little Bear are known as the
she-camel and her foal. The Pleiades are called “the daughters of
the night.” Orion is a hunter with his belt and sword, who is followed
by his dog (canis major), and is chasing a bagar el wahash (wild
bull), i.e. the constellation of Taurus. Much of our astronomy
originally came, I believe, from the Arabs, and many of the stars are
still called by their Arabic names, such for instance as Altair, the bird,
the name by which it is still known to the bedawin.
Shooting stars, which in the desert often blaze out with a brilliance
difficult to realise by dwellers in a misty climate like England, are
believed by Moslems to be arrows shot by the angels at the evil
spirits to drive them away when they steal up to eavesdrop at the
gate of heaven.
There are always certain events in a journey that impress
themselves more indelibly on one’s memory than those perhaps of
greater consequence, and that hurried return to the plateau was one
of them.
Qway, as usual, rode alone fifty yards ahead of the caravan. I
rode behind with the rest of the men, dozing occasionally in my
saddle, and, in between, turning over in my mind some rather knotty
problems—whether the Senussi were really coming; whether we
were likely to run into them before reaching Mut; whether an oasis
was to be seen from the top of that farthest hill, and, most frequently
of all, whether we should meet Abd er Rahman.
Occasionally cold shivers would chase each other up and down
my back when the idea occurred to me that perhaps the camels I
had sent with him might go lame, or that something else might
happen to stop him from coming out with the water that we so badly
needed.
To tell the truth, I was distinctly doubtful whether the caravan
would hold out until we reached him; for in pushing out so far with
such a limited amount of water at the worst season of the year, and
in sending him back single-handed to bring out fresh supplies, I
knew I had broken the first rules in desert travelling, by running a
serious risk without water supply.
A journey on a fine night in the desert is always an experience to
remember, and the almost perfect silence in which we marched
made it more impressive than usual. Hardly a sound was to be heard
beyond the gentle shuffling of the camels’ feet on the smooth sand,
the soft clinking of their chain bridles, the occasional creak of a rope
against the baggage, and the hollow splashing of the water to and
fro in the half empty tanks. Now and then, when the camels
slackened their pace, Musa would shout out to them, his voice
breaking the silence with startling suddenness, or he would break
into one of the wild shrill songs that the camel drivers sometimes
sing to their charges, and the beasts would at once quicken their
pace.
A long night march seems interminable. The slow, monotonous
stride of the camels, regular as the beat of a pendulum, produces an
almost mesmeric effect as one plods along, mile after mile, hour
after hour, beside them over the dreary waste of starlit desert.
The most trying part of a night march is the period just before
dawn. Then one’s vitality is at its lowest, and one feels most the
fatigue of the long night’s journey. A great silence falls over the
caravan at these times. The whole desert seems dead and
unutterably dull and dreary, and nothing at all seems in the least
worth while. As the dawn approaches, the desert appears to stir in its
sleep. A slight freshness comes into the air. A thin breeze—the dawn
wind—springs up from the limitless waste, steals softly whispering
over the sands and passes sighing into the distance. The false dawn
creeps up into the sky, and then, with a suddenness that is almost
startling, the sun springs up above the horizon, the elongated
shadows of the long line of camels appear as “purple patches” on
the level sand of the desert, like those puzzle writings that have to be
looked at edgeways before they can be read, and one realises all of
a sudden that another scorching day has dawned at last.
CHAPTER XI

T WO days after leaving the pass on to the plateau we reached


our rendezvous with Abd er Rahman, where to our intense relief
we found him waiting for us.
We had all, I think, been dreading that something might happen to
prevent him from bringing out our indispensable water supply. To me,
at any rate, the possibility that he might fail us had been something
of a nightmare—when one is feeling a bit run down by the hot
weather and unsuitable food, problems of this description are apt to
assume quite alarming proportions, especially in the long night
marches in the hour or two before the dawn.
To make quite sure of our water supply, I sent Abd er Rahman
back again to Mut with all the empty tanks, telling him to come out
again to meet us as soon as possible.
Our supplies of all descriptions were running short. Our firewood
was almost completely consumed, our last match had been struck
and, as my flint and steel were lost, getting a light was a matter of
considerable difficulty. A fire was not only a necessity for the men to
cook their bread in, but the whole caravan—with the exception of
Qway—were confirmed smokers, and if a native is deprived of his
tobacco he becomes discontented at once.
Musa had solved the difficulty of getting a light the evening before
by tearing a piece of rag from his cotton clothing, rubbing it in
gunpowder, and then firing it from his gun. Qway rushed forward,
picked it up still smouldering, put it into a handful of dried grass
which he had brought with him, fanned it into a flame, and by that
means succeeded in lighting a fire from the last of our fuel.
The weather was very hot in the middle of the day, and I was
considerably amused at the expedients that the men adopted to
mitigate their discomfort. In the morning and afternoon, during the
hot hours, they all tried to walk as close as they could to the camels,
so as to be in their shadows. But when it became nearly noon, and
the sun was almost vertically overhead, they threw the tails of their
long shirts over their heads, which not only acted to some extent as
a protection to their necks and spines, but also, by deflecting the
wind, caused a draught to blow down their backs.
The men, hungry and surly, tramped along in silence for two or
three hours. Then Qway, who as usual was riding ahead of the
caravan, suddenly made his camel kneel, sprang to the ground and
sang out to the others to join him. I called out to know what was the
matter.

ABD ER RAHMAN’S WIND SCOOP.

“Tahl,” he shouted, “Tahl ya farah. Allah akbar. Allah kerim. El


hamdl’illah. Barr.” (“Come, come. Oh, joy! Allah is most great. Allah
is merciful. Praise be to Allah. Manure!”)
We had reached an old camping ground of ours on one of our
former trips, and the ground was plentifully strewn with the camel
droppings, that in the great heat had become thoroughly desiccated,
making excellent fuel.
Though it was still early in the day, we unloaded the camels, and
Khalil started to make a plentiful supply of dough. With the help of
the last handful of dried grass, Musa and his gun produced the
necessary blaze, and in half an hour the bread was being baked
over a hot fire of barr. In the evening we reached the bushes, and
the fuel difficulty was solved.
Our water was again at its lowest ebb. We had still a long day’s
journey to make before meeting Abd er Rahman again, and had
barely enough water for the purpose. We had watered the camels
three times since leaving Mut, sixteen days before, but the total
amount that we had been able to give them was far below their
requirements.
But Abd er Rahman came in during the course of the evening. He
was greatly perturbed to see the state to which the beasts that had
remained with us had been reduced. We held a consultation with
Qway, and concluded that the only possible way to ensure our being
able to get them back again to the oasis was to give them all the
water we could possibly spare, keeping only just enough for
ourselves, and then to get back again as soon as possible, loading
most of the baggage on to the camels that Abd er Rahman had
brought with him from Mut, who having drunk their fill in the oasis
were in fairly strong condition.
Early in the morning, when the contents of the tanks had had time
to cool down, we watered the poor brutes and then, having allowed
them an hour to settle their drink, packed up and moved off towards
the oasis.
Not long after our start some of the baggage became disarranged,
and we had to halt to adjust it. Khalil took the opportunity to sit down
and declare that he was tired and had “bristers” on his feet, and
could go no farther unless he was allowed to ride, adding that he
was “not as these Arabs” and had been “delicutly nurchered!”

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