Titulo Estágio
Product sustainability footprint using geographic information systems
Áreas de especialidade
Sistemas de Informação
Engenharia de Software
Local do Estágio
DEI-FCTUC
Enquadramento
The environment is a key pillar of sustainability (e.g., CO2 emissions during transport) that includes the other two: social and economic. All are essential to corporate sustainability and many sectors of the economy are now pressured to evaluate the overall impact of their products (e.g., automotive, pharmaceutical).
In March 2022, the European Commission proposed new measures for product sustainability. For example, “companies can access the data they need to ensure environmental sustainability and circularity of their products and business models” [1]. Geographic information systems (GIS) can play a key role to automatically assess and visualize product sustainability footprints (PSF), since they enable a geographically explicit assessment.
GIS are increasingly used to support environmental protection, including the identification of product environmental footprints (PEF) [2]. For example, evaluating the provenance of all the materials and services used during the product lifecycle, and automatically obtaining an environmental impact index.
References
[1] European Commission (2022). About sustainable products. Overview of EU measures to make sustainable products the norm in the EU. https://ec.europa.eu/info/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/sustainable-products/about-sustainable-products_en (accessed 21/05/2022)
[2] Li, J., Tian, Y., Zhang, Y., & Xie, K. (2021). Spatializing environmental footprint by integrating geographic information system into life cycle assessment: A review and practice recommendations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 323, 129113.
Objetivo
The main objectives of this thesis are as follows:
1. Study how geographic information systems (GIS) are currently used to support sustainability assessment of commercial products and propose a model to create a new index. The PSF is relevant in global supply chains emerging from Industry 4.0, with distributed production across the globe.
2. Create the initial prototype of a PSF enabled by GIS. The solution should be Web-based and use GIS to represent the multiple impacts of a product based on georeferenced data (e.g., environmental - transport emissions, social - provenance from authorized locations, economic - raw material cost-benefit evaluation compared to other alternatives).
The project offers an opportunity to explore modern geographic information systems and their potential to extract business value from data. According to preliminary contacts made with global companies, PSF auditing and sustainability disclosure to society will be a priority for the decade.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
The main phases for the first semester are presented as follows (may overlap):
Systematic literature review on geographic information systems and supporting tools (e.g., ArcGIS), representation of PSF, and sustainability data
Start: September 2022
Duration: 2 months
Identify and evaluate the most relevant requirements for a PSF visualization in a GIS
Start: October 2022
Duration: 1 month
Identify and test suitable technologies for representing product information Start: November 2022
Duration: 2 months
Results of the 1st semester:
Intermediate report
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
The main phases for the second semester are presented as follows:
Develop and test a prototype to showcase the PSF
Start: January 2023
Duration: 4 months
Write the scientific paper and the master thesis
Start: May 2023
Duration: 2 months
Results of the 2nd semester:
PSF prototype implemented in a geographic information system solution
Final report
Scientific paper
Condições
The student will be integrated into the Information Systems Group (ISG) of CISUC, Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra. A workplace and the required resources will be provided. A pharmaceutical industry is expected to participate in a case study for PSF visualization.
Orientador
João Barata; Jacinto Estima
barata@dei.uc.pt 📩