Environment

What makes a dwelling a place we want to call home? And why do we find it so hard to move, even when downsizing is the logical choice? To answer to these questions, a team of EPFL scientists surveyed 968 tenants in Switzerland.

Switzerland has considerable capacity for carbon storage and a bright future in shallow geothermal energy. These are the two main findings presented in Innosuisse’s final report on the 2013–2020 Energy Funding Programme, in the chapter on geo-energy. Lyesse Laloui, a full professor in civil engineering at EPFL, is the chapter’s author and the head of a research group on this topic.

There has been a floating laboratory on Lake Geneva called LéXPLORE since 2019. Natacha Tofield-Pasche, limnologist at EPFL and project leader of LéXPLORE, and Damien Bouffard, researcher at Eawag and member of the LéXPLORE steering committee, tell us what is being studied there and why this research platform is unique.

In central Europe, the frequency of droughts is increasing because of climate change, but some forests today are having trouble adjusting. Data from a 30-year experiment now reveal how susceptible managed Norway spruce and silver fir forests are to drought. However, silviculture can improve their resilience, i.e. how quickly and effectively they can recover from drought. That is the conclusion drawn by a research team led by WSL, as reported in the journal Global Change Biology.

Researchers at the PSI and ETH Zurich have investigated the extent to which direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the ambient air can help to effectively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The result: With careful planning, for example with regard to location and provision of the necessary energy, CO₂ can be removed in a climate-effective manner. The researchers have now published their analysis in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.