Mean sea level rise exposes coasts to increasing risks. For the Caribbean Sea, the regional and local sea-level behaviour is not well known. This study has investigated the sea level behavior in the region at different frequencies during the last century, to provide updated, accurate and useful information to implement coastal adaptation responses to sea-level hazards. Time series from 28 tide-gauges, 18 years of altimetry and various atmospheric and oceanographic climatologies have been used. Several new results have been found. The small Caribbean tides have significant long-term modulations. The net effect of the low frequency modulation of the tidal signal can change the maximum tidal range up to 23.5%. The seasonal sea level cycle is characterized by large spatial and temporal variability. The amplitude of the coastal annual harmonic ranges from 2 cm to 9 cm, peaking between August and October. The amplitude of the semi-annual harmonic has maximum amplitude of 6 cm but it is not significant at all stations. The barometric effect dominates the coastal semi-annual cycle, but it is insignificant in all the other sea level frequencies at the tide-gauges. The seasonal sea level cycle from altimetry confirms the results obtained from the tide-gauges and allows the identification of some dominant sea level forcing parameters such as the Panama-Colombia gyre driven by the wind stress curl and the Caribbean Low Level Jet modulating the sea level in the northern coast of South America and linked to the local upwelling. The basin average mean sea level rise from altimetry is 1.7±1.3 mm yr-1 for the period 1993-2010. Wind forcing changes causes the trends in the southern part of the basin, modulating the sea level through changes in the ocean circulation. Significant spatial and decadal variability of the trends is found. Secular coastal sea-level trends range from 1.3±0.2 mm yr-1 in Magueyes, where the steric contribution dominates, to 5.3±0.3 mm yr-1 in Cartagena, where other contributors including local vertical land movements are significant. Temporal changes in the sea level extremes are significant but in line with mean sea-level trends at each tide gauge. With the annual mean sea level removed, extremes range between 36 cm and 79 cm, the later recorded in Port Spain and caused by the largest tidal signal. The largest nontidal residual is 76 cm found in Magueyes, forced by a hurricane induced storm surge, however larger surges can occur in the basin. The interannual sea level signal and nontidal extremes correlate with El Niño-Southern Oscillation at different time and spatial scales. No correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation is found at any frequency. The largest sea flooding probability in the Caribbean coasts is around October, when the different sea level contributors’ maximums interact. These sea flooding events are going to became more frequent in the future due to the secular mean sea level rise affecting the basin.

The growing problem of maintaining socio-economic sustainability in a changing climate has focused attention of a wide range of stakeholders on devising and delivering adaptive responses. A series of IPCC reports have emphasised that the economies of developing countries and particularly the poor would bear the brunt of climate change impacts. Farmers are highly vulnerable because of their high and direct dependency on natural resources, climate-sensitive livelihoods and lack of access to resources that they could rely on to respond successfully to shocks. Microfinance has become an increasingly used and effective tool to respond to major global challenges at the local level, including poverty and climate change. This thesis seeks to analyze the effects that the level of climate change risk and impact has on the willingness of Colombian farmers to invest, through microfinances, in strategies to adapt anticipatively to climate change. The methodology combines experimental economic games, surveys and interviews with farmers who cultivate three different crops: coffee, cocoa and citrus. The findings demonstrate that adaptation decisions depend on climate variability, the cost to implement an adaptation strategy and its benefits to cope with current hazards. Some farmers are risk takers as they prefer to face the risk of losing the harvest rather than pay the adaptation costs. Integrated pest management and beekeeping were strategies preferred under any level of climate variability, while farmers invested in crop diversification and solar dehydrators when facing higher risk of climate change. They were willing to obtain individual and associative microcredits. Microcredits awarded to small farmers in a short period of time enable them to accumulate and manage assets that make them less vulnerable. Microfinance can be more effective when combined with training and bottom-up strategies such as social networks, establishment of partnerships, collective lands and social learning that help farmers to increase their earnings, improve land productivity and promote food security.

The Passivhaus Standard is a construction concept based on affordably achieving the best indoor conditions with the lowest energy demand. If adopted, it could contribute to fulfil the lack of regulations in energy and comfort performance in Colombian dwellings that the current sustainability laws mandate. The Standard has been applied in warm regions mostly throughout the Mediterranean.This work intended to study its applicability for social housing in tropical climates, specifically four Colombian cities with different average energy demands and number of occupants per household and diverse climatic conditions. The work identified and described a reference building based on an average ‘good practice’ social housing project product of the current Building Regulations. It was modelled in the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) to analyse its performance in the four cities. The results showed that the thermal performance of the building envelope is better than expected due to favourable climatic conditions in most of the cities, although it needs improvements. Even if primary energy demand is lower in the four cities than the maximum allowed by the Standard, it would be considerably high for dwellings without mechanical heating or cooling. The improved models showed that adopting passive strategies according to local climates reduced daily temperature swings and increased indoor comfort. Applying energy efficiency measures such as solar thermal DHW and more efficient fridges and lighting decreased primary energy demand significantly to less than a half of the maximum allowed. The Standard would be applicable in tropical climates even within the budget limitations for social housing in Colombia, although not exactly in the same way as in central Europe. Local circumstances and passive strategies must be taken into account to feasibly achieve the Passivhaus Standard in Colombian social housing.

Youth suicidality is a worldwide major concern; even more, if a specific population of youth, as young people in the child welfare system, are likely to be at higher risk. Therefore, emerge the need to identify particular characteristics that may be predictors of these suicidal behaviors in order to provide better prevention and intervention programs. Portugal is a country that does not have information regarding youth suicide in care. Seeking to contribute to this matter this study aims to make a profile of young Portuguese people (of 16- and 17- years old) in residential care with suicide attempts, identifying the relation between suicidality and sociodemographic variables, type of placement and maltreatment, mental health problems and risk behaviors. Comparisons of the data gathered were made on adolescents in residential care with suicide attempts and adolescents without it, bivariate analyzes were carried out to identify the difference between samples. Results supported a statistical relationship with physical neglect as a type of maltreatment, and alcohol and drugs abuse as factors that may increase the risk of suicide attempts. Regarding mental health, treatments do not cover the whole population with suicide attempts, with lightly less of half of the adolescents with suicidality not receiving psychiatric treatment. Further analysis is needed to identify if more rigorous mental health treatment might reduce suicidality. Resúmen: La tendencia suicida en los jóvenes es una preocupación importante a nivel mundial; aún más, si una población específica, como aquellos quienes están en el sistema de bienestar, tienen probabilidades de tener riesgos mayores. Por esta razón, surge la necesidad de identificar características particulares de los jóvenes en el sistema de bienestar que puedan predecir comportamientos suicidas con el fin de proporcionar mejores programas de prevención e intervención. Portugal es un país que no tiene información sobre el suicidio juvenil en el sistema de bienestar. Buscando contribuir a esta área, el siguiente estudio pretende hacer un perfil de jóvenes portugueses (de 16 y 17 años) en acogimiento residencial con intentos de suicidio, identificando la relación entre la variable tendencias suicidas y variables sociodemográficas, perfil del acogimiento y tipo de maltrato, problemas de salud mental y comportamientos de riesgo. Se compararon los datos de adolescentes en acogimiento residenciales con intentos de suicidio y adolescentes sin intentos, llevando a cabo análisis bivariados para identificar la diferencia entre las muestras. Los resultados revelaron una relación estadística entre negligencia física como un tipo de maltrato, y abuso de alcohol y drogas como factores que pueden aumentar el riesgo de intentos suicidas. En cuanto a la salud mental, se identificó que los tratamientos no cubren a todos los jóvenes con intentos de suicidio, hallando que no reciben tratamiento psiquiátrico un poco menos de la mitad de los adolescentes con tendencias suicidas. Por esta razón, se considera necesario realizar más análisis para identificar si un tratamiento de salud mental más riguroso podría reducir las tendencias suicidas.

In the last years Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) has received an increasing attention in academic research due to its ability to achieve optimal process operation of nonlinear processes. NMPC has been applied to several pilot plants; however major obstacles like plant model mismatch and disturbances have to be overcome in order to allow industrial applications. Multi-stage NMPC (MSNMPC) is a robust NMPC approach which achieves optimal process operation under uncertainties of the process model. A complete workflow from simulation studies to real application of MSNMPC has been developed to overcome the mentioned obstacles. However, explicit knowledge from the fields of mathematics, optimization theory, and process control is required. Therefore, efficient methods for evaluation of MSNMPC that support the transition from simulation to application in the real process are required. In this master thesis a module that applies several evaluation methods to offline simulations of MSNMPC is developed. The effectiveness of the module is shown in the case study of an industrial batch polymerization reactor.

El fenómeno de exclusión social está determinado por múltiples factores que han sido de interés para diversos estudios que involucran la economía, sociología y en general las ciencias sociales. Sin embargo, uno de los escenarios interesantes que pueden dar lugar a diversas formas de interpretación del fenómeno, es el que compete a la exclusión social en el contexto urbano, que desde un contexto espacial aporta elementos de análisis relevantes. Este trabajo busca dar cuenta del fenómeno de la exclusión social como factor presente en las dinámicas territoriales. A su vez, bajo una delimitación propuesta para el análisis se revisarán tres elementos importantes: las manifestaciones de la exclusión social en Bogotá, los condicionamientos en la participación como el acceso al espacio público y la gestión del territorio y por último la revisión de algunas condiciones oferta de equipamientos y servicios públicos.

The present article discusses some definitions and cultural, social, heritage and political process through which the indigenous group know as the Yanaconas legitimate, represent, and assume their identity through territorialization processes. These processes have an intention to make claims and to conform identities allowing them to manage and held together the town members, a reason for why this transcendence of the physical territory, developing their identity through an ethnic and identity movement. In this way, the Yanaconas located in San Agustin, not only defend, appropriate and understand their territory as more than a biophysical, cultural and heritage space, but they conceive it as a political entity through which write, tell and transform their memory. Therefore, the territory for the Yanacona si transform into a goal and a tool through which not only they are built and rethinking as a community, but through which they strengthen their identity through practices and power relations, within of which its conflicts and interests stand out with the archaeological park of San Agustin.

The following monographic development seeks to intertwine the theoretical contributions and personal experiences of a professional nature associated with Informal City, Population Resettlement and Social Construction of the Territory, intending to establish a starting point for the implementation of a future research project called: Social construction of a territory before and after the involuntary resettlement. Case study of a resident community in the Mirador neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar, resettled by the public works TransMiCable. You will find a historical contextualization about how the informal city originates in Colombia, reaching particularities of the city of Bogota, where the premise of: informality is not illegality. In parallel, the population resettlement is addressed in its conception, methodological development and reference located in the case of the TransMiCable of Ciudad Bolfvar, where a community had to move from a point of origin endowed with identity, effort and history, to a new place , in which today they must rebuild more than walls and foundations: their livelihoods, habitat and significance of the territory. To close I expose my investigative bet derived from this monographic work.

En la ciudad de Bogotá se han reasentado varias comunidades indígenas, en gran parte, debido a las migraciones internas que se han generado por el desplazamiento en ocasión al conflicto armado. Condición que ha llevado a que los indígenas que se han desplazado al entorno urbano busquen estrategias que permitan la conservación de sus prácticas culturales, que posibiliten desarrollar su identidad y preservar su cultura en la ciudad; agentes activos en la adaptación y apropiación territorial. De esta manera, para la construcción de ciudad y la forma de concebir el territorio es necesario tener en cuenta y vincular la territorialidad de las comunidades indígenas en términos culturales. Para esto, en el presente documento se realiza una contextualización de las dinámicas de desterritorialización y reterritorialización de las comunidades indígenas en la ciudad; para así identificar las prácticas culturales que promueven e impulsan la conservación cultural de esta población.

Actualmente en Colombia, el cultivo de cacao, junto con los cultivos de café, caucho y palma, sobresalen como estrategia de desarrollo rural en el marco del posconflicto, la transformación del campo y la disminución de economías ilegales mediante la sustitución de cultivos ilícitos. En el occidente de Boyacá, el cacao fue el principal medio sustitutivo de cultivos ilícitos y ha surgido en la región como un proyecto empresarial y productivo interesante en la última década, generando nuevos escenarios territoriales. El propósito de esta monografía, es entonces, analizar desde un enfoque histórico y crítico, y desde diferentes narrativas, las dinámicas y los procesos territoriales que han incidido en la construcción del territorio en la región occidental del departamento de Boyacá; en especial, con una mirada reflexiva sobre la incidencia que ha tenido el cacao en la transformación del territorio, al punto de ser catalogado por muchos como una "apuesta por la esperanza".