The COVID-19 pandemic as a disruptive event was initially considered an opportunity for a transformation towards more sustainable lifestyles. In two telephone surveys with more than 1000 participants each, we explored in October 2020 and May 2021 how people in Germany experienced the COVID-19 related situation, and in particular the lockdown restrictions. Specifically, we asked how they felt their lives had been impaired during the pandemic; which changes they had experienced as particularly bothersome; which ones they perceived to be beneficial; and how these perceptions related to either their urge to return to “normal” or, in contrast, to their openness towards lifestyle changes.
Overall, we found that by 2021, the pandemic had impacted people more negatively than in 2020. Most respondents missed social contacts, traveling and cultural events. Some positive changes – e.g., spending less money for useless things – were mentioned as well. A third of the participants agreed that they would like to question their behavior before the pandemic and live more consciously. Apart from slight differences in gender, age and, most importantly, academic background, socio-economic characteristics hardly help explain why some people were more open to change than others. Therefore, we conducted a cluster analysis and found that respondents with stronger pro-environmental attitudes were more open to change, no matter how much they felt impacted by the pandemic. This finding indicates that pro-environmental values and education seem to be key for more ecologically responsible lifestyle choices. We herewith provide the original questionnaires and datasets of the surveys.
Hydrocarbon or groundwater production from sandstone reservoirs can result in surface subsidence and induced seismicity. Subsidence results from combined elastic and inelastic compaction of the reservoir due to a change in the effective stress state upon fluid extraction. The magnitude of elastic compaction can be accurately described using poroelasticity theory. However inelastic or time-dependent compaction is poorly constrained. We use sandstones recovered by the field operator (NAM) from the Slochteren gas reservoir (Groningen, NE Netherlands) to study the importance of elastic versus inelastic deformation processes upon simulated pore pressure depletion. We conducted conventional triaxial tests under true in-situ conditions of pressure and temperature. To investigate the effect of applied differential stress (σ1 – σ3 = 0 - 50 MPa) and initial sample porosity (φi = 12 – 25%) on instantaneous and time-dependent inelastic deformation, we imposed multiple stages of axial loading and relaxation.
The obtained data include:
1) Mechanical data obtained in conventional triaxial compression experiments performed on reservoir sandstone. In these experiments, we imposed multiple stages of active loading, each followed by 24 hours of stress relaxation.
2) Microstructural data obtained on undeformed and deformed samples.