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The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are one of the main tools through which changes in the urban environment can be tracked. They can be used to analyze processes not only as territorial phenomena, but also to derive spatio-temporal models and trends. Free and open access data was used for the present study - from Copernicus, OpenStreetMap and the Urban Development Plan of Sofia Municipality were used as sources. Data layers for the terrain, land cover, buildings, street network and others were analyzed toget...

Evapotranspiration is an important component of hydrological balance, and it represents a complex process of water evaporation form water bodies, soil and plants. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN proposed the Penman-Monteith equation as the most reliable method for calculating reference evapotranspiration. However, the application of Penman-Monteith is often limited in many regions, due to the requirement for a large amount of meteorological data. In such circumstances, it is necessary to identify a...

Manual measurement of flow velocity and streamflow discharge during high waters is often impossible because of different factors: night events, harsh meteorological conditions, very high dangerous river velocities and levels or infrastructure destruction. The purpose of this study is to determine maximums of river flow velocity and streamflow discharge with hydraulic engineering methods, as well to determine the modulus of runoff at some stations in the East Aegean River Basin in South Bulgaria for the period betw...

Over time, hydro-meteorological disasters, also called weather and/or climate-related disasters have recorded the highest occurrence of natural disasters, not only in European Union (EU) countries, but also worldwide, causing a total of most damage and life losses. Using available updated EM-DAT international disaster database, this study aim to provide the results derived from the analysis of the weather and climate-related disaster at EU countries level. Countries and disaster type disparities in terms of freque...

The development of indicator systems for drought identification is part of the Drought Management Plans. The analysis of the correlation between the different indices is an essential part of the indicator systems. That research is part of a task related to the developed at NIMH system (http://hydro.bg) of drought indicators and the development of recommendations for their simultaneous use. For this purpose, the influence of climatic factors on the hydrological cycle components and the role of the characteristics o...

In the context of the recycling of waste from wrought aluminum alloys, especially food packaging, these were re-melted and cast into bars. The alloy thus obtained contains up to 2.0% Si, 0.8% Cu, 2.0% Fe, 2.5% Mn and other elements in tenths of %. The problem in its further processing is the porosity. Several methods were used to quantify it, of which the most accurate method was weighing. The disadvantage of this method is the requirements of the competence of the personnel as well as technical equipment. Other m...

Residues of pesticides and HM, used in bees care or in crop fields, have negative effects on the health of bees and humans and of the antimicrobial properties of the honey. Investigation of HM and pesticides is vital, since the use of chemical solutions has -rise up- significantly. Our aim was to investigate whether the level of contaminants in honey (Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd, As, using GC/ECD and GF-AAS) and pesticides: ?-HCH, ?-HCH, ? -HCH, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, DDE, DDD, and DDT, alpha -Endosulfan, carbofuran, pi...

The need for secure and reliable applications will increase due to the growing necessity for sustainably and independently produced energy. For example, the amount of energy generated by individuals at their homes will probably grow fast in the near future so requiring for easy-to-use and precise solutions. To transform and facilitate the processes related to energy sector it is possible to use blockchain technology. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and analyse different areas of blockchain application in the ...

Harvested bee pollen has been used since ancient times for its healthy properties and nutritional value. In terms of composition, bee pollen contains a large number of different substances such as proteins, carbohydrates and lipids as well as phenolic organic compounds. The protein content is the second most abundant component, its levels (10 to 40%, w/w) depending on the type of plant. Recently, numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial properties of pollen in promoting health and reducing the risk of dev...

Shallow landslides are induced by extreme hydrological events or by events of medium intensity but prolonged over time. Such slips involve generally limited portions of land; however, they are dangerous due to the absence of warning signals and the lack of knowledge regarding their possible evolution. The aim of this paper is to study the evolution of shallow landslides affected by snowmelt and rainfall and to compare the observations done in situ by means of a statistical analysis of meteorological variables with...

The presented work provides a detailed view of climate change and its impact on the temperature conditions in Slovakia. It analyses the occurrence of tropical and supertropical days from the past to the present in the most fertile part of Slovakia. The results show that there has been an overall increase in the number of tropical and supertropical days in the Danubian Lowland and the Danubian Hills between 1961 and 2020, which is partly due to an increase in average temperatures and weather extremes. The locality ...

The paper reposts on a comprehensive study of Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR), a detailed literature and projects review. In one hand, according to past studies, when injected CO2 and residual oil are miscible (Miscible Displacement), the physical forces holding the two phases apart (Interfacial Tension, IFT) disappears; as CO2 dissolves in the oil, it swells the oil, reducing its viscosity and density. This allows the oil CO2 to displace the oil from the rock pores, pushing it towards a production ...

Due to the population increasing in urban settlements, the use of the territory and the surface variability of urban settlements are changing rapidly. The development of areas covered with impervious materials contributes to accelerating the runoff process, intensifying surface runoff concentration and the concentration of surface runoff pollution. Surface runoff from urban catchments can be characterized as the primary source of the receiving water's pollution during torrential rains. The aim of the paper is to o...

In recent decades, society has paid increased attention to issues related to observed climate change, which also includes recurring extreme hydrological phenomena. Shortterm heavy rainfall and long-term droughts draw attention to the increased need for hydraulic structures, providing protection against floods or creating water supplies in times of water scarcity. Flood control levees are an important part of flood protection measures. We should give them constant attention to prevent them from collapsing, and thei...

The main objective of this study is to analyse the main pedogenesis factors that have contributed to the formation of soils in Seca?, Timi? County, Romania, using modern methods. The pedological data found in the study are represented by the transformation of analogue maps into digital maps using the GIS method. To begin with, the study area, geomorphology, geology, hydrology and hydrography of the locality, climate and vegetation conditions, decisive factors in the formation of soils in the study area were delimi...

The status, abundance and diversity of soil microbial communities are one of the main basic indicators for the assessment and monitoring of forest ecosystems. In the context of the important role that microorganisms play in forest ecosystems, it is crucial to study and monitor their abundance in soil habitats. In order to supplement the knowledge about the soil microbial communities in the different soil horizons, we studied 16 soil profiles from the territory of Vitosha Nature Park. The soils from tested areas 1-...

Snow cover is an indicator of the fluctuating climate, resulting from the change in the regime of winter precipitations and air temperatures. Our previous study has revealed significant decreasing of the snow cover in the high altitudes of Vitosha mountain. The current sturdy is now focused on these two meteorological variable - the type and amount of the winter precipitations and the seasonal change of the air temperature. Monthly and seasonal values of precipitation amounts, number of days with different type of...

The main document for the development of urban territories is the municipal territory development plan. When evaluating the aspects of territory planning and development, great importance are focused on the most beneficial land use as the main object of territory planning and greener development. The use of Latvia's natural capital are related to the sustainable use of land and natural resources, equally developing green production and green consumption, as well as simultaneously creating and maintaining the image...

The Blato River watershed was determined as especially vulnerable to flood hazards zone regarding the developed Bulgarian Flood Risk Management Plans. With regard to the climate change the number of such hazards increases. To prevent and mitigate the consequences various measures are applied in practice. Some of them are connected to the implementation of already existing engineering solutions. But in case of emergency some untypical temporary solutions are also introduced. In line with the detected severe climate...

In recent years, because the gluten intolerance has become a worldwide problem, there were a sharp increase in the consumers demand for gluten-free bakery products that to be attractive, both in terms of sensory and nutritional value. This work had as a first goal obtaining of two innovative gluten-free bread types, one from almond flour, brown rice flour and psyllium bran (P1), and the second from buckwheat flour and psyllium bran (P2). A second aim of the paper was to determine total polyphenols (FolinCiocalteu ...

It is well known that at a European level, a large building fund must be retrofitted by 2050 to meet the climate and energy targets defined by a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions up to 80 - 95% compared to 1990 levels. In this regard, the proposed recast of the energy performance directive defines a new path: going from nearly Zero Energy Buildings to Zero Emission Buildings for residential and non-residential buildings. Thus, practitioners need more adequate instruments to perform reliable field measurements ...

The lack of new deposits with a rich copper content and the depletion of old deposits, as well as the need to comply with environmental requirements, raises the issue of the need to process the tailings of metallurgical industries. In Kazakhstan was accumulated significant stocks of tailings "Borgezsay" and "Staroye". The tailings reserves are estimated at up to 1 billion tons. Sample evaluation showed that the average copper content in the tailings is 0.15-0.2%. More than 1 million tons of copper are stored in th...

The article summarizes the main geodetic activities performed in the region of Southwestern Bulgaria to study the modern crustal movements and clarify the geodynamic situation of the region. The study area is bounded to the north of the southern slopes of the Balkan Mountains, to the south to the southern slopes of the Rila Mountains, to the west - the western border of Bulgaria and to the east - the beginning of the Upper Thracian plain. The area has a complex geological structure with many active faults that mus...

Aim of the paper is to investigate the possibilities of applying the laser scanning method for overhead power transmission line monitoring in Latvia conditions. Today, in various sectors of the national economy, infrastructure monitoring takes an important place in the overall management of the system. It also plays an essential role in electric power, especially in maintaining overhead power transmission lines. Realizing the possibilities of digital development, the monitoring of power lines is more often perform...

Soil pollution by potentially toxic elements (As, Sb, Cu, Zn, Pb) near the mining areas has become a serious environmental problem. These risk elements can be released into the environment, causing a risk to human health. Stabilized pollution in various materials may constitute an additional risk in the long term. Organic acids play an important role in mobilizing contaminants. In the present work, various stabilizing agents (iron nanoparticles - nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI), amorphous manganese oxide (AMO), b...

During the process of drilling wells, it is necessary to have information about the composition of the soil layers through which the drill passes. This will optimize the parameters of rotation of the drill, the load on the drill, as a result of which equipment wear will be reduced. It will also make it possible to lay optimal trajectories during well drilling and track the penetration of the drill into the target layer. This issue is especially relevant for the oil industry, where production is carried out at grea...

The priorities identified by the EU-s and national strategies and the main target areas promoted by the legal regulations concerning this area are precision food production, investments and developments, and - in the area of ensuring the resources needed to achieve these - a more efficient production, the improvement of sustainability and food safety. To achieve these objectives, the European Union has identified the widespread introduction of precision technologies using digitization technology in the food indust...

The biodiversity of grassland ecosystems is strongly affected by climatic changes, i.e., by the galloping progression of desertification. These aspects are more and more visible on permanent grasslands (communal pastures). Most researchers in grassland science consider as a major priority the conservation of biodiversity and of the productive potential of permanent grasslands, given that the decrease in the number of livestock has been accelerated. Thus, in recent years, they started case studies on permanent gras...

Drought indicator systems help decision-makers to understand how and where the drought occurred and to take measures from the Drought Management Plans. The main goal in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the achievement -good ecological status-, but the Article 4.6 allows temporary deterioration of the status, occurred as a result of so called -prolonged drought-. Reduction of natural water resources such as rivers, lakes, aquifers, is associated with the reduction in available water resources for water supply...

This article presents the concept of using neural networks in the recognition of fungi for use in a mobile forest ecosystem inspection robot. There are many dependencies regarding the occurrence of fungi in the vicinity of specific tree species. The presence of some fungi may be the result of a developing tree disease. The possibility of quick recognition of the fungus species using an autonomous mobile robot will allow for faster detection and prevention of the disease in entire ecosystems. An attempt was made to...

The processing, transport and storage of flammable materials in the form of dust generates an explosion risk due to the possibility of initiating potentially explosive atmospheres created by dust suspended in air with various ignition sources, some of which may be their own installations. As explosions can cause human casualties and severe property damage, the explosion risk assessment and the application of appropriate measures by manufacturers and users of installations to prevent the ignition of explosive atmos...

The use, production, processing and storage of petroleum products and gases generate hazardous atmospheres that can be ignited and generate explosions, causing serious damage both to materials and the environment, and especially to human health and integrity. The use of equipment in this environment requires compliance with certain well-defined parameters, which must be chosen in correlation with the potentially explosive atmosphere in which it is to be installed and the type of protection, temperature class and c...

The growth of the world population, the technical-scientific and socio-economic evolution have led to the increase of the need for food products and the diversification of their range. Under these conditions, beekeeping acquires an increasingly important role as a food supply (honey) but also as a vector of growth of agricultural vegetal production through crop pollination. It also provides various products with a role in maintaining the health of the population through products with high prophylactic and therapeu...

Combating poverty and social exclusion requires addressing individual needs in terms of life cycles. As children growing up in poor households will face a higher risk of poverty in the future, in order to break the intergenerational circle of poverty, the governments must adopt programs aimed at simultaneously child and adult poverty in a household. The intergenerational circle of exclusion is perpetuated when low levels of education and poor health seriously limit the chances of access to the labour market for th...

In the frame of latest requirements to improve the renewable energy harvesting, the wind turbines get more and more used. Due to the propeller sizes, the blades- materials must comply with high resistance and weight requirements. As consequence, composite materials with dedicated structures are used. These materials are designed for long life and, as consequence, are potential pollution factors for the environment, after turbine working life is ended. Beside the methods to destroy the blades and give other use to ...

The development and efficient use of renewable energy technologies is essential to sustain access to clean energy for all. In developing countries, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of biogas production to contribute to the decarbonization of the energy supply. This study aims to assess the quality of biogas produced from household biogas plants in rural areas of Cameroon. Through snowball sampling, data were collected from forty-five (45) functional biogas plants across the five agroecological zones of th...

To maintain enough water in the river for ecosystems protection and river bed sanitation, water have to be allocated to ecosystems, as it is allocated to other users like domestic use and industry, agriculture and power generation. Water distribution is critical in dry periods. This requires proper determination of environmental flow (river ecosystem minimum permissible flow) by hydrology-based assessment methods. The purpose of this paper is to compare selected hydrological methods and to define the scientificall...

Since the beginning of hostilities in the Ukraine territory, there have been several cases of detonation of dams on reservoirs. These events affected the surrounding areas, leading to a flood of different degrees. One of the significant cases occurred on the dam covering the Irpin river, close to Kyiv. It was built during the Kyiv Reservoir filling to prevent the flooding of the river valley and serves as a bridge. After a part of the dam was broken, water from the Reservoir began to fill the Irpin river. The floo...

Nitrogen pollution contributes to climate change, acid rain and eutrophication. The present study evaluates the degree of nitrogen contamination of air, surface and ground waters in Bulgaria with reference to the 2021 EU Action Plan 'Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil' as well as the relevant international and national regulations in the field. The analysis uses data from the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Ministry of Agriculture, the European Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Rese...

The quality of agricultural land (including orchards) describes the productivity of the land, or the benefit that the soil can give to the owner if it is properly cultivated and used. It depends on the type of soil, the mechanical composition of the soil, the reaction of the acidity of the soil, the condition of the drainage system, the contour of the plot of land, the area, rockiness, terrain, and other factors. Alternative energy sources are types of energy resources which the use causes no or only minor damage ...

The competitiveness of product being offered is very important for company's competitiveness and successful business development. In Bulgarian forestry the main product is timber. It provides more than 85% from the revenues of state enterprises (DP), which are established with art. 163 from Forest Act (ZG), for management of state forest territories. Because of that the goal of this paper is to offer and verify practically applicable approach for complex quantitative assessment of competitiveness of timber, which ...

This paper addresses the impact of the increasing penetration of renewable solar photovoltaic (PV) in the power distribution grids. A collaborative project between the university and the local power distribution grid-s operator (PDO) led to this assessment, which addressed the operator-s specific concerns about how renewable energy-based generators might affect the power quality (PQ) in its grid system. There was evaluated the interaction between PV prosumers' installations and the hosting low voltage (LV) network...

This paper presents the findings of the mapping and evaluation of macrophyte vegetation from Tataru and Uzlina lakes, located within Danube Delta, Romania. Throughout time, the Danube Delta unique ecosystem has endured considerable ecological changes due to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Currently, the potential threats are those related to pollution, agriculture, land use, climate change and subsequently, the proliferation and/or the extinction of many macrophyte species. The excessive development of aquati...

Microbial communities associated with the plant rhizosphere play an important role in carbon sequestration, regulation of nutrient cycling, and the efficient functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. The diversity of microorganisms inhabiting the plant rhizosphere and their complex interactions with the host plant significantly affect the morphology, physiology, growth, development, and health of plants. At the same time, it is known that the soil microbiome diversity is affected by the type of soil, the type of cu...

Today there is a serious environmental problem - global climate change, and one of the main reasons for this change is the release of so-called greenhouse gases, and primarily raw carbon dioxide. One strategy to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to capture carbon dioxide from industrial emissions, since this is where the gas is found in high concentrations. In addition to physical and chemical methods, carbon dioxide capture is possible with the help of biological methods, for example...

The use of pesticides has negative effects on the quality of groundwater. The triazine pesticide atrazine has not been applied to soil in agriculturally used areas of the Czech Republic for many years, yet atrazine and its metabolites are detected in groundwater throughout the country. The effect of these substances on the denitrification process that takes place in groundwater is unclear. This study aims to examine the behavior of atrazine under denitrifying conditions and the pesticide-s effect on the denitrific...

Road managers are obliged by law to regularly monitor the condition of road pavements as part of road inspections. Visual inspections provide basic information on the condition of the road and regular assessments are the basis for planning maintenance and repairs. These inspections are usually carried out from a dedicated car and recorded manually by an operator or done by special sophisticated and very costly devices with cameras and various sensors. Inspections are done in defined periods based on road class and...

The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) is a test designed to measure the bearing capacity of the subgrade during a construction of roads. It has also been used as a baring capacity test for unpaved aircraft runways and other transport areas. Nowadays, CBR is used as a proof and control test in evaluating the bearing capacity of subgrade and structural layers of roads. A distinction is made between the laboratory test and the in-situ test, which is nowadays no longer widely used. This is due to several reasons. It is p...

The air pollution in many Bulgarian cities is of concern mainly due to high concentration of particulate matter (PM). Poor air quality has adverse health effects and is responsible for premature deaths and life loss. According to the World Health Organization air pollution remains the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. Additionally, negative effects of urban air pollution can be detected on buildings, cultural heritage, vegetation, biodiversity, etc. Air pollutant concentrations in the city depend...

In the paper are reported the results of the first stage of tests performed to verify the possibility of beneficiation of a wollastonite mineral (calcium metasilicate, CaSiO3). The studied ore comes from a mineralized body located in the southern part of Sardinia (Italy), in the area named "Gutturu Is Abis". The mineralized body is composed of wollastonite associated with limestone, garnets and silica. The approach to the problem has consisted of grinding tests followed by flotation tests to separate the wollaston...