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By adopting the Multiannual Financial Framework (MMF), the European Union (EU) sets the priorities and objectives for the EU. The achievement of the objectives set out in the multi-annual budget is closely linked to the implementation of the Member States' national policies and strategies, as well as to the programming documents for the administration of the European Investment Funds. In order to track the progress of the EU Member States in the implementation of economic and social cohesion policy, the authors ha...

The article includes estimates to confirm that the energy of the water of the Oka and Volga rivers at their confluence has being sufficient to erode transfer the volume of surrounding sedimentary rocks, and forming a height difference of about 100 m between the right and left banks and creating a unique landscape of stunning beauty and attractiveness. This phenomenon is due to the work of the Coriolis force and therefore is ubiquitous. However, at the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers the transfer of sediment...

The Volga River is essentially a cascade of reservoirs that provide hydroelectric energy. This technical solution made it possible to produce electricity for industrialization, to ensure the passage of river-sea vessels between five seas and to stop floods on the Volga River. Although often considered a green energy source, there are environmental and economic considerations that should be accounted for in a holistic and sustainable perspective, i.e. a life cycle of ca. 50 years, areal inundation by reservoir wate...

At present, in time of sustainable environment, people views are increasingly focused on the energy performance of buildings. In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the rate of insulation of buildings. Thermal insulation of facades and roofs of buildings has been theoretically mastered and practically realized. Recently, we have also encountered thermal insulation of foundation structures to prevent heat leakage through massive concrete foundation structures into the subgrade. As clear from the availab...

The purpose of this publication is to assess the multi - risk of hydro meteorological hazards (drought, hail, snowfall and snow accumulation, fog, floods, winds, fires) on the territory of the Danube Water Management District (DWMD). DWMD is one of the four districts designated for water management on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. For this purpose, an approach for multi-risk assessment has been developed, which is part of the overall risk management process. It includes three stages: risk identificati...

The paper demonstrates relevance of diagnostics and monitoring of tailings as collectors of liquid mining wastes. The author has been an initiator and supervisor of the development of the methodological bases of combining multilevel observations to monitor hydraulic structures of tailings of mining enterprises. Monitoring observations are carried out at four levels: satellite, aerial, surface and subsurface (underground). The satellite level includes GPS geodesy, processing and analysis of optical and radar images...

Present paper is a brief story about Bulgarian efforts to integrate data, products and services in Bulgaria into a newly established scientific infrastructure named a National Geoinfomation Center (NGIC) and its efforts to assess and communicate the information about natural hazards and risks to the general public. We started two years ago with the ambitious goal of uniting our observations and research in the area of monitoring and investigation of the Earth’s interior and the near-Earth space. The instrumental u...

Requirements for performing environmental self-monitoring (ESM) of various installations are set in the Russian legislation. However, large industrial plants often need to develop and run Industrial Environmental Monitoring (IEM) Programmes not at source but within the zone of influence, which in Russia is defined as the area at the boundaries of which concentrations of contaminants emitted by the pollution source reach 5 % of respective maximum allowable concentrations (ambient air quality standards). IEMP object...

Concerning the volume of goods conveyed, maritime transport is leading, and the last period proved that the trend is ascendant. Increased marine traffic leads to raised accident risks. Despite the state of the art marine technology and consistent regulations regarding navigation safety, naval accidents still occur and produce severe damage to assets, human life, and the marine environment. The paper presents the main types of naval accidents, focusing on the Black Sea basin, a sea with a complicated status regardi...

The seismicity of Romania is significantly affected by earthquakes produced by the Vrancea seismic source with intermediate depth events (3 shocks/century with magnitude Mw greater than 7.0). The seismic activity on the Romanian territory consists of both shallow and intermediate-depth earthquakes. The crustal seismicity is moderate and more scattered in comparison with the intermediate-depth one. The recent upgrade of the seismic network in Romania with high dynamic range velocity sensors (150 real time seismic s...

Lately, the food industry, along with other industries, is making efforts to prevent environmental pollution, by improving both processing-development and packaging technologies. Packaging used in the food industry usually uses synthetic, petroleum-based materials, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. These materials are extremely polluting, and the raw materials are non-renewable. A beneficial solution in this regard is the development and use of biodegradable foil packaging that can successfull...

Surveying stability monitoring of hydraulic structures are an integral part of their safe operation, warning of man-made, environmental emergencies. In most cases, such facilities are not typical objects, and, therefore, blind guidance of regulatory documents cannot provide an opportunity for operational stability control. The problem of designing observation stations in hydraulic structures is extremely relevant in this regard. This article summarizes the experience of conducting systematic high-precision observa...

Hydrogen production plays an important role in the decarbonization of energy used in all sectors. It can be used as an environmentally friendly raw material, fuel or energy carrier. According to Hydrogen Roadmap Europe (2019), the total amount of hydrogen used in the EU is 339 TWh. The largest share falls on the refining processes (153 TWh) and the chemical industry (for the production of ammonia and methanol - a total of 156 TWh). The highest quota has the refining processes (153 TWh) and the chemical industry (f...

Romania faces floods every 2-3 years, followed by human and animal losses, and large flooded agricultural areas. There are rivers such as Siret, Crisul Repede, Cri?ul Negru, Ialomita with non-rehabilitated areas that have systematically caused damages in the last decade. Based on the latest measurements, the real transport capacity of natural course in high flow conditions and flood risk was estimated. In recent years, after the massive floods recorded in 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2018, there have been uncontrolled de...

One of problems in terrain surveys in geology and archeology is sample obtaining. Among all possible complications are limits in sample volumes and masses, including possible toxicity or radioactivity and also the legal status of the samples. In his contribution, these problems are addressed by application of microsampling by surface exfoliation of geological objects and archaeologic artifacts using various tapes and subsequent analyses of the resulting samples. Among method used were both optical and electron mic...

RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) is obtained from the highly combustible components of household and industrial waste. RDF is mainly used in European countries with a high standard for waste recycling, such as Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. A method for the synthesis of carbon materials and composites based on RDF, coal pitch, petroleum coke and others has been developed. Some of the used components of RDF are: cardboard, polyethylene and polypropylene. The first step in the synthesis process is oxidation, perform...

An important problem in solving inverse problems in seismology associated with determining the characteristics of a seismic source is obtaining a priori information about the propagation velocities of seismic waves. Along with such factors as the of external noise levels, the geometry of arrangement of the receivers, the parameters of the Earth model, etc., the degree of completeness of information about the velocity characteristics of the medium determines the accuracy of the inverse problem solution. It is espec...

The paper analyses in detail size of vertical deformation (settlement) for various loading states that may occur during construction and operation of Hydropower Plant (HPP) in Gabcikovo. During construction and operation of the HPP complicated loading states were applied onto sealing elements of underground tank and subsoil of the HPP foundation. Geotechnical calculations, a total of fourth load states modelled, taking into account significant changes in the stress state and deformation in the subsoil and on the s...

In Romania before 1990, over 600 hydro-power plants were built with dams and lateral dikes made of local materials. In order to be completed as soon as possible and with material savings, the protection screens were improperly executed. In many cases there is no continuous protection screen along the dam and in its vicinity, but only from place to place, intermittently. The same problem is with the lateral dikes of the lakes. In these conditions, at the hydroelectric power plant commissioning, the infiltration imm...

The aim of the work is to develop a technological condition for obtaining maltodextrin syrups from pea flour by its bioconversion with the thermostable alpha-amylase Liquozyme Supra 2.8 X. The liquefaction process of starch-containing raw materials is accompanied by high viscosity. To reduce the viscosity of the liquefied mash of pea flour and increase the yield of maltodextrin, a composition of an amylolytic enzyme preparation of alpha-amylase and a cellulolytic enzyme preparation Viscoferm from Novozymes (Denmar...

The nature of their work places intervention and rescue personnel at the top of professions that face a considerable number of occupational health and safety risks, which are sometimes unavoidable. Often, this occupational category does not face a single safety risk, but a complex combination of risk factors, including unpredictability of situations in which they are required to work. The growing issue of protecting emergency workers against occupational health and safety risks has been highlighted as a priority b...

Food biotechnology is one of the green and fast developing segment of the industry among the others dealing with renewable plant raw materials processing and new functional food production to improve human health in deteriorating environmental situation. Annually, the number of studies aimed at proving the prebiotic properties of certain substances or compositions is increased, which leads to a huge accumulation of scientific information. The divergence in techniques for prebiotic activity assessment cause the fac...

The use of indicator methods in oil and gas field geology allows us to obtain representative quantitative information about the direction and velocity of fluid movement in the studied formations, to assess the main filtration parameters and the presence of inter-reservoir flows, as well as reliable information about the technical condition of wells. The use of indicators (tracers) is based on the injection of water (or an aqueous solution of the reagent) labeled with a stable or radioactive indicator and subsequen...

It is well known that more than 80% of globally traded goods are conveyed by maritime means of transportation. The shipping activities cannot be performed without emitting harmful gases and particles. The Black Sea basin has a consistent shipping activity accompanied by air emissions. The said basin also complicates the pollution with hydrocarbons or litter point of view, air emissions placing an additional burden on the Black Sea basin environment. We assessed the quantity of the main harmful components of the em...

Antibacterial preparations are widely used in agriculture worldwide to achieve a wide range of effects, including therapeutic and preventive ones; they are also used as forage additives to stimulate animal growth. Since the issue related to the development of antibiotic-resistant microorganism strains has become vital, the use of antibiotics in agriculture is strictly regulated. Thus, in the European Union (EU) countries and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries, antibacterial preparations can be used in treatm...

The present paper aims to investigate the opening up of the forest complex Maries -Limenaria of the island of Thassos in Greece and its environmental impacts. Firstthe study of the conditions of the forest road network of the mountain forestcomplex of Maries-Limenaria was done, then the assessment of the environmentalimpacts of the opening up of the above-mentioned complex, by investigating theintensity of the above impacts on the natural environment and the ability of theforest ecosystem to absorb these impacts o...

The purpose of the study is to find the optimal ratio of the equity and debt capital for one of the enterprises of the Russian coal industry using proposed optimization model of the capital structure. In the recent years Russian coal companies endured external and internal challenges connected with access restrictions to the international capital markets due to sanctions and tightening environmental regulations, as well as all time relevant problems of increasing returns and economic benefits from equity capital. ...

The objective of this research is to optimize the volume of laboratory tests of physical and mechanical properties of soil. Today, the solution to geomechanical and mining technological problems has the form of functional or statistical relationships, reasoned by the physical parameters of soils (density, moisture, strength properties, acoustic indicators, etc.). The calculations use the average values or estimates of these parameters obtained from statistical processing of multiple laboratory or field test data. ...

Traffic congestion is an important problem in transport systems. The reason for traffic jams is the growing number of vehicles. It is objective and irreparable. Many roads do not have the ability to separate at different levels and have to cross. Most intersections use traffic lights to regulate traffic. Traffic light regulation is a non-stationary, non-linear problem under conditions of uncertainty. Most traffic lights nowadays use fixed time intervals. It is necessary that traffic lights monitor traffic flows at...

The rapid development of agricultural sector is becoming the main factor leading to continuously increasing of specific pollution of surface water. The aim of this study was to assess the selected parameters of oxidative stress in zebrafish (Danio rerio) after their exposure to environmental realistic concentrations of roundup and chlorpyrifos during 14 days. Our results confirm that roundup and chlorpyrifos in the environmentally relevant concentrations promote oxidative stress in zebrafish liver. In particular, ...

Oxyethylated compounds are used as reagents-regulators in the flotation of non-sulfide ores, in particular, apatite ores. Thus, the necessary degree of selectivity in the flotation separation of two calcium minerals of apatite and calcite is achieved only by using, in addition to a collector, regulators-reagents from the nonylphenol ethoxylates class. In order to establish the most optimal structures, this paper presents a comparative assessment of the physical-chemical and flotation properties of several classes ...

The authors were the first to study the main parameters of the mineral metabolism of plants that grow in the Plast Region of the Chelyabinsk Oblast in biogeocenosis with different technogenic impact. The study included the samples of plants taken from the surface of the Novotroitsk tailing dump of the gold-arsenic deposit and similar samples from the reference areas (>15 km from the technogenic formation). The samples of spring sedge (Carex praecox), feather grass (Stipa pennata), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)...

The intensive development of remote sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles, and the accessibility of small drones, provide excellent opportunities for shallow water bathymetric surveys on the northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The combination of erosional/abrasional and depositional natural coastal types allows testing and assessing the efficiency of aerial surveys for bathymetric mapping. The Bay of Chernomorets is an excellent opportunity to combine data from single-beam sonar, multi-beam sounding and shooting wi...

In the area of transport infrastructures, spontaneous vegetation is exposed to a considerable safety risk and combated by chemical or mechanical means [1]. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used agents worldwide. Glyphosate is harmful to the environment and to health; As a result, alternative and environmentally friendly solutions are being researched in many places [2]. As part of the research project Green Logix of the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, an analysis of the plant growth with different ro...

Climate change is having a major impact on the agricultural sector, affecting crop phenology and yields. The spring barley is one of the three major crops in Baltic region. The study has analysed the phenological phases of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare), evaluating the onset of three phases, sowing, heading and fully ripe, and the duration between phases over a near century (1928–2019) in Priekuli, Latvia. We have evaluated application of a phenological model for different varieties of spring barley. Air temperat...

This article aims to present the process of obtaining the modern photogrammetric products such as orthophotomap, digital terrain model, regarding surface mining in open pit mining and quarries. The authors also want to present current technologies in photogrammetry, data processing using graphics stations and digital processing of data obtained by using UAV systems with a fully integrated RTK module that provides real-time centimetric position information to achieve very high accuracy of meta-information in images...

The research was conducted to find out if lately found on market eco and bio friendly dishwashing products affect commonly known phytoremediation plants less than most poular chemical dishwashing products. There was chosen one - most popular, and four dishwashing products that position themselves in market as extremely eco and bio friendly. Dishwashing products were made in 3 solutions – 1.0ml, 2.5ml and 5.0ml of product in 100ml of water. Three species of known phytoremediation plants were taken – Sinapis sp., Se...

Sewerage networks form an integral part of urban infrastructure. It is necessary to reconsider the outdated concept of sewer networks and rainwater management in cities that do not meet sustainable development ideas. The new understanding of rainwater management needs to be adapted to the new environmental conditions caused by climate change. The occurrence of pluvial floods has recently become an increasingly common phenomenon. The reasons are outdated sewer networks, rapid urbanization, an increase in impervious...

The article analyzes the political characteristics of the federalization of powerful countries of the world. In this paper, we have tried to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of federalization and the impact mass media on the sovereignty and independence of the state, including the case of the Republic of Germany. This includes identify and show the influence of federalization on the political, cultural and economic orientation of the regions. It is confirmed that the strategic national interests of Ukrai...

Recently, there have been cases of lower durability related to concrete pavements in the transport infrastructure in the Czech Republic. One of the main causes seems to be the increased amount of alkalis in the concrete, which may not have come only from individual components or through winter maintenance. This paper describes a research activity which deals with possibilities of alkali attack from the surrounding environment. The pilot testing provides valuable information on alkalis concentrations in real condit...

The article discusses the possibility of using permanganate oxidizable carbon (POxC, active carbon) as a comprehensive indicator for assessing the state of oil contaminated soils and bottom sediments. POxC has recently emerged as a standardized indicator of active, labile carbon within soil quality frameworks. According to the study, the application of this indicator of the ecological wellbeing of water body is possible since bottom sediments and soils are complex natural biogeochemical barrier zones. Bottom sedim...

Many studies confirm a shift to warmer climate in South East Europe. In Bulgaria, warming trends have been registered since the end of the last century, and different scenarios show increased air temperatures in the future. In the face of climate change, it is a challenge to assess its effect on water resources. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the possible impact of climate change on the discharge of two springs from the Lovech-Tarnovo karst basin. This study uses the monthly water balance method to compare th...

The UNESCO Global Geopark network is expanding. Geoparks are intended to play important roles in sustainable development. For this to happen, new sites geopark establishment need to be carefully evaluated. In addition, protection and maintenance of heritage and sustainability within established geoparks requires effective monitoring. Modern geographic information system (GIS) technologies have a lot to offer for effective landscape-scale assessments and monitoring of geo park territories. However, little attention...

Green roofs can provide a number of benefits in urban areas, including mitigation of heat islands, reduction of urban air pollution, CO2 sequestration, noise reduction, water retention, absorption of pollutants in rainwater runoff, acid rain buffering, etc. The aim of the study is to map the land cover and assess some of the potential benefits of retrofitting green roofs in a residential area in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The survey covers Yuzhen (South) Quarter, with an area of 31.33 ha. According to the General Developm...

Stock market in Latvia necessitates to be increased in size to attract more investors and encourage economic development. The opportunity for stock market’s enhancement are registered companies in Latvia. What is the landscape of Latvian registered companies and weather, there are enough companies with financial profile having potential for stock market listing, that is the question to be assessed by the authors, comparing those companies’ financial profile to the average Baltic States and Nordic countries stock m...

It is widely known that oil production processes do not usually achieve maximum efficiency. One method of increasing production is microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). MEOR methods can clean oil, increase production and clean oil-contaminated soils by not only introducing the microorganisms themselves but also the substances they produce. Among the advantages of these methods are their relative efficiency and the absence of negative impact on the environment. MEOR methods are divided into two groups the first g...

The study is aimed at attempting to supplement and justify methodological approaches to rating and indicator assessment of the environmental attractiveness of industrial environmental marketing in the metallurgical complex. The relevance of this study is based on the state of the global ecosystem, in which irreversible processes are taking place. The metallurgical industry ranks second among all industries in terms of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Environmental safety requirements for the me...

Large scale infrastructure construction projects and industrial activity including mining, energy and manufacturing usually involve complex trade-offs on competing land-uses. As a result, often industrial and construction initiatives lead to biodiversity loss. Regional and landscape scale planning may be used to minimise negative impacts on natural ecosystems, thereby contributing to achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. Modern geographic information systems (GIS) and information te...

The Covid-19 pandemic has produced another era on the planet while we sort out the outcomes in various parts of our everyday life. The food sector and food supply chain do not incorporate an exception. In Latvia, the agricultural and food sector is important for the national economy; therefore, it is important that production, processing, logistics, supply and trade disruptions are successfully overcome during the pandemic and the food sector develops rapidly after the crisis and is more resilient in the future. T...

Biofilms on exterior plasters deserve an attention as they affect not only the aesthetical appearance of buildings, but also their hygric and thermal performance that can subsequently results in an initiation of degradation processes. Understanding of biofilms growth mechanisms can be therefore efficiently exploited to avoid such conditions that are convenient for their propagation. This paper therefore combines experimental and computational techniques to predict the biofilms growth rate on lime plasters when exp...