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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...

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...

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...

Based on the palynological analysis of the bottom sediment column of the arctic lake with the code name K1 of the Yerkuta river basin from the southwestern part of the Yamal Peninsula, we received a preliminary information on climatic changes, as well as on changes in vegetation character in the area around the water body. Reconstruction of vegetation around the lake has identified the development of a brush-grass-moss tundra. Shrubs are represented by Betula sect. Nana, Alnaster, Salix sp., Ericaceae. Herbaceous ...

The future of the energy industry has been one of the most important problems in both domestic and world politics for many years. This is due to the legal conditions relating directly to the energy sector, resulting from the climate and energy policy focused on actions in the field of climate protection. Poland is a unique country in comparison to other European Union countries, the energy balance of which mainly, because in over 86% of the electricity produced, comes from hard coal and lignite. This unique and un...

This article will present the main problems related to the reaction of the regional economy during the pandemic COVID-19 in the Republic of Bulgaria. The focus of the study is on the response of the regional economy, as it provides immediate protection against the direct risks to the lives of the local population, such as the spread of disease, the fight against rising unemployment or the deepening of poverty, especially in the smaller settlements, which are at the same time lagging regions. The development of a w...

The Bulgarian northern Black Sea coast is affected by many landslides. Several geodynamic networks have been built to study landslide processes in the northern Black Sea coast. Landslide research is important, as these phenomena can lead to great material damage. Their destructive impact on buildings, engineering structures and disturbances in the resilience of the earth's crust causes enormous economic, environmental, social and other damage, and often takes human lives. A modern tool for monitoring landslides is...

In Russia, petroleum and petrochemical sectors are closely related: most leading hydrocarbon exploration companies own installations producing organic substances and polymers for the domestic and international markets. Recent transition of Russian economy to Best Available Techniques (BAT) in 2021 is followed by the regulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Moreover, the sector experiences pressure due to the necessity to boost recycling of plastics and, in the near future, to reduce their production. Accord...

The magnesium oxychloride cement (MOC) as an alternative to commonly used Portland cement (PC) has been intensively studied in the past decade. Compared to PC it is more environmentally sustainable and it can be considered as CO2-neutral due to the low calcination temperature of the raw materials and its ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. The objective of this paper was to develop a composite material based on MOC, containing partially oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (partially oxidized MWCNTs) in o...

The Brown Coal Research Institute j. s. c. is realising the long term research and survey in the field of restoration problems and it is realising the long term research of climate changes in the Czech Republic including impacts to mining operations during research programme of the European Union TEXMIN solving too. The input of expected temperature increasing and precipitation decreasing is favourable for mining operation from point of view of overburden and mining cuts stability, safety of mining and mining cost...

Current context in which the emphasis is on promoting the circular economy, due to environmental policies, the food industry is constrained to develop new strategies to reduce food waste. The beer industry generates significant amounts of by-products that are often incorporated into animal feed or aquaculture. Yeast, the second by-product of the brewing process is generated in large quantities of 1.5 kg to 3 kg/100 L of beer produced. By using various purification processes, the residual brewer's yeast can be easi...

Crimea is a water-stressed region with intermittent spatial and temporal distribution of water resources. Water demand covers by reservoirs, fields of pumping wells, and taping springs. Groundwater resources of the region are estimated as 1216 thousand m3/d or 0.54 L/sec/km2, in the Crimean Mountains ? 1-2 L/sec/km2, so they are concentrated in a relatively small area. Methods to increase water supply, like conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, managed artificial recharge, seawater desalination, are used in ...

The major part of the radiation dose, which humans receive from natural radioactivesources, originate due to radon and its decay products inhalation. Indoor radon poses asubstantial threat to human health when build-up occurs in confined spaces such ashomes, mines and caves. The health risk increases with the duration of radon exposureand it is also proportional to the radon concentration. Tourist caves are a case of specialenvironmental conditions that may be affected by high radon concentration. The aim ofthe wo...

The paper focuses on updating the results of partial steps associated with the socio-economic evaluation of public projects in the field of transport, specifically railway infrastructure. The article builds on the research results presented within previous scientific articles where the unit impacts of sub-categories of occurrences on the Czech railways were determined using a detailed Database of Occurrences for the 2011-2018 period. Within the research work of the project "Evaluation of Increased Safety and Relia...

Rainfall erosivity is an indicator of the potential of precipitation to generate erosion processes and is essential for understanding the climatic vulnerability of a region. This article aims to develop a model for evaluation the average annual and seasonal rainfall erosivity in areas with different climatic and orographic conditions. The studied area covers the regions of Lovech and Kardzhali, which are characterized with high intensity of erosion processes and high erosion risk. To achieve the goal of the study ...

The electronic historical-geographical atlas of cultural and historical landscapes of ancient waterways is a combination of a traditional atlas and a geographic information system (GIS). The atlas intends to include electronic, accessible via the Internet, integrated maps of historical waterways, interactive three-dimensional models of their most important sections, with identified natural and hydraulic monuments, historical and cultural objects, historic monuments and sites, including descriptions of the topograp...

The ecological movement emergence in the Federal Republic of Germany and its subsequent, rapid politicization, on which wave the Green Party is institutionalized, was due to a reasons complex set for socio-economic, political and spiritual origin, passed through the relationships existing system prism between human society and the environment. These reasons? combination initially gave the ecological movement a specific features number, which presence greatly complicates its socio-political essence knowledge, since...

In this study, variations in the paleoecological conditions of Western Siberia were analyzed. For the paleoecological studies, a core of bottom sediments, 51 cm long, was taken from an unnamed lake located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. A total of 26 samples from the core were examined in detail. As a result, 30 cladoceran taxa were registered. Among them, Bosmina (Eubosmina) longispina was dominant throughout the core. The subdominant species were Alonella nana and Chydorus cf. sphaericus from the family ...

The diagnosis of existing structures determines the current state of the selected object. In order to diagnose structures as accurately as possible, it is necessary to choose reliable and effective survey methods, which are used to achieve objective and reliable results. When choosing destructive physical analysis, which includes, for example, concrete cores, accurate and appropriate results are obtained. However, the disadvantage of these methods is that they result in irreversible damage to the structure. For th...

An explanation is given of the regularities of occurrence of constant constituents in long-term series of river runoff, evaporation, and changes in the total water reserves of catchments, which are based on the detection effect, both in hard-deterministic and in stochastic systems – river basins. With regard to long-term runoff, this conclusion is confirmed by empirical data on the probability distributions of almost all the rivers of the globe. For evaporation and changes in the total water reserves, this conclus...

The largest manufactures of glass-ceramics in the last decades are related to the luxurious Japanese tiling material “Neoparies" and its replicas, developed in China. These marble-like materials are produced by sintering and surface crystallization of glass grains (frit) with original composition, placed in large refractory moulds (up to 1-2 m2) and the subsequent grinding and polishing of final panels in use. Since these products are manufactured in high volumes, the technology seems to be very appropriate for sy...

The atmosphere is one of the environmental components, which living organisms utilize the most. However, in large urban agglomerations, the air often contains substances that can be dangerous to human health and ecosystems, especially if their concentrations exceed the legal norms. Although the mechanism of impact of the individual chemical compounds (SO2, NO2, O3, benzene, etc.), considered as pollutants is well known, it is still a challenge to clarify the composition and impact of the particulate matters, espec...

This study aimed to reveal the dependence of the spatial distribution of heavy metals in soil on the morphography of the Lower Danube floodplain in the Ostrovska Lowland in Bulgaria. The field campaign was conducted in 2017, and the concentration of Zn, Ni, Pb and Cr were measured in the fine fraction (<0.063 mm) of 10 soil samples using X-ray fluorescence analysis. The average content of Cr in the topsoil (0-20 cm) was 127 mg/kg ranging between 98 – 171 mg/kg. It was followed by Zn – 81 mg/kg (60 – 128 mg/kg), Ni...

Karezes represent a sustainable water supply since their discharge is regulated by the natural groundwater renewal in the mountains and on upslope surfaces in the valleys. Although most karezes have become inactive due to lowered groundwater levels, they can still be used together with other accessible information sources to initially and remotely interpret basin geohydrology and the groundwater resources when they were constructed (and today if still active). This is mainly done by using karezes to map the depth ...

Peat fires in drained bogs are now becoming more active and large-scale, which poses a great threat to humans and the environment. The projects for secondary watering of drained zones are difficult and require improved methods for their implementation. Space monitoring is the most effective technique to assess the preliminary results and develop recommendations to further projects for the entire area of the bog. Analysis of remote sensing data since 1970 of the southwestern part of drained Orshinsky moss bog in Tv...

Pesticides are intensively used for the protection of field crops, orchards and vineyards, but they are also used in the removal of undesirable stands on non-agricultural land (railway embankments, playgrounds, handling areas, etc.), in water management (in coastal management, destruction of growths in irrigation canals), in forestry, etc. Regular application of pesticides increases their content in the aquatic environment and agricultural products. Their occurrence in water is relatively common and it follows tha...

The development of industrialization worldwide also leads to pollution of ground waters, surface and drinking waters. In order to obtain high quality drinking water, the European Union proposes to develop appropriate methods for purifying water from priority pollutants and potentially hazardous substances. One appropriate method is adsorption, which is a relatively affordable and inexpensive technology for highly efficient water treatment. The aim of the present study is to investigate the adsorption capacity of c...

Global warming is a dangerous phenomenon caused by anthropogenic environmental pollution. Renewable energy sources (RES) contribute to minimizing CO2 emissions. At the 26th meeting of the conference of the Parties (COP26), goals to reduce net emissions were set as soon as possible. At the same time, the European Commission has set the goal of achieving zero net emissions by 2050. Thermal transformation of conventional energy carriers causes the depletion of natural resources, the formation of secondary waste, and ...

This article describes the peculiarities of developing a customizable chat bot. It reviews and compares approaches to developing a chat bot. It describes the features of using Software Development Kit (SDK), which can be easily implemented by a technician into a company's mobile application. Such a chat bot can be used in banks applications, as well as in any other applications which require assistance to the user in solving his/her problem. The chat bot will be able to solve typical user cases, but in more specif...

The blood parameters of rats under repeated inhalation exposure to copper oxide (II) nanoparticles aerosol (CuO NPs) compared to the microdispersed analogue (CuO MPs) have been studied and evaluated. According to the results of the study of the size, specific surface area, and total volume of pores, it was found that the sample under test is a nanomaterial. Rats were exposed to aerosols of aqueous suspensions of CuO NPs and CuO MPs for 10 days at 4 h/day in an inhalation system with a full-body chamber. The actual...

In this article, we analyze the variability of aboveground dry plant biomass and yield of aboveground phytomass in Trifolium pratense L. and Trifolium repens L. under different growing conditions. The studied species are valuable melliferous, fodder and medicinal plants, which accumulate ascorbic acid, carotenoids, higher fatty acids, glycosides, phenols, flavonoids and other substances. During the growing seasons 2018-2020, we studied 15 natural coenopopulations of T. pratense and T. repens, distributed in the so...

The stone industry is one of the most essential industries in the Alpine region. This research aims to evaluate the possibility of reusing secondary waste materials produced by the quarry sector as aggregates in Ultra-High-Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). The secondary materials involved were Diabase Sand, Diabase Powder, Dolomite Sand and Dolomite Gravel from crushed stone quarries from the regions of Carinthia and Tyrol in Austria, as well as Limestone Powder from the preparation and production of...

In Oituz and Targu Ocna, the attestation of salt extraction was established during the Geto-Dacian period. The oldest written testimony dates from 1380. The mining works that serve the Trotus mine within the Tg. Ocna Salt Mine, are located in the Fetele Targului salt massif located near the town of Tg. Ocna, on the left side of the Trotus river. Currently, the Trotu? Salt Mine has 14 horizons: 2 at the Pilot mine and 12 at the Trotu? mine. The specialized 3D CANVENT program was used to establish the optimal distri...

Usually, only a part of the work capacity is spent in the professional activity, being materialized as products and services made/accomplished within the work process. However, there are also instances, in extreme cases, when total work capacity needs to be engaged, thus an important body reserve being used. Work capacity is represented by the totality of an individual’s (physical, mental, intellectual) possibilities to perform a useful activity at an optimal level of intensity and efficiency. One of the most impo...

The Istria Basin, part of Western Black Sea (WBS) represents a major tectonic unit of the Romanian Black Sea shelf, with prolific hydrocarbon bearing structures. A significant amount of exploration and development wells were drilled on this basin’s northern edge. Core and cuttings data from 12 boreholes provide important details on this basin and the WBS stratigraphy, especially for the two of the main hydrocarbons bearing deposits Upper Cretaceous and, respectively, Eocene, on which we have achieved an age interp...

The separate layer of rhizoid limestone from Urzhumian red succession of Tetyushi Volga region was studied to clarify its depositional features. Field description, optical microscopy, bulk geochemistry, stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used. The limestone under study has a thickness of about 1 m, is penetrated by a network of thin root channels (rhizoid limestone), the upper part of the rhizoid limestone is overlain by thin-laminated leafy limestone (3-5 cm) (l...

Risk management is increasingly seen as part of the concept of sustainable corporate development and improvement. It is a logical process or approach that aims to eliminate or at least reduce the level of risk that accompanies the implementation of company policy and achievement of organizational goals. Risk management is part of the managerial responsibility that bears every head of a business or public organization. That is why the issue of optimal risk management policy is particularly important. In this way, t...

The way people perceive risks determines their reactions to and engagement in public campaigns, new development projects or clean-up and remediation initiatives. Since local communities represent important stakeholders in the sustainable development of a region, their beliefs and social representations of risk are important indicators that need a careful analysis. Mining communities are of particular interest to social and environmental scientists given the long-term pollution resulting from such activities and th...

Construction of water-reservoirs across the rivers flowing into the sea often much complicates the coast protection problems. The reason is deficit of filling sediment on the coast-protecting beaches, which settle under the water. Consequently, two problems arise: efficiency of water-reservoir decreases and coastlines start to degrade what eventually ends with coast washing away and disaster. Main goal of is to develop the method of efficient solution of water-reservoir and coastal problems allowing maintaining th...

Natural zeolites having a structure with a large number of cavities allow design lightweight plasters with improved thermal insulation parameters. Focusing on the assessment of plasters’ durability, their resistance to salt damage should to be taken into consideration, especially in case of their application in repair of salt laden masonry. Although the crystallization of salts in plasters presents a serious problem, there is as yet no standard procedure for its evaluation. To predict salt damage of lime-based pla...

The aim of this work is to optimize the growth parameters of D. salina by altering nutritional factors, in order to maximize production of antioxidants and lipid fraction by the microalgae strain. For this purpose, the concentrations of different salts in the growth medium were varied. The biomass obtained was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in order to determine biomass concentration and bioactive compounds concentrations in respect to the growth medium composition. Pigments were extracted from the drie...

The earthquakes are among the most common natural events in Bulgaria. Earthquakes represent a societal challenge as well as globally necessitating practical and operational solution for mitigating risk and reducing losses. This is achievable though earthquake risk assessment. The assessment of seismic risk is based on procedures for integration of seismic hazard and seismic vulnerability of the bearing structures of the building stock. The building stock is divided into three main groups, taking into account the s...

An earthquake catalogue covering the seismicity on the territory of Bulgaria and adjacent lands for the period 2000-2020 is presented in the current study. In this catalogue are included events with magnitude equal to or larger than Mw ? 2.5. As a country, Bulgaria belongs to the Alpo-Hymalian seismic belt, it is also not absent of strong earthquakes. Bulgaria is an earthquake prone country taking in account that on its territory are recorded some of the strongest earthquakes from the beginning of the last century...

The problem of studying the interaction of various geophysical (seismic, acoustic, meteorological) fields is considered in the context of prediction of geoecological risks generated by technogenic and natural phenomena. Early it was proved that meteo-dependent processes of infrasound propagation from explosions in the atmosphere can increase many times the ecological load on the social and natural environments. Such situations are observed in the open coalmines, test sites, and other objects where regular explosio...

Protecting the environment is a top priority today. The aim of the paper is to present the possible environmental risks arising from the rail transport of hazardous substances. During transport, new risks of leakage of hazardous substances and environmental contamination from railway tanks arise during their decommissioning at railway stations. These risks can be a significant source of environmental contaminants and there is no methodology to prevent possible impacts. The current situation in Europe has seen some...

The purpose of mathematical modeling of runoff flow in sewer networks is to assess the hydraulic capacity and monitor their behavior in different conditions to predict the future state. Models of sewer networks are part of the design process. Their advantage is the possibility of simulating the future state of the network and the precipitation and runoff process in the context of climate change. With the help of simulations, it is possible to anticipate future conditions in the river basin and thus effectively des...

The article assesses the size of the shadow economy of the Russian oil and gas industry. The article addresses factors in the shadow economy emergence and development in the oil and gas sector. The article justifies methods fighting the phenomenon. The article proposes a system of measures reducing the size of the shadow economy in the oil and gas sector and its impact on the economy of Russia. It has been proven that amid the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and political and economic sanction pressure of E...

Humanity vision about steadily increasing its quality of life has had as a consequence the maintained search for available odds in order to design various energy supply systems based on different energy resources. The innovative thinking way of human beings has always been also driving the field of shaping more efficient energy supply systems with less unwanted environmental impacts. Conventional energy supply systems, especially based on fossil fuels, have been since long applied, their impacts being especially p...