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The use of Earth observation satellite data is an efficient monitoring method for the state of natural ecosystems disturbed by the development of georesources. A permanent multispectral satellite survey provides an opportunity to study the dynamics of ecological restoration by observing the changes in the spectral reflective properties of the landscape. At the same time, it is problematic to interpret the satellite observation data of the surface being in the shade during the survey, because in the absence of dire...

The number of registered cases of COVID-19 is increasing in the world, and some countries are reporting a second wave of the pandemic. Accurate and real time information about epidemiological situation is therefore urgently needed for managing decisions in the countries, regions and municipalities which are affected. Massive testing of viral presence in people’s saliva, a smear from the nose, nasopharynx and / or oropharynx, bronchial lavage water obtained by fibrobronchoscopy (bronchoalveolar lavage), as well as ...

In Russia, turning to the circular economy concept is becoming a new wing of theenvironmental industrial policy. In most Russian regions, the necessity of recyclingindustrial waste co-exists with the challenges of municipal waste management. Thus,according to the official statistics, the amount of solid waste formed in 2019 reached7.75 bln tons, 55-60 mln tons being categorised as municipal waste. In 2010-2019,annual waste generation grew from 3.74 to 7.75 bln tons; about 15 thousand landfillsoccupy the territory ...

Ceramic materials based on titania and zirconia hold much promise in modern nuclear energy applications. Such materials due to their chemical and mineralogical similarity to nature-derived minerals may be used as matrices for radioactive waste immobilization as well as inert matrix fuels in the ‘burn and bury’ fuel cycle. However, sintering of such ceramics into a dense body is still a challenging issue. This paper addresses phase formation processes and sintering patterns of ceramics in TiO2 – Al2O3 – ZrO2 – MgO ...

Covid-19 has turned our world upside down and transformed nearly every aspect of daily life, business and travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe negative impacts on human beings in all spheres of economic, social and even geopolitical life worldwide. The impact of this crisis will be the subject of numerous studies in all fields of scientific research in the coming years. According to all official data, the tourism sector is one of the most affected sectors of the economy. Despite the reported partial recove...

This paper presents an exploratory study that analysis the factors that influence the intention to use smart meters that measure electricity consumption. The authors used the technology acceptance model as a starting point for their research, taking into consideration other eight external variables: social influence, familiarity with smart meter technology, task-technology fit, compatibility, the level of trust in companies that supply electricity, price awareness, energy conservation intentions, and perception of...

Despite all technical and technological advances, most industries are experiencing damage resulting in human casualties and property damage. Thus, the presence of special intervention and rescue teams at economic agent’s units is essential to limit / eliminate damage that generates toxic / explosive / flammable environments and rescue those caught in such events. The intervention activity in such special conditions can be carried out exclusively by trained and authorized personnel in this respect, personnel using ...

The work is devoted to the study of fuel ash as components of composite cements and building mixtures based on them. The use of bottom ash as raw material is an urgent problem. On the one hand, their use in production solves the issue of creating resource and energy saving technologies and increasing the efficiency of cements and concretes. The use of ash makes it possible to improve the properties of cements, bricks, products from aerated and heavy concrete, light aggregates, and the quality of road construction....

Glaciers are sensitive to climate change. How the fluctuation of the temperature affectsthe behaviour of the glacier and particularly its flow and seismic activity is underinvestigation. In this paper, we present a study of activity of glacier Perunika,Livingston Island, Antarctica using data from seismic station LIVV, GNSS data frompoint measurements on the surface of the glacier and meteorological data. GlacierPerunika is the closest one to the Bulgarian Antarctic Base. Seismic station LIVV, issituated near the ...

The last several decades, the climate change, as one of the most serious environmental issues, has become a widely spread topic not only to individuals, but the whole international community. Weather extremities, such as tropical days, summer heat waves, switching of periods of extreme precipitation with periods of drought causing the decrease of water reserve capacities cannot simply be overlooked. Due to alarming climate situation, especially in urban zones, the adaptive measures are much needed, even necessary....

Flying ad-hoc networks (FANET) based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are characterized by frequent changes in the network topology, which is caused by switching nodes on and off, as well as their movements in space. These aspects of the FANET operation determine the relevance of the development of new routing protocols, which differ significantly from the protocols of hierarchical networks with a constant topology. One of the key problems of FANET is the high overhead costs for transmitting service messages abo...

There are two main sources of activated carbon production - coal and lignocelullosic materials. Recently, scientists have been focused on activated carbon preparation based on agricultural waste and lignocelluloses materials, which are effective and very inexpensive such as corncob, hazelnut shell, olive stone, Jojoba seed residue, etc. The cake remaining after the oil extraction from Pistacia fruits constitutes about 50% of the initial composition, so any commercial utilization of Pistacia oil should consider the...

The present paper is focused on depollution techniques representative for mining and non-ferrous metallurgy, which will assure a radically changed technological concept for a clean, safe and eco-efficient production, leading to sustainable development industry. At the same time, our works propose the implementation in the mining and metallurgical sector of unconventional processes through innovative techniques that lead to processes intensification, reduction of energy consumption, decrease of carbon footprint, by...

Even with technological development, small formats have been introduced with a photogrammetry technology that offers numerous benefits. The digital imagery for the small-format camera, installed on the lightweight platform, such as Unmanaged Aerial Vehicles (UAV), currently can be extracted from digital maps. The geometry of the Georeferenced Digital Surface Model (DSM), obtained from UAVs, is a multiplex of factors such as flight configuration, camera performance, camera calibration, and SfM algorism. The overlap...

The article analyzes the issue of agricultural development of German-speaking colonists who lived in the steppe zone of Ukraine. The article analyzes the general features and main directions of development of this process and the reasons that caused it. The main attention is paid to the process of transformation of colonial agriculture. Until the 1860s, the most important and profitable branch of agriculture of the colonists was cattle breeding. However, due to rising grain prices, the importance of agriculture in...

Air pollution in this century is a great challenge, mainly due to the aggressiveness ofpollutants on human health, but also due to their impact on all components of theenvironment, namely: air, water, soil and biodiversity. The development, adaptation andapplication of solutions to reduce air pollution is possible only through a research activity- intense innovation and supported by all those with decision-making power and financialresources. Air pollution and its impact on human health, ecosystems and biodiversit...

Legumes are a unique source of protein for food and feed industry. Legumes synthesize protein valuable for living organisms using atmospheric nitrogen which they can fix due to their symbiosis with root nodule bacteria. The formation of plant-microbial symbiotic systems depends on complementary interaction of signaling molecules of both symbionts. Rhizobia signaling molecules are lipochitooligosaccharides, so called Nod factors. The synthesis of core part of Nod factor molecule is determined by nodA, nodB and nodC...

Combined sewerage is the most widespread method of wastewater management in the world. Sewage and rainwater are discharged through a combined piping system, which affects overloading the sewer networks during extreme rains. This method of wastewater disposal is the oldest type of sewerage. At present, this method is described as less suitable in opposite to rather on the construction of a divided sewerage system, where wastewater and rainwater flow through separate pipes. The main disadvantage of the combined sewe...

To achieve implementation of sustainable agriculture practices and implement circular bioeconomy in farms, agricultural waste and residuals commonly are used as feedstock for biogas production that is in line with European Union strategy to reduce methane emissions. Anaerobic digestion of feedstock results in production of the digestate. Digestate, on the one hand, is valuable fertilizer that can substitute synthetic fertilizers. On the other hand, it is associated with methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) emissions and n...

This work presents an empirical model for forecasting the hourly values of the ionospheric E-region critical frequency (foE) over Bulgaria in dependence of both: the index of the solar activity described by F10.7 and the cosine of solar zenith angle. The dependence of foE on solar activity and solar zenith angle is studied by correlation and regression analysis. The obtained relationships are used as a base for the synthesis of the model. The model is produced by using the hourly values of foE obtained in the iono...

Hydrological modeling is the conventional approach to simulate, evaluate, forecast, and react to floods. However, the development and validation of these models are more challenging where the monitoring stations are limited, unevenly distributed, and particularly scarce in many developing countries. Alternatively, satellite images allow detecting the multi-temporal flood extent over large horizontal areas with a cost advantage for hydrological calibration and validation. Many approaches have been explored to disti...

In this paper we present a case study regarding a desert dust intrusion over Central and Eastern Europe in 5th of April 2021, observed using a multi-wavelength Raman and depolarization LIDAR system operated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This type of system meets the requirements of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network – EARLINET and is suitable to provide reliable data on optical parameters for aerosol characterization. While mineral aerosols are the second largest source of aerosol and are the subject of long r...

For craton's areas the most valuated geological object ordinary are situated in river valleys. There are stratotypes, interesting outcrops, unical paleontiological localities. However over time a lot of valuable geological objects lost. The natural and anthropogenic factors are analysed in the article that determine the preservation of specially protected natural areas and, in particular, valuable geological objects on the example of some river valleys of the north-west of the Russian Plate. The article reflects t...

Harmful substances like heavy metals are very important group of pollutants which can cause considerable detriment to the environment if they exceed certain concentrations. The aim of this study is to define the concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, As, Zn, Cd and Ni in the waters of the Rivers Pirdopska and Medetska, tributaries of the Topolnitsa River, Bulgaria for the period 2015-2019. In the analysis of the heavy metal content Water Quality Index (Canada), as well as statistical and graphical methods were applied....

This article discusses methods for designing distributed information systems for use in design using the Hyperledger blockchain platform. Of course, the main stages do not differ, but there are also differences that will be identified in the course of the study and a proprietary approach to the implementation of these features is proposed. The request for the possibility of decentralizing business processes in certain areas (such as financial transactions) led to the emergence of distributed ledger technologies, w...

In the present work the researches were carried out between 2017-2020, in the Tata Valley watershed, which has an area of 16.15 sq. km and administratively belongs to Dambovita county, Romania and is located between latitudes of 45o9’ N-45o15’ N and longitudes 21o21’ E-25o27’ E. The methodology used for processing the basic data from 2017-2020, was the adaptation of the USLE equation (Universal Soil Loss Equation) to the specific environmental and anthropic conditions in Romania and called ROMSEM - Romanian Soil E...

In addition to the traffic load, the temperature also has a significant effect on the course of stresses in cement concrete slabs. It is the load of temperature changes that is often underestimated. Recently, there have been significant changes in climatic conditions and increasingly frequent extremes (especially high temperatures in the summer months and extreme fluctuations during the day), which affect the behavior of road structures and the basic characteristics affecting the stress of cement concrete pavement...

Waste treatment is considered one of the critical environmental issues. Waste should be understood not only as a source of pollution but as a raw material. Nevertheless, we need well-sorted waste for recovery. Separate collection of municipal waste is an activity in which components of municipal waste are separated. It is based on the conscious activity of citizens, who primarily sort the relevant raw materials. At present, the citizen is obliged to sort waste by law in Slovakia, and the municipality is obliged to...

Combined sewer are among the most important objects of a unified sewerage network and therefore high requirements are placed on these objects, whether from hydraulic, hydrological, hygienic or constructional requirements. Their main function, ie hydraulic, is to divide the inflow at the time of torrential rains into a flow continuing to the WWTP and a flow that is relieved from the OK to the recipient. Another important function of relief chambers is related to pollution. Some chamber designs can successfully capt...

In 2020, China and India accounted for two-thirds of global coal consumption, while the European Union and the United States accounted for only 10%. Coal consumption in Southeast Asia has now surpassed the European Union and will soon surpass the United States. Now the global coal trend is mainly influenced by Asia. Changes in the demand for coal in China are closely related to economic growth, but in different periods of the development of China's industrialization, the degree of dependence of economic growth on ...

Textile production is considered one of the most polluting industries with a high impact on the environment, both in terms of increased resource consumption and textile waste generation. Moreover, in the past years, the textile industry registered a significant growth, which leads to large amounts of textile waste that need to be controlled and managed. This problem highlighted the need for sustainable methods and improved technologies for textile recycling, and brings into focus the importance of circular economy...

This work is devoted to the feasibility of implementing capture and sequestration projects (CCS) in Russia, as well as to evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of implementation of CCS projects as a climate change mitigation technology. The study focuses on the current state of the problem of CO2 capture and disposal and considers possible implementation of CO2 sequestration projects in Russia. The negative and positive factors of CCS technology are also identified. The conclusion provides arguments for ...

Thermal conductivity plays a crucial role in the design of external walls of buildings. This paper is focused on measuring the thermal conductivity coefficient of blocks made of structural lightweight waste aggregate concrete. The concrete mixture contained waste red ceramics fine aggregate and artificial expanded clay coarse aggregate. Replacing conventional aggregates with waste aggregates is one of the possibilities for the sustainable design of concrete construction today. A nondestructive method using the ISO...

Emissions of fuels combustion are one of the main causes of smog formation andgreatly contribute to the increased CO2 emissions in numerous countries. Many citiesdecide to introduce restrictions on the usage of fossil fuels or even completely ban them.To analyze fuel used in households, it is necessary to gain access to the chimney outlet,which may prove difficult. The following article presents the current usage of drones inthe search and analysis of these sources. It presents existing, commercial solutions, aswe...

As a result of the operation of thermal power plants used solid hydrocarbon fuel, ash and slag waste (ASW) is formed. ASW is a finely dispersed mineral material remaining as a result of burning brown and hard coal. The involvement of ASW in industrial turnover is one of the most effective ways to solve the issue of energy and resource conservation. The share of involvement of these types of waste in economic turnover in the European Union is about 98%, in China about 80%, and in Russia this indicator does not exce...

One of the components of sustainable consumption is the consumption of organic products. Organic foods, which are natural and healthy, are increasingly competing with conventional quality products. It is therefore important to substantiate the opinion formed about the higher quality value of organic food. 2020 At the LAMMC Institute of Horticulture, red beets were grown using two different farming systems: organic and conventional. Beets grown in different agricultural systems, of the same varieties, allow to more...

In this study, the authors have continued investigating the tasks of the joint application of the Gauss-Laplasse and B (beta) distributions to describe the disintegration of minerals of poly-mineral ores, which is associated with the mineral grains liberation, i.e., the release of mono-mineral particles from the aggregates with other minerals. The article presents an approach for a simulation modeling algorithm for disintegration operations of mineral particles in technological flowsheets of mineral processing. Us...

The Volga River is today a cascade of lowland reservoirs. This allows flood prevention, river-sea navigation and hydropower generation. There are also disadvantages, such as the flooding of fertile floodplain lands, a decrease in water quality and drastic algal blooms in the summer season. Due to the problems triggered by the current system, alternative solutions have been proposed that include a decrease in the amount of water stored and a reduction in energy production being, which can be compensated with floati...

This paper presents a study on the stability of nineteen excavation slopes in metamorphic and carbonate rock masses along roads and urban areas in Central Portugal. The slopes studied are formed by phyllites intercalated by metagreywackes belonging to the Xisto-Grauvaquico Complex; quartzites and limestones of the Bussaco Ordovician-Silurian synclinal; schists of the Crystallophyllic Complex; and limestones and dolomites of Jurassic age. Road safety and urban areas are threatened by stability problems. In the asse...

Powdered waste sludge from the production of technical stone (TSW), produced by theTechniStone® Company (Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic), was surface modified withFe2+ and Mn2+ inorganic salts and then testified as a potential adsorbent ofenvironmentally important oxyanions (phosphate PO43-, arsenate AsO43- and chromateCrO42-) from contaminated waters. The surface modification in principle consisted increating a thin layer of hydrated Fe/Mn ions in reactive form on the TSW surface.Thanks to the change of the surfa...

Now in the global oil industry more than 50 million tons of raw materials are lost annually during the extraction, transportation and processing of petroleum products, which leads to widespread environmental pollution of the environment with oil waste. In view of the importance of the identified issues, various methods aimed at regular monitoring of fuel and energy complex facilities are of particular importance, with the aim of early warning and detection of oil product leaks, localization of their occurrence and...

On a global scale, every year the environmental problems that arise when using traditional methods of obtaining heat and cold are becoming more and more relevant. In this regard, and also in view of a number of successes in the field of materials science, in recent years, the thermoelectric Peltier effect has been of increasing practical interest to researchers. So for several years, the average increase in the global production of thermoelectric modules and thermoelectric devices for various purposes was about 15...

The modernization and industrialization of the world contributes to create many ecological problems in the environment that affect every living organism. All the harmful pollutants that have been accumulating since the 1950s cause the greatest damage to the environment around us, which ultimately leads to global warming, climate change, and more. Harmful pollutants of the environment can be radiation, biological and chemical (organic and inorganic) substances. From inorganic chemicals heavy metals are most dangero...

In response to the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, many countries adopted control and mitigation measures (e.g., lockdown, social distancing, intermittent attendance, etc.) that significantly increase the amount of time people spend inside the built environment. Nevertheless, the need to resume activities in attendance and ensure the continuity of businesses that cannot be stopped has led to the adoption of measures to reduce the risk of contagion, mainly involving increased ventilation of indoor environmen...

The interaction between groundwater and surface water is a complex process that plays an important role in the functioning of the ecosystems, the understanding of this interaction being significant for the management and protection of water resources. Moreover, this interaction can affect the water quality due to the contaminants transfer between river and aquifer. The water movement within this particular environment can be influenced by geology, topography, land use, climate, etc., being an essential component o...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires that biodiversity, structure and function of benthic ecosystems are safeguarded against adverse effects from various human activities. Bottom-trawl fisheries have been identified as a major cause of sea-floor abrasion and it is legally required to evaluate the pressure and its impact. The present study provides a pilot assessment of the physical disturbance on the seabed by mobile bottom-contacting gears and links the pressure intensity to benthic habitats st...

Particulate air pollution from transport in cities, especially from cars, involves a variety of harmful compounds, including fine iron and heavy metals, which can persist in the air for long periods of time, increasing harmful effects on human health and creating a risk of environmental pollution. In Europe, more and more attention is being given to the chemical composition of dust not only their concentration in cities. The aim of the study was to determine which parts of the Jelgava city have the highest polluti...

Lengthening periods between precipitation have been recorded and we can see a change in the distribution of rain over time. An increased number of these phenomena has also been confirmed by the IPCC. Due to this change in the redistribution of rainwater and the impact of high urbanization, sewerage systems are affected. The problem of a high number of impermeable areas is also associated with a high degree of urbanization. During torrential rains in combination with impermeable surfaces, the time of outflow into t...

A bioeconomy refers to economic activities using renewable biological resources to produce energy and consumer goods. The role of the bioeconomy in the world tends to increase, as countries need to find environmentally friendly solutions under changing climate conditions. For this reason, bioeconomy strategies are developed in many countries to purposefully contribute to their development. Among the Baltic States, Latvia was the first one to design and adopt its national bioeconomy strategy (Latvian Bioeconomy Str...

The article is devoted to the assessment of the impact of the state of drinking water supply systems on the health of the population of the Siberian Federal District and the life expectancy of the population. Water is a vital strategic resource, and the issue of providing the population with a sufficient amount of sanitary water is one of the urgent problems of mankind. Taking into account the importance of efficient water use, the relationship between water resources and the environment, the UN General Assembly p...