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The aim of the study is to look for ways for applying the principles of sustainable development in spatial planning through approaches that reflect modern trends in the field of ecosystem research, environmental protection and provide an optimal living environment. For this purpose, the regulatory documents for spatial planning in Bulgaria were analyzed, as well as the possibilities for applying within their framework approaches for objective assessment of the ecosystem-s state and their capacity to provide ecosys...

The serious demographic crisis in rural areas of the country poses great challenges to the implementation of the strategic plan for the development of agriculture and rural areas for the period 2023-2027. This determines the purpose of the publication, namely to develop and build scenarios based on them to make recommendations regarding the need for urgent, complex and non-traditional measures to overcome the demographic crisis. The estimated values of the indicators were used to prepare the scenarios: the birth r...

Plastic materials are one of the main technological discoveries of modern civilization. Thanks to their variable properties and relatively low production costs, they have become an integral part of almost all human activities. The global production of plastics is constantly increasing. They are most often used as packaging materials and also play a vital role in construction and healthcare. In the presented article, the authors examine the methods of handling plastic waste in the Czech Republic and describe indivi...

This paper analyses the environmental impact produced by fish and meat canneries. The TULCO SA factory in Tulcea County is presented as a case study. Located on the Danube banks, it has a guaranteed and permanent source of fish and meat; fish from the Danube and fish farmers and pork and beef meat from a nearby breeding complex. Some specific analyzes of the impact on wastewater, air, and soils are illustrated. Impact on wastewater is detailed for the production of canned fish and pork and cattle meat, at differen...

Working in stone quarrying and stone processing poses certain risks that must not be underestimated. The safety of workers must be paramount, where work-related injuries can occur, so the use of appropriate personal protective equipment is important, but the less visible risks, such as inhalation of granite stone dust, which can penetrate the respiratory tract, lungs and lung chambers, causing silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease or lung cancer, must not be underestimated. Chemically, g...

The paper-s purpose is to quantify the measurement consequences in the purge test of equipment protected with the -p- type of protection. In order to achieve this objective, the authors involved a simulation process for a pressurization enclosure. The simulation was conducted, in the first stage, without measurement to obtain a reference after that simulation was conducted for scenarios involving sampling separately for each measurement point. The first part of the paper presented the risks of explosion and pressu...

The study is focused on statistical analysis of river discharges. The registered river flow regime and hydrological characteristics of Yantra River are investigated. Yantra watershed is situated in North Bulgaria and belongs to Danube river basin Directorate. The current study is focused on the low flows. Thirteen hydrometrics stations located in the watershed are available for the investigation. Data used are from monitoring network of the National institute of meteorology and hydrology, Bulgaria. The flow durati...

This paper focuses on introducing new procedures for control processes in the area of quality monitoring and the progress of the construction of linear structures, such as roads, railways, or engineering networks. It emphasizes automation and streamlining of processes, which includes efforts to reduce manual labor and increase efficiency through digitization. Digitization is a key element of this approach, as it allows for easier transfer and analysis of data, leading to progress and more accurate evaluation of ou...

The knowledge-based bioeconomy has been prioritized through European Union (EU) research and innovation policies. In December 2017, the government approved the Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy 2030, which set the horizontal strategic goal of achieving -research excellence in traditional bioeconomy industries and efficient transfer of knowledge-. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to examine one of the submeasures -promoting research excellence and efficient knowledge transfer within traditional bioeconomy in...

The objective of the circular economy is to definitively change the way in which we produce and consume, it consists of doing more with less, and it brings us back to simplicity, trying to break the dependence: production-consumption of raw materials, making the most of each material and extending its useful life. Through eco-design, it seeks to generate circular products that allow the easy separation of all materials, providing new ways of their management and processing to avoid elimination at the end of their ...

Fine particles known as combustible dusts can cause explosions when they are suspended in the air under certain conditions. A dust explosion could result in severe fatalities, injuries, and structural devastation. The risk of such events can be reduced by knowing the flammability parameters and the physico-chemical analysis for combustible dusts, in order to take additional protective measures generated by the occurrence of these types of explosive mixtures. The purpose of this research was to identify the flammab...

In the production process of cast iron and steel castings, a large amount of waste is generated. Each stage of production of castings generates a certain type or types of waste. The largest volume of waste is the used molding compound, followed by slags from melting processes and dust, the creation of which is copied by the entire foundry process. Dust waste is generated from the beginning to the end of the production cycle in the foundry. Finishing operations represent, in addition to a large source of noise, a l...

The oil and gas production complex plays a leading role in the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the development of which is associated with the exploration, development and exploitation of not only new, but also mature oil and gas fields. In recent years, the country's large and well-known oil and gas fields have entered the last stage of development, which is accompanied by water cut, deterioration of collector properties and reduction of production rates. One such field is Uzen. Under these conditions it i...

In this research, the study site is a limestone quarry Ain El-Kebira located in the wilaya of Setif (Northwest -Algeria) producing limestone for cement manufacturing. The present work represents a study to measure the granulometric distribution of the blasted rock using the digital image processing software WipFrag and empirical model KuzRam, in order to evaluate the efficiency of the blasting operation and ensure the stability of the benches. In this work, we will simulate the method of exploitation while analyzi...

Environmental problems in shipping belong to the most important research topics in the marine sector, where a number of technical and operational measures to improve environmental friendliness of ships can be found in the literature. Most of the fishing vessels are powered by diesel engines and alternative fuels or full electrification of the ship power system as the ultimate game changer are regularly considered in the literature as technical measures that offer both environmental and economic benefits. It is cle...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a framework for collective action in the marine environmental policy established by Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on 17 June 2008. It calls for EU Member States to create national marine strategies to achieve good environmental status (GES) by 2020 or to maintain it in areas where it already exists. Five factors are laid out in Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 for GES assessment in regard to a number of broad habitat types, as two...

3D printing technology is used in many areas, especially in prototyping new parts and elements. Assessment of the quality of powders for the production of 3D printing filament is extremely important because it has a direct impact on the quality and reliability of printed objects. High-quality powders are essential to ensure optimal performance and print accuracy. In the case of 3D printing, filament is the basic material that is processed and layered to create three-dimensional objects. To ensure the quality and d...

CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity systems of prokaryotes have been identified in 42% of bacteria and 85% of archaea [1] and are actively used in genetic engineering. However, in nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria required for agriculture, these systems are very poorly characterized. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the diversity of CRISPR-Cas systems in the genomes of 39 isolates of alfalfa nodule bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti recovered from soil samples from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which belong to the Centra...

The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast is a well-formed mosaic of pockets, small, gravellysandy beaches, and erosion-prone or erosion-resistant cliffs. A significant portion of the depositional cost along the Strandzha sector includes sand beaches with frontal and stabilized dunes, whose high-resolution mapping is a major task in this work. Currently, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are the main method for topographic reconstruction. The world's experience in UAS surveys and the rapid capture of hard-to-reach large shore are...

The task of developing carbonate reservoirs has now become extremely important. Low technological indicators of development are explained, as a rule, by an inefficient well placement system, complex geological structure, high oil viscosity, water breakthrough and the occurrence of technological complications in the process of field development. The aim of the work is to refine the geological and reservoir simulation model of a complexly built carbonate reservoir, in terms of areal coverage of wells by hydraulic fr...

Drought is a complex weather and climate-related phenomenon with significant ecological and socioeconomic consequences. In light of the increasing severity and frequency of droughts in Europe in recent years, this study focuses on assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of drought in Bulgaria during the period 2014-2022. To achieve this, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is calculated at different time scales (1, 3, and 6 months) for both the country's territory and individual municipalities using software...

As a member of the European Union, Romania must take measures to reduce CO2 emissions, in order to achieve the objective of Europe becoming the first neutral continent in terms of controlling carbon emissions. The paper analyzes the influence of ventilation systems with heat recovery in the process of dimensioning the heating systems related to buildings, both from the perspective of the calculation of heat requirement for sizing the equipment and the annual energy requirement for charging. The analysis simulates ...

Explosions may have severe consequences on the integrity of structural or nonstructural elements of a building. Being considered events with a low probability of occurrence, they are not considered directly in the design, except in certain special situations (accidental design situations). In the case of deliberate attacks, placing explosive devices at short distances or even attached to building elements can cause major local failures. Local failure and potential loss of load carrying capacity are dependent on lo...

The article presents the creation of an experimental model of a hybrid vehicle intended to work both in conventional environments, in which the use of a diesel engine is permitted, and in environments with pollution restrictions (noxious emissions), in which an electric motor powered by batteries is used. At the level of the experimental model, the chassis of the drive train was made and tested, and the results were compared with those obtained by simulation with AMESim. The equipment in the NRMM (non-road mobile ...

Soil contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is a widespread concern due to the high potential for human exposure through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact. In this study, we compared the efficiency of three different methods for PAHs extraction from model samples, including ultrasonic (US), mechanical shaking and purification with commercial QuEChERS kit (Shq), and ultrasonic extraction coupled with QuEChERS (USq) by gas chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole tandem mass-spectromet...

Directive 2014/34/EU ATEx regulates the placement on the European market of equipment and technical installations for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. The current work aims to describe the design and use of low current equipment in the development of industrial robots used for the inspection of hard-to-reach areas with explosion hazard. Documentation evaluation and testing of equipment with intrinsic safety -i- type of protection (SR EN 60079-11 Equipment protection by intrinsic safety "i") according the ...

The first attempts to explain the phenomena of soil formation and evolution were based on one or more pedogenetic factors, which results in the fact that there are a wide range of concepts and formulations in this regard. It is also specified that in the formation of the soil cover, in addition to pedogenetic processes, some geological processes also take place, which interfere with the formation of the soil cover and which are considered pedogeological processes. A thorough analysis of the specific and combined a...

Urban railway transit is one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly means of transport in the modern European city. There is a significant incentive for municipalities in Europe to construct new urban railways as the latter combine high energy efficiency with high carrying capacity. One of the main arguments in opposition to expanding existing urban rail networks is the noise and vibration impact of the new line on the surrounding area. This paper addresses the issue by means of formulating a theoret...

Among the important parameters determining the likelihood of occurrence of significant damage to engineering structures during an earthquake are the dynamic and seismic characteristics of the structures such as natural frequency, damping coefficient, and vulnerability index of the structure. In this article, the Nakamura method is applied to investigate the seismic stability of an earth-filled dam wall and the surface layer using microtremors. Measurements were taken at seven points on the dam crest and three poin...

This article considers various approaches to developing taxonomies of green projects and focusing on common requirements of countries and regions. The article also analyses the standards of the International Organization for Standardization and evaluates options for applying its key principles, while developing support instruments to catalyse green projects in resource-rich countries, such as BRICS. The research proposes a scientific rationale for systematising incomplete and controversial approaches to evaluation...

The removal and collection of dust particles from the air discharged into the atmosphere by industrial plants processing, transporting and storing dusty materials is an important objective for employers to prevent air pollution according to environmental legislation and employee safety regulations. Where the dust in question is flammable and may generate an explosive atmosphere, measures must be taken to prevent explosion and/or limit the effects of explosion. To this end, proper assessment of the risk of explosio...

Recently, nanotechnology has attracted a considerable scientific interest due the potential new uses of non-particles, which can improve the properties of cement mortars or concretes, such as Nanosilica. Nanoparticles, like those of nanosilica, have been shown to have unique physical and chemical properties different from those of conventional cement additions. Nanosilica was used either to replace part of the cements or as an addition to improve the performance of the cement such as accelerating the hydration of ...

The article includes the results obtained in the growth experiments during the postembryonic development period of the North American sturgeon species Polyodon spathula. The experiments took place in the years 2020 and 2021. Sturgeon larvae aged 5 days old, obtained through artificial reproduction at SCDP Nucet, were stocked and raised until the age of 35 days in two variants, in concrete tanks (useful volume -120 m3 /tank), located in the pilot station intended for fish culture experiments from the SCDP Nucet gen...

The Danube Delta is a wetland of global importance, providing several ecosystem services. The sustainable development (i.e., economic, social and environmental) in the area depends on the health, quality and quantity of the natural resources. Water is one of the most important resources. Largely, the Danube Delta, which receives the input of water and sediment flux from the Danube River, gathered form its entire basin, may experiences lower water quality due to natural and anthropogenic factors, from basin to loca...

Global warming caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a global problem. Solid municipal waste landfills are the third largest source of artificial methane emissions. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. The net zero emissions target was set to strike a balance between emissions and anthropogenic GHG disposal by 2050. Methane emissions from active or closed landfills may be reduced by methane oxidation, which is developed as a coating over these landfills. Methane (CH4) is an ...

Accurate river flow forecasting is an extremely important issue for proper management and optimal use of water resources as well as for warnings of extreme hydrometeorological events. Rainfall-runoff simulation is essential for short and longterm forecasting of the river discharge. Determining the relationship between rainfall and runoff is one of the most important tasks faced by hydrologists. This relationship is a nonlinear and extremely complex process influenced by many factors such as watershed topology, veg...

The study aimed to identify the influence of the altitudinal difference on the fertility characteristics of grasslands soils and implicitly on the production and quality of plant associations intended for grazing with animals. For that, the study material was represented by the soils of the grasslands in the region of the ?ureanu Mountains, part of the Southern Carpathians of Romania. From a geographical point of view, distinct formations were identified in the studied area with altitudes between 250 m and 1800/18...

With the ever-increasing number of cars in cities, it is essential to find innovative and sustainable ways to address parking. Green parking in cities is an innovative concept that is becoming part of the modern urban environment and contributing to the creation of sustainable and green communities for the future. It aims to minimise the negative impacts of asphalt surfaces that are common in traditional car parks, but above all it is about the environment and human health. They provide many benefits for cities an...

The effects of climate change are already visible through rising air temperatures, melting glaciers and shrinking polar ice caps, rising sea levels, increasing desertification, as well as more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Climate change is not uniform globally and affects some regions more than others. Climate changes directly affect Romania and lead to intense heat waves or extreme weather phenomena (floods due to heavy rains, wind intensifications). In terms of...

For most soils, genetic inheritance is the determining factor of heavy metal abundance. The anthropogenic impact on the soil produced by fertilizers, pesticides, zootechnical residues, wastewater or particles brought to the soil by gaseous emissions, brings important quantities of heavy metals into the soil. Among these, the most toxic are Cd and Pb. The aim of the study was to establish the levels of Cd and Pb in soil and Beta vulgaris roots, sampled from eight locations from Tarnaveni area, an industrial center ...

Suppression of fungal phytopathogens is one of the serious challenges agriculture and forestry since they cause significant biomass and yield losses. One of the alternative methods of suppression phytopathogens is the use of biosurfactants, which are amphiphilic substances produced by many microbes. Bacteria of Pseudomonas genus are known to produce biosurfactants of the rhamnolipid class. These surfactants can possess antimicrobial and fungicidal properties. In this work, we studied the effect of various concentr...

Various users of small heat sources in household use incorrect solid fuels. This leads to a higher burden on the environment, mainly due to higher production of emissions, but also to various problems during the operation of the heat source. These various complications may arise as a result that these fuels usually have low bulk density, high ash content, low ash melting temperatures, and low calorific values, which lead to combustion problems and often also the emission formation and further environmental burden....

The method of fundamental solutions is a meshless method that belongs to the Trefftz class of numerical methods. The method needs only the boundary to be defined using the set of boundary collocation nodes; it is mathematically effortless to program. One of the imperfections in the context of MFS is the fictitious boundary without any rigorous definition. The other fact that MFS suffers from is the nature of the characteristic matrix that is non-symmetric and fully populated. This issue is overcome by adopting the...

Water resource of a given river basin is the main component of the ecosystem and water resources management system as well. Ecological flows are considered within the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) as -a hydrological regime consistent with the achievement of the environmental objectives of the WFD in natural surface water bodies as mentioned in Article 4(1). The so-called Heavily Modified Water Bodies (HMWB) or -regulated rivers- have modified flow, which is influenced by reservoir compensation rel...

The paper considers processes of ore formation. This concerns complex dynamic natural objects, depending on polygenic geological phenomena, mutually interacting and forming a single mineral formation environment. Development of ore-forming systems is connected not only with the natural evolution of thermodynamic parameters, but also with physical-chemical properties and composition of ore-bearing deposits, state and character of manifestation of tectonic structures, such as field strength, degree of tectonic trans...

White sweet clover (Melilotus albus Medik.) is a plant species from the group of legumes, and this is why it has a capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen on the basis of symbiosis with bacteria of the genus Rhizobium that is not available for most plants.The species is used primarily for the production of biomass and for soil remediation. Biomass of white sweet clover can be used in biogas plants. It is also one of important producers of nectar for pollinators. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether the a...

One of the important environmental protection problems in Romania is air pollution, which is an extremely complex phenomenon. Industrialized urban settlements are susceptible to the phenomenon of pollution given the presence of various types of polluting species. The area of interest, where the study was carried out (Jiu Valley), is a mountainous region located in the southwestern part of Romania, known for its mineral resources and for the mining industry that dominated the region for several decades. Currently, ...

Volcanic sites on Earth provide valuable insights into the geological processes that shape our planet and can also serve as effective analogs for studying similar volcanic activity on other celestial bodies, such as the Moon. This work aims to discuss the general characterization of the Capelinhos volcanic site, in the archipelago of Azores in Portugal, showing the potential as a planetary analog. It-s barren landscape, covered with pyroclastic rocks can lend itself the purpose of becoming a lunar planetary analog...

Mycotoxins are agents with different and complex chemical structures, with toxic effects for humans and animals. They can be present in feed and food, although in very small quantities, mycotoxins have a negative effect on the health of animals and people. Ochratoxins are mycotoxins intensively studied in recent years due to their toxicity on the animal and human body; these toxins show nephrotoxic, immunotoxic and myelotoxic, neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects. Thirty male rats of the Sprague- Dawley breed were ...

Increasing demands on the thermal performance of the building envelope play a crucial role in the design of buildings in order to maintain a quality indoor climate with reduced energy consumption. In case of repair mortars development, the necessary thermal insulation improvement can be effectively achieved by using lightweight aggregates. However, the application of new materials to historical buildings might be problematic due to their incompatibility with materials originally used in the past. In this paper, tw...