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When considering the (sub)region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and its position in the global economy in relative terms represented by trade openness, the European Union (EU) members from the CEE (sub)region tend to match or even exceed the EU average and EU membership underlines their potential. Recently, environmental concerns have become prominent in international trade and in the framework of its external relations the EU seeks to boost its ambition of a global player. Our paper is oriented on the econom...

This study aims to observe the spatial distribution of the arthropods biodiversity inhabiting the soil surface of olive groves. For this purpose, a sampling campaign has been carried out in a 15.1 ha plot of this crop. This plot is located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The study comprised a total of 65 sampling stations for epigean arthropods. Each station consisted of two drop traps, one located under the canopy of the olive tree and the other in the middle of the strip. With the arthropod catch data fro...

Avoiding thermal bridges in the building envelope is one of the key elements for the reduction of energy consumption in buildings. Numerical calculations of heat flux through the joints of building structures are becoming very relevant in the past years due to the EU requirements for nearly zero energy buildings. The most problematic typically is windows installation perimeter, where thanks to fastenings of the frame to the loadbearing structure, linear thermal bridge forms. The use of numerical calculation of tem...

Solid municipal waste landfills are the third largest source of man-made methane emissions. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. The capture of methane emissions in the waste sector is addressed by collecting it and using it for energy production. Methane emissions from active or closed landfills can be reduced by methane oxidation, which is developed as a covering over these landfills. It is usually composed of a gas distribution layer that favours micro-organisms that consume me...

Humanity vision regarding available odds to design and exploit different technological applications by using for this goal diverse energy resources has been and continues to be directed to steadily increasing its quality of life. Made experiences have emphasized that industrial activities can have beside positive desired impacts on humanity quality of life also negative undesired ones. Conventional energy technologies have been since long applied, their impacts being especially perceivable on environment. Chances ...

The objects of study are Hylocomiosa forest site forests owned by government and managed by JSC -Latvia-s State Forests-. Research object is a part of forest protection zone around cities. In those protection zones clear-cut is forbidden by law. In order to promote forest growth and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, forests in protected zones also need to be properly managed. The aim of research is to evaluate regeneration success of Scots pine Pinus sylvestris L after group selection felling in Hyl...

This article compares daylighting in administrative building located in different climatic zones - Sweden, Czech Republic and Greece. Theese locations were chosen to best demonstrate the different lighting conditions across Europe. One room was selected and modelled, for which the daylighting in each country was then simulated and calculated. The values of the daylight factor were observed for simultaneous identical changes in window geometry and wall reflectance in all cases. Depending on the changes in window ge...

Bulgarian forests are part of the national wealth and national identity. Their economic, social and ecological functions are important for the sustainable development of society and for improvement of living conditions especially in rural and mountainous regions. To a large extent these functions are irreplaceable not only in a national but also in a global aspect. In this connection in the present paper a structural-functional characterization of Bulgarian forest territories is done. Actual data on the area of fo...

Aromatic plants play an important role in economic, social, medical, cultural and ecological aspects all over the world. The cultivation and processing of vegetable raw materials of plants containing essential oils with the help of green technologies are one the topical issues. The article discusses the results of the introduction and cultivation of an important aromatic plant in the Batumi Botanical Garden (Georgia) by green technologies. Based on the studies, Cumin passes the full cycle of growth and flowering i...

The alternative way to solve the greenhouse gas emission problems is carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and utilization. CO2 hydrogenation is one of the routes to obtain valuable chemicals and fuels such as methanol. The effect of indium (In) promoter on catalytic system Cu/Zn/SBA-15 has been studied. 1%In/Cu/ZnO/SBA15 and 6%In/Cu/ZnO/SBA15 catalysts have been synthesized by impregnation method and compared with Cu/Zn/SBA-15 catalyst (the content of Cu 30 wt.% and the content of Zn 1.4 wt.%). All catalysts have been cha...

The energy community, as a new mode of citizen participation in the European renewable energy market, highlights the close connection between energy decentralisation, territorial development, and the crucial role of local authorities in doing so. In the context of territorial development and keeping within the ongoing decentralisation processes, participation and sustainability is particularly important. Also, the very idea of promoting community energy, leads to the affirmation of an innovative system of energy g...

The purpose of this research work is to provide an integrated techno-economic analysis and an optimal design of hybrid electricity power supply systems that incorporate autonomy and power supply stability with minimum cost. Three isolated Islands, namely, Lesvos, Karpathos and Astypalea, in the Aegean Sea, Greece, have been identified as the appropriate sites for the performance assessment of the off-grid hybrid power systems, due to the abundant renewable energy potential in the Islands, in conjunction with the r...

Purification of aqueous solutions from radionuclide contamination is an extremely problematic topic, which is the subject of many scientific papers. This scientific topic is very relevant to Ukraine. In particular, the synthetic adsorbents - activated carbon, zeolites, metal oxide-adsorbents TiO2, titanium or zirconium phosphates, ion exchange resins, etc., are often used for the removal of heavy metal cations Pb (II), Cd (II), Ba (II), Hg (II), Sr (II) as well as some anions Cl-, F- from the aquatic environment. ...

Urbanization represents a process in a continuous dynamic and which appeared through the concentration of a population in a certain space. Its expansion was achieved by increasing the population of a certain territory, growth based on different factors such as migration, natural growth, the transformation of some rural areas into urban areas or the expansion of rural towns. Together with these phenomena, the population is faced with atmospheric pollution, the increasingly acute housing crisis and waste management,...

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

The effect of management practices lead to significant variations of the net C balance of agricultural soils, and in this paper is estimated the impact of long-term cultivation on the soil organic carbon stocks. This paper also evaluates the potential of carbon sequestration of mineral soils through management practices in temperate agricultural systems, under dry climate regime. For fulfilling of the objective of this study, the -stock-difference method- was used for estimating the soil organic carbon stocks betw...

Recent years have seen an increase in microbial biofilm resistance, which has led to great challenges for the medical community in terms of treating diseases and the food industry in terms of contamination and the loss of shelf life. The purpose of this work is to test the antimicrobial efficacy against the biofilm formed by the following reference strains: Streptococcus pyogenes (ATCC 19615), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Shigella flexneri (ATCC 12022), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Escherichia coli ...

We investigated the changes in element content and distribution in peat profile in a study aimed to monitor the geochemical changes accruing in the process of peat accumulation. Changes in the chemical composition of peat ash and underlying sediments have been studied in the central part of the Ubinskoye bog in the foreststeppe zone of Western Siberia. Two parallel peat cores were sampled to a depth of 310 cm. The upper peat layers are characterized by oxidative environment and increased concentrations of elements...

Among the support activities of any waste management actions, the optimal logistics processes are essential to assure time and cost-effective recycling scheme. Companies are recognizing that reverse logistics is a component of the total logistics management process that is growing in importance. Reverse logistics services are part of a trend toward incorporating environmental concerns into business philosophy and everyday business operation of manufacturing firms. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set ...

If we refer to the sustainable development of a territory, it can be stated that the natural resources and implicitly the land resources, occupy the central place within this process, in this case, the land use can be seen as an "indicator" element of the trends of the process of sustainable development. The specialized literature shows, in various studies, the direct and indirect influence of the relief on the way of land use, implicitly on the distribution of grasslands, through altitude, slope or morphometric c...

Surfactants as detergents and emulsifying agents are used in various fields of industry and agriculture. These amphiphilic compounds contain hydrophobic and hydrophilic fragments and are usually produced by large-scale chemical synthesis processes. However, recently there is a request to develop biotechnological methods to obtain surfactants, since biosurfactants have many advantages above their chemical analogues - higher tolerance to extreme temperatures, pH and salinity, higher stability and lower or zero negat...

The European Union (EU) is hurrying towards a climate-neutral economy, which includes increasing the use of renewable resources, including wood for heating. This direction means that the use of wood is increasing every year in the EU and beyond. The by-product of this activity, biofuel ash, is correspondingly increasing, so its further use should be considered a long-term issue. Energy producers face the challenge of making the best use of ash and often landfill it, thus moving countries further away from the EU D...

The western area of Romania, like the entire country, due to its geographical position - in the temperate zone, is exposed to a wide range of risk weather and climate phenomena with the potential to occur throughout the year. The purpose of this work is to identify some indicators that most correctly express the extreme nature of the manifestations of some meteorological parameters and their characterization over a four-year period. The paper analyzes the main meteorological parameters from the profile stations in...

Romania-s physical-geographical and lithological complexity creates a great diversity of climatic and pedological conditions, which determines the richness of the types of ecosystems and habitats, as well as the presence of five biogeographical regions, including the Alpine bioregion. In Romania this biogeographical region includes both Carpathians peaks and coniferous and mixed forests of the Carpathians, but also the intermountain depressions and higher hills along the mountain chain. Various mountains are home ...

This study presents a fertilization plan in Zadareni, Arad County, Romania, on an area of 113 ha cultivated with soybean and maize. The identified soils were mostly chernozem (108 ha) and eutricambosol (5 ha). Twenty-three soil samples were collected and, based on the soil analyses performed in the laboratory and on the specific consumption by the plants as kg/ha active substance, a series of calculations were made regarding the need for fertilizers for the two crops. A fertilisation plan was then elaborated takin...

The threat of climate change and its negative consequences is currently a very serious and immediate problem. The most observable manifestation of climate change is undoubtedly global warming. The higher air temperature has already affected the length of the growing season in a large part of Europe. Flowering and ripening of cereals begin a few days earlier than was usual. These changes are expected to continue in many regions. The extension of the growing season and the frost-free period can generally lead to an ...

As the planet-s population increases, pollution entering waterways increases, and the availability of non-renewable raw resource materials reduces. It is possible to reduce this pollution by constructing treatment wetlands, but these wetlands use significant amounts of natural aggregates. The question arises: is it not possible to replace non-renewable resources with recycled materials made from construction and demolition waste? This article examines the applicability of recycled building materials as filter medi...

A good soil fertility program requires vision and planning. Achieving cost-effective and efficient wheat production involves providing sufficient amounts of plant nutrients when and where the crop needs them. Wheat is a particularly demanding crop for fertilization, which reacts positively to the application of fertilizers. Cereal consumes moderate amounts of nutrients due to the fact that its roots explore a smaller volume of soil. The influence of foliar fertilizers for different crops is diverse and depends on ...

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

Nutrient-poor, sandy, sterile material from the post-mining sterile dumps such as those in the Maramures region (Romania) presents a challenge for plants. Sterile dumps are considered extreme environments for plants due to their unfavorable physicochemical properties. Phytoremediation has great potential to remove heavy metals from sterile dumps, and Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) seems to be a possible candidate species for this purpose. The potential of Brassica juncea seeds to germinate in a medium contaminat...

By product is broadly understood as a product obtained in a usually industrial or biological process in addition to the main product for which the process is carried out. The main challenge addressed to humanity as well as productive ecosystems, regardless of the form of terrestrial or aquatic substrate, is to cope with the rapid rate of growth of the planet's population. The demographic growth of the planet must be in balance with the maintenance of the environment and also with climatic shifts. By-products are o...

In the latest years, there was an interest in seeking for antimicrobial substances of botanical parts that have capability to suppress foodborne pathogens. Therefore, the antibacterial activity was evaluated on the crude juices produced from the mechanical pressing of some agro and food industrial byproducts, i.e., pomegranate leaves and peels and the leaves of fig, guava and olive. Also, the cytotoxicity effects of these crude juices on normal cells were estimated to check the safety of these crude juices on the ...

Procedural techniques are used to generate 3D models, textures, images, and effects. Procedural modelling is widely used in areas such as architecture, archeology, and video games, and is based on a series of rules and algorithms. Computer-generated architecture (CGA) is a set of rules that software uses to automatically generate models. This paper describes the process of creating three models using CGA rules and procedural modelling. The models were created using the free Blender software and the geometry nodes ...

The paper presents an analysis of the impact of the enterprise on the state of the soil layer. The impact was considered as a complex of separate physical and physico-chemical processes. To do this, we used the method of determining the cleaning efficiency indicators developed by the author, which is based on a simulation experiment. The algorithm for conducting a simulation experiment on a set of models was used, taking into account the established coefficients, and 10,000 of its implementations were carried out....

Zeolites can either occur naturally, in volcanic rock formations, or can be synthesized in the laboratory. When ground to a fine powder, they can be successfully used as supplementary cementitious material because of their chemical composition consisting in large amounts of SiO2 and Al2O3 that react with Ca(OH)2 to produce C-S-H gels. The composition of synthetic zeolites can be tailored to suit the purpose of their use in cementbased mortar and concrete and they can be produced from a variety of sources and at mu...

Using aerial vehicles without pilot (UAV-unmanned aerial vehicle) or Drone has seen a rapid development, over the last decade, in order to obtain spatial information of the Earth's surface. This scientific paper was realized for the Hydrotechnical Node of Costei, from Timis County and has as purpose the processing of aerial images, obtained from a Phantom4 Pro device, which is capable to capture video at 4K resolution at 30 frames per second and Full HD 1080p at 120 frames per second for a slow motion with a Sony ...

Taxation can be used as a tool to promote sustainable waste management and recycling of industrial plastic, paper and glass; therefore, this article aims to assess the effectiveness of existing waste taxes by considering their effects on waste generation and disposal in Europe. In this context, a comparative study has been carried out to understand taxpayers- behaviours towards waste taxation, tax rates and methods preferred to calculate the amount of tax to be paid. Sustainable waste management is of particular i...

Almonds can be infected by mycotoxigenic fungi both during the vegetation and during storage after harvesting. Most of the times the almonds are healthy, but during the improper storage they can be contaminated by fungi from the genus Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. The mentioned fungi are very dangerous for health because they are producing carcinogenic mycotoxins. The purpose of the work was to identify the fungi that are growing on the marketed almonds when they are placed on culture media after a previo...

In the current society, the topic of global environmental problems that people face in their everyday lives is becoming more frequent. The consumption lifestyle of people has a negative impact on the environment, which causes reduced quality of life on Earth. One of the most important tasks of education is leading children toward sustainable living. The study is focused on a specific pedagogical-didactical approach - Forest pedagogy as one of the options for environmental education as well as building a relationsh...

The theoretical model of perfect business competition is designed based on five assumptions: atomicity of demand and supply, homogeneity of the product, free entry/exit in/from a branch of activity or on/from the market, market transparency, (with the fundamental assumption of the individual's rationality) and perfect mobility of production factors [1], [2]. The factorial analysis carried out for an economic agent from an Eastern European country highlighted the fact that the production function is homogeneous. Fo...

Today, drones are already widely used in agriculture and forestry. Drones can help spray plants, take surface measurements, and estimate the damage caused by adverse weather conditions or wild animals. Drones can also be used in caring for the condition of crops. Traditional methods of detecting threats related to plant disease are time-consuming and ineffective. Thanks to the use of drones equipped with appropriate vision systems, it is possible to carry out quick and precise control of the condition of the plant...

OVERVIEW / RESUME – ISSUE 3.2 (Vol 22) -------------------------------------- This conference proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 22nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2022 (Surveying Geology and Mining Ecology Management), that was held in the period of 6 - 8 December, 2022, Vienna, Austria. In this specific Issue 3.2, after a double-blind peer review process based on the COPE standards, there are only 53 academic research papers accepted for publication. The papers ...

Many oilfields such as supergiant Romaschkinskoye oilfield in Russia contain heavy oils that are complicated to recover. In order to increase the proportion of obtained oil, methods of enhanced oil recovery are implemented, and microbial methods (MEOR) are considered as safe and efficient once. In-situ MEOR are based on stimulation of oilwell microflora that partly decomposes hydrocarbon molecules or alters oil-water interface tension. Despite oilwells are an environments with anaerobic conditions, many allochtono...

Nature-based Solutions is an umbrella concept, gaining traction in recent years. It implies working with nature in order to simultaneously address multiple challenges humanity faces today, including biodiversity loss, climate change, food and energy insecurity. Nature-based Solutions are being applied across landscape types, including urban, rural, forest and protected areas. Combining nature-based solutions with landscape design, however, has predominantly been considered in cities. However, there is a great pote...

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

Because of the electric propulsion, electric scooters could be a potential way how to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in urban transportation sector; however, recent research has cast doubt on that. This article focuses on the effect the electric scooter use has on CO2 emissions by examining the electric scooter trip data obtained during 2021 scooter season in Riga city. As shared scooters routinely replace already existing modes of transportation, the article analyses the effect which this replacement has...

There is an emergent trend for the protection of geographical indication (GI) of medicinal plants, herbs and teas not only in the context of intellectual property rights, but also due to multiple concerns regarding contamination from polluted air, soil and water in some source countries, climate change, quality control and traceability. The mineral content coupled with chemometrics can be used to create elemental fingerprints. Lime flower (Tilia cordata), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), and Lady-s Bedstraw (Gal...

While comprehensive legislative frameworks may exist, the sustainable management of construction and demolition waste has proven challenging, especially for countries where environmental maturity may be still lacking. Recognizing the great potential for recycling and reusing CDW materials, Cypriot researchers are developing a new green building facade material using recycled materials. However, the market success of such a material is highly dependent on sound management and on stakeholders- acceptance, hence the ...

Taking into account the fact that by fortifying chocolate, more nutritious and healthier chocolates are obtained, in this work we set out to obtain an assortment of milk chocolate with the addition of chicken eggshell powder and to evaluate its mineral intake. Practically, the purpose of this experiment is the superior valorization of eggshell waste from household activities as a mineral fortification for milk chocolate. Four types of milk chocolates were prepared with the addition of 0, 1, 2 and 4% chicken eggshe...

In the era of sustainable development, the sustainability-era, the different instruments, and modern tools to carry out actions and activities that lead to an increase in the quality of life, both rural and urban environment, led us to ask the following questions: What are in fact the visible or less visible costs, in the medium and long term, when we choose to carry out activities related to agriculture that have easy and short-term success? What are the risks or benefits of such activities, in the medium and lon...