Around the Bloc: Ukraine, Baltics Vent Spleen Over Russian-German Pipeline Plan
Gazprom and Western partners want to double capacity of Nord Stream pipe, although no time frame has been set.
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Gazprom and Western partners want to double capacity of Nord Stream pipe, although no time frame has been set.
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Investigation by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project points to a dangerous fraud.
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In a rare show of unity, the Kremlin and environmental groups concur on the risks posed to unique Lake Baikal by the proposed dam.
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Most scientists believe that “the most powerful explosion in documented history,” as the BBC put it, was caused by a meteor or a comet. All agree it left part of Siberia a wasteland.
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Global warming is a fact. The reason for this can only be a guess. There are hypotheses claiming that the climate changes are consequences of human activities. Other hypotheses say that such occurrences appear regularly every few thousand years. As early as the beginning of the twentieth century some scientists noticed indicators of the growth of the global average temperature. Regardless of the reason global warming is observable mostly in polar areas. Nowadays about four million people live in the Arctic including native inhabitants. Global warming impacts on all of these including indigenous peoples of the Arctic whose cultural identities have always been related to nature. They have always lived in harmony together with nature, they have been a part of it and have never tried to fight against it. A changing climate can make them give up the way their ancestors used to live. Afterwards it can cause the disappearance of their languages and cultures that languages are parts of. Besides for many decades all indigenous people had been thought to be at a lower development level than new arrivals so today almost all languages spoken by indigenous peoples of the Arctic are endangered. All indigenous peoples of the Arctic have common points in their histories like deprivation of lands and suppression of languages and traditions. Most of their ancient customs and religions are forgotten but there are many material marks that are important for future generations. It is very important to preserve the marks and the knowledge of their languages because the value of them is priceless. Today native inhabitants of the Arctic live in countries with various law regulations so their situation is different in each country. Some of them have some autonomy, but others still seek it.
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Governmental plans to generate hydropower from the Vjosa River draw protests from environmentalists, locals.
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Experts believe rising temperatures in the Arctic Circle caused permafrost to thaw and release infectious anthrax spores from a diseased reindeer carcass.
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Case highlights restrictions imposed on residents in Russia’s closed cities.
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The aim of the paper is to evaluate the sustainability of the location of all elements of tourist infrastructure on the slopes of Babia Góra Mt. in the Western Beskidy Mountains taking into account local relief and a range of geomorphologic processes. For more than 130 years, local tourist facilities remained unthreatened by slope processes with the exception of very limited sections of the northern slope. A deep-seated landslide reactivated in the mid 19th century affected a small section of that slope that is outside of regular tourist traffic while another landslide, a shallow one that remains active, has been damaging a single marked tourist trail. Debris flows observed locally on the northern slope are not typical of contemporary relief dynamics across Babia Góra Mt. and therefore cannot be regarded as a universal threat to local tourist infrastructure. In addition, snow avalanches that reach short stretches of tourist trails on the northern slope have not damaged them. The current hazard status of the tourist infrastructure on Babia Góra Mt. is clearly better than it would have been if certain heavy development plans had been carried out in geomorphologically vulnerable areas.
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The paper presents the results of a study of the human impact on the evolution of a landslide lake. An example of a landslide lake subjected to strong anthropogenic influence is that of the Pucołowski Stawek lake in the Gorce Mts. Historical data analysis, interviews with local inhabitants, and several surveys of the lake area and shoreline at various moments of its history have enabled us to reconstruct the lake’s evolution since the early 20th century. Research has shown that since the first field description in 1932, the lake did not become overgrown (as it is very common for this type of lake), until the late 1980s. The reason for its preservation has been human activity. The subsequent acceleration of the overgrowing of the Pucołowski Stawek lake has been connected with the cessation of mowing, grazing and peat extraction in the lake basin. This has led to the full disappearance of this water body and the reservoir to fen type peat bog. In December 2011, the owners of the lake deepened the lake basin and removed organic sediments at the same time. This led to lake reactivation, although with a changed shoreline. The area of the lake basin decreased about 22% compared with its size in 1968. The same is true of the shoreline development factor which is now 1.08 compared with 1.23 in 1968. Dynamic plant succession has been observed since 2012 in the Pucołowski Stawek lake, and the lake area has decreased about 27% compared with its size in 2012. The consequences of the action which led to the deepening of the lake significantly affected the fauna and flora of the reservoir, causing improvement in amphibians’ habitat conditions. Human activity in this area has led to water reservoir reactivation, giving it unique landscape value as well as increasing its biodiversity by restoring adequate habitat conditions.
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Outdoor advertising is increasingly being used as a medium in marketing. It allows a simple and effective way to reach potential customers. Outdoor advertising as „the only medium that cannot be turned off” is growing faster than traditional means of marketing communication; it results in an increase in the intensity of its occurrence in public space. However, it is accompanied by negative consequences such as the degradation of the quality of public space and the aesthetics of the landscape. The aim of the study is to answer the question: Is the quality of the mountain landscape significantly threatened by widespread outdoor advertising? The study area consists of the Tatras on the Polish and Slovak sides. Significant differences were found in the occurrence of outdoor advertising on both sides of the border. Much more advertising media exists in the Polish (northern) part of the study area where they have the highest concentration along major roads and at tourist destinations. In the Slovak part, the distribution of advertising media has a lower intensity. The final finding is that chaos exists in areas of high landscape value in terms of advertising volume.
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The paper presents a hydrological cycle that takes place in nature and addresses the concept of water resources and the methods of their measurement as well as the shortage of water resources. In the ensuing discussion, the paper assesses those conditions by the continents and regions, pointing out the difficult situation in Northern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Further, it presents the investigation of the correlation between the volume of GDP and the particular features of water management within the continents. The results of calculations show differences, yet there is a clear correlation between the number of population, the water consumption and other indexes of water management. The paper ends with the conclusion that there is basically no shortage of water resources within the world economy, yet there is more and more acute crisis in water supply on the regional scale due to the insufficient water supply and sewerage infrastructure, improper economic policy and environmental policy, and poverty among large groups of population.
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Problem statement. Today, the legal doctrine of Ukraine lacks a proper general analysis of the legal regime of the water resource inventory lands. The subject is especially relevant for revealing the nature of that category of lands and their effective utilization. In this respect, a need arises to research the legislation of Ukraine and scientific concepts as to legal regulation of the water resource inventory lands, the features, specificity and content of which is to be explored.The topical value of the research. The objective and goals of the research are to analyze the specific features of legal regulation of the water resource inventory lands, develop a doctrinal conception of the said land category, their main designated purpose, structure, and formulate a series of conclusions, which should be of both theoretical and practical significance.Recent research and publications analysis. Certain aspects of the problem have been considered in the works by such land law scholars as V. Аndreitsev, H. Аnisimova, О. Donets, А. Hetman, V. Hordieiev, І. Каrakash, P. Кulynych, А. Міroshnychenko, V. Nosik, О. Pohorielova, О. Pohribnyi, А. Sokolova, А Тurubyner, Yu. Shemshuchenko, М. Shulha, Yu. Vovk and other scientists.The aim of the article. The paper presents a theoretical generalization and provides a new solution to the scientific task of determining the features, specificity and content of the legal regime of the water resource inventory lands. With regard to the theoretical provisions presented in the paper, as well as a study of the modern scientific achievements, analysis of the national legislation ofUkraine and international experience in the field, a number of conclusions of theoretical and practical significance have been formulated.Conclusions of the research. Based on the analysis of the national laws relating to lands of the researched category and the legislation genesis, the author concludes as follows: continuous changes of the character of relations pertaining to use and protection of the water resource inventory lands have stipulated the introduction and development of the normative regulation of that kind of social relations in specific regulatory acts; elaboration of legislation relating to lands of the water resource inventory was incoherent and non-simultaneous; despite a sufficient number of normative and regulatory acts, adopted after approval of the Land Code in 2001, many issues concerning the use and protection of the water resource inventory lands remain unresolved, the legal regulation of relations pertaining to their use being applied at the level of bylaws, which does not comply with the call of today. In this connection, the legal regime of the water inventory lands is incomplete as for legal regulation sphere and thus requires improvement.
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The Kraków Metropolitan Area (KOM) is a specific functional region comprising a big city that is the Kraków metropolis, together with its neighbouring complex of settlements with a variety of mutual interactions. The social and economic space requires multi-dimensional enhancement of its interrelations and partial rehabilitation of its developed areas; it constitutes, at the same time, a potential which strengthens the position of Kraków as a European city. A clear structure of the metropolitan area and its internal links through green seams provide the basis for functional and spatial integration of the metropolis. The greenery, comprised in larger natural structures such as river parks and green wedges, enhances the area's polycentric concept. The shaping of the urban tissue of Kraków and its suburban zone by composing and building a network of open spaces is the basic criterion for developing a coherent metropolitan area with a sustainable structure. Many problems of the urban environment and its surroundings can be fully understood through their analyses in various scales. In order to better illustrate this complex system of interrelations, reference should be made in analyses to the macroregional scale then narrowing them to the regional scale, to ultimately go down to the metropolis. The issues covered in the paper concern open areas which should not be discussed without a broader spectrum because the notion of green areas is understood to mean primarily spaces which are networked and intertwined with the settlement structure. Some of them are clear, for instance the greenery which accompanies water courses, and easy to identify. Marshlands are mostly linearly continuous and this makes them coherent in their nature. Other green areas (apart from larger forest complexes) are not of essential significance for the integration of the metropolis. The example of Kraków shows that the KOM (1) has a big potential expressed through its natural environment in the form of green areas. The anthropopressure, however, is so high that open spaces are being absorbed by developments. It is riverside areas which have retained a clear structure of interrelations and they should be perceived as the future for the links in the metropolitan area.
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The main aim of this paper is to present the concept of regional distance as a measure of economic diversity at the regional level. Additionally, the paper is devoted to the identification of regional inequalities in Poland, based on the metric presented. Estimates of the regional distance between specific regions (NUTS 2) and the mean level of development of the national economy or Mazowieckie Voivodship (the region with the highest GDP per capita in Poland) were based on calculations conducted using logarithmic equations. Two different distances were calculated: (a) the mean number of years required to achieve the present reference area level of development, (b) the mean number of years necessary to achieve the reference area GDP per capita, taking into consideration the growth rate of the reference area. The empirical example of regional distance application revealed significant inequalities between regions of Poland at NUTS 2 level.
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This article is dedicated to the characterization of the main legal aspects of general guarantees the right of subsoil use, attempts to analyze and determine their shape and provide specific features. Revealed shortcomings of legal regulation of this issue and investigate the possible ways to overcome existing gaps in legislation on this issue.Guaranteeing the rights of common mineral resources means legally defined as the ability of each or certain social groups require the State create a system of positive regulation of general relations subsoil, filling gaps in the regulatory and interim mechanism, removal of existing conflicts or unjustified restrictions on legal support
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Equitable access to land uses and optimum use of land is an essential element of sustainable development and social justice. One of the challenges on the way of today's cities is the lack of suitable locations for urban activities which made urban life difficult. In general, land and space is a public source of life and public wealth and is considered as a commodity which we should use in line with public interests. It should be monitored and evaluated, which is a duty of land use planning. Land use planning has spatial and location organization and urban activities according to the needs and wants of urban community on its agenda. The aim of the present study is to investigate spatial distribution of urban land use in Zone Three of Isfahan city and determine the deficiencies and problems of its uses. Arc GIS software was used for descriptive and factor analysis and land studies. The result of the study shows that Zone Three of Isfahan has different uses with a cross-regional role which created problems in the city. And also, most of the uses in the region lacks suitable homogeneity (such as educational, hygienic, recreational, sports uses and etc) and the uses aren’t distributed optimally in the region.
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Rivers have been an important element of urban development for centuries, affecting human life and providing a number of functions connected with commerce, defence, transport, communication and culture. Today's river-city relationship takes on a completely different dimension and is considered through the prism of the beauty which shapes the urban landscape and is a key element in integrating its inhabitants. It affects the city's economic fabric, for instance through increased tourism and investment. Besides, it provides an impetus for the implementation of numerous architectural and urban projects whose task is to integrate its space or, as is often the case, insure the future viability of the riverside, including former port areas. Therefore the aim of this paper is to analyse projects which represent so-called best practice in the restoration of city riverside areas using examples from Western European cities which have experienced the implementation of such projects. The paper presents an analysis of cities selected due to the availability of source materials: Düsseldorf, the largest revitalised area, followed by London and Hamburg, the smallest. It should be emphasised that the author will continue her research on the former port areas, focusing mainly on the German sites.
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Taking into consideration that humanity’s greatest achievements have been accomplished through projects in all areas of its activity, which, therefore, made its impact on the global environment increasingly negative, the state members of European Union have introduced the legislature to regulate environmental protection, stipulating thus numerous environmental laws and project related regulations. The paper, however, refers to several legal provisions important for environmental protection, such as directives on, so called, horizontal legislation as a part of EU legislation.This covers integration of environmental protection into all economic sectors, strategic assessment of plans and programs, assessment of project impact on environment, access to information and reporting on the implementation of directives on the environment. The environment protection legislation which regulates such projects significantly changes the understanding of project management. Consequently, the necessity of constant adapt existing models of project management to the newly emerging conditions, including legal regulations as a control instrument of environmental protection, is highly emphasized.
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In the middle of the second decade of the XX1 century, the changes in the regional and global climate take on even more pronounced character. The extremity of a line of climatic events rises. More and more atypical events connected with fast alterations in the atmospheric circulation are registered. The primary difference in the prognostication of meteorologists and climatologists is in the approach in analysis of climatic events. Their purely mathematic modelling (especially of temperature regime) is with significant diversions in extreme climatic events. The current parameters of climatic elements (basic data) and the nature of the trend of climatic events should have priority in the prognostication.
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