{"title":"Arsenic Pollution Study at Nitra-Krška Ny Location as an Example of Line Contamination","authors":"M. Varga, M. Kolenčík","doi":"10.1515/aree-2016-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2016-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of this article was to identify the level of arsenic in soils and water as a type of line contamination with widespread environmental impact. For this purpose, as the “model locality” was chosen the Nitra River (Krškany location situated around 80 km from the original source of contamination - Zemianske Kostoľany). EcaFlow 150 analyzer was used to identify the content of arsenic in water and soil samples, SEM and EDS were used to characterize morphology, surface area, and chemical composition of primary substrate. In Nitra-Krškany, significant values of arsenic concentrations were observed for surface water, 14.75 μg l-1, which exceeded the WHO international A limit 1.5 times, for filtered water from the sediment, 149.9 μg l-1, with the present exceedance in all categories (WHO international A limit 15 times), and for soil samples, 26.6 mg kg-1, which exceeded 2.6 times the Slovak soil legal limit (10 mg kg-1). Detection of arsenic confirmed line contamination in Nitra - Krškany. As the main source responsible for contamination there was evaluated coal combustion residuals that consist of spherical aggregates from 2 μm to 1 mm dimension, non-linear topography. This type of contamination has a long-term impact due to hazardous materials and non-stable reactive surface area.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124677154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring Development of Selected Poverty Risk Indicators in V4 Countries with Specific Focus on Slovak Republic and its Regions","authors":"Ondrej Beňuš, M. Kováčik, E. Žuffová","doi":"10.1515/aree-2016-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2016-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article is devoted to analysis of selected poverty indicators as measured by EU-Statistics on income and living conditions. Our orientation on these indicators underlines our focus on quantitative measurement. Spatial orientation was selected as the area of the Visegrad group countries serving as a research base for our investigation of poverty differences in the Central Europe. Further research is dedicated to Slovakia and its regions. In this article we aim to identify those quantitative poverty indicators that are responsible for poverty status of the most affected social group of people in the country.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115261204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluation of Selected Quality of Life Indicators in Lag “Dol Ná Nitra”","authors":"I. Bakova, P. Schwarcz","doi":"10.1515/aree-2016-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2016-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The paper focuses on quality of life of inhabitants in Slovak countryside as well as conditions for development of municipalities on possibilities of drawing European funds and the performance of Local Action Groups. Its main objective is to evaluate the effect of the Slovak Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 measures on increasing the quality of life in a selected region and to compare results in municipalities that were part of a public-private partnership and those they did not participate. The paper mainly deals with quality of life indicators defined in the field of employment and quality of employment.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121567680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Differentiating Rural Areas in Uzbekistan and Slovakia and their Classification","authors":"A. Ismailova","doi":"10.1515/aree-2016-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2016-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The characteristic of the concept “rural areas” is widely different, varying from country to country. Similarly, Uzbek rural areas quite differ from Slovak ones. However, in both countries there is not applied a concrete national typology for the classification of rural areas. Therefore, the main aim of the paper is to identify the differences between the rural areas in Uzbekistan and Slovakia and to classify them using the rural - urban typology based on OECD methodology. In the selected countries the rural areas are mainly identified by the number of population living in the rural local units. According to the results of the classification by using the OECD methodology, in Uzbekistan the significantly rural areas prevail whereas in Slovakia, the intermediate ones dominate. However, there is not a big difference in the share of rural population between predominantly rural areas and intermediate ones in the Slovak Republic. In contrast to Slovakia, the number of rural residents in the intermediate rural areas in Uzbekistan is about three times lower than rural population in predominantly rural areas. There is not a predominantly urban area according to this methodology in Uzbekistan, however in Slovakia, Bratislava is the only region considered as predominantly urban area where only 2.2% of rural population from the total population reside.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126542065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reforms in Rural Development and their Influence on Agricultural Extension of Uzbekistan: Experience and Challenges in Water Management","authors":"A. Pulatov, D. Húska, D. Abdullaev, D. Hirsch","doi":"10.1515/aree-2016-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2016-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Nowadays science applies agricultural innovations in a wide range all over the world; however, number of water users in innovations is in smaller amounts. This might happen to a number of factors, for example lack of adequate knowledge exchange system, nominal extension services at places, lack of well-defined policies, barriers in ‘human’ minds change’, barriers at policy level. As for Uzbekistan, it could be said that practice of extension of innovations application and its diffusion in agricultural irrigation sector in Uzbekistan does not have much experience, however, before 1991 Uzbekistan was one of the Soviet Unions’ republics and as it is known, the Soviet Union had high practice in innovations in different sectors, as well as in agriculture. Although, since independence, Uzbekistan has continued to experience innovations in agricultural sector independently, their diffusion is at a challenging shape. This article captures the policy issue, how Uzbekistan started to develop water management issues in its economic reforms, it describes a case research on application of innovative technique on a farm level and accordingly, it tries to propose the aspects that need to be involved in future reforms to make the current situation be better managed.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117124964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
G. Dražić, M. Aranđelović, J. Milovanović, Z. Jureková, E. Marišová
{"title":"Potentials For Agro-Energy Crops Production: Example Of Miscanthus Cultivation In Serbia","authors":"G. Dražić, M. Aranđelović, J. Milovanović, Z. Jureková, E. Marišová","doi":"10.1515/aree-2015-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2015-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In accordance with priorities of sustainable development in Serbia, production and use of biomass is crucial for provision of annually renewable national sources of energy and for environmental quality conservation. Rural development has typically focused on improving agricultural production and promoting market orientation, however, as the examples of other countries in the EU accession process have shown (e.g. Slovakia), such an approach could threaten the survival of rural population. Biomass production is one of the key sectors with significant potential for diversification of rural economy. The results of multiannual research work supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia through national scientific projects and several international initiatives are summarized in this paper. The research activities focus on Miscanthus × giganteus Greef et Deu. The production potentials of miscanthus on fertile and degraded soils were investigated since 2009 in experimental plots established on moderate and extremely degraded lands in Serbia, applying various agrotechnical measures in different ecological conditions. The results show that fertile agricultural land as well as moderate degraded areas provide suitable conditions for miscanthus biomass and viable rhizomes production for energy and ecoremediation purposes.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132073561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Z. Jureková, D. Húska, M. Kotrla, M. Prčík, M. Hauptvogl
{"title":"Comparison Of Energy Sources Grown On Agricultural Land","authors":"Z. Jureková, D. Húska, M. Kotrla, M. Prčík, M. Hauptvogl","doi":"10.1515/aree-2015-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2015-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of the paper is to compare biomass production of energy plants and selected crops grown on arable land in the south-western Slovakia in 2007–2014, its energy value and the influence of decisive climatic factors on the size of the production. The data on yields of dominant crops grown in the agricultural farm were obtained from the statistical data of the farm. Aboveground biomass of willows and poplars was harvested at the end of the harvest cycle. Aboveground biomass of Miscanthus sinensis was harvested in 2010–2014, always in early spring period of the following year. Winter wheat, spring barley and maize grown for silage during the period 2007–2014 provided the lowest yields in 2010 and the highest in 2011 and 2014. The highest energy value was obtained from maize in 2014 (400.66 GJ ha−1). The short rotation coppice poplars of Italian provenance yielded biomass with energy value of 951.68 GJ ha−1 year−1 at the end of the first three-year harvest cycle in 2012. The analysis of variance confirmed that there are highly significant statistical differences in the poplar biomass yield among the varieties and individual experimental years. The fast growing willows of Swedish provenance provided aboveground biomass energy value of 868.88 GJ ha−1 year−1 at the end of the first four-year harvest cycle in 2011. The biomass production of the perennial grass Miscanthus sinensis, depending on the growing period, can be expressed by a polynomial trend function. The highest biomass production was obtained in the third growing period (2012). At the end of the fifth growing period (2014), the yield amounted to 28.60 t ha−1 of the dry aboveground biomass. The energy value of the aboveground biomass of Miscanthus reached 486.20 GJ ha−1 in 2014. Differences in the biomass yield of the Miscanthus genotypes are statistically highly significant in each of the monitored growing periods. The growth and production process of the selected energy species reflect the specificities of soil and climatic conditions of the individual growing periods, as well as the ability of individual species and varieties to provide biomass production in the given conditions. Regression analysis of the produced aboveground biomass of the crops grown in the Kolíňany cadastre has not confirmed a statistical dependence in selected climatic parameterss.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121319057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Criteria For Felling Maturity Of Poplar Clones Grown For Energy Use","authors":"R. Petráš, J. Mecko, V. Petrášová","doi":"10.1515/AREE-2015-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/AREE-2015-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Poplar clones reach a big advantage over other forest tree species in the production of large amounts of above-ground biomass in a relatively short time. To increase the efficiency of production during their short life cycle, it is necessary to optimize age of their felling maturity. It should be carried out in the stands age when its average production is highest. Mathematical models of yield tables were used to derive this production. Above-ground biomass production was expressed in natural units, volume (m3 ha−1) and the capacity of calorific value (GJ ha−1), but also in financial yield (€ ha−1) from the sale of timber assortments including energy chips from smallwood. In terms of financial yield, Robusta stands are mature between 23 and 35 years and I-214 stands between 18 and 32 years. Main financial yield per year, on average 200–1900 € ha−1, is expected from the production of assortments designed for classic industrial processing. Its increase by 50 to 100 € ha−1 is expected to be achieved by supplemental smallwood processing to energy chips. In terms of volume production and capacity of combustion heat, stands are mature about 5–7 years earlier.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"126 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128080135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Biogas Production Based On Miscanthus × Giganteus (Miscanthus Sinensis Anderss.) Within Dry Fermentation Process","authors":"P. Porvaz, J. Gaduš, Š. Tóth, J. Jóvér","doi":"10.1515/AREE-2015-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/AREE-2015-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract “Dry fermentation“ technology may be used for energy recovery of phytomass substrate which has dry matter content from 20 to 60%. In agriculture sector, while only rarely used, it is a very perspective technology at such types of biomass – phytomass which is not recommended to be processed within “wet fermentation” (process is energetically and operationally very costly). For detecting the suitability of Miscanthus × giganteus phytomass to biogas for production through dry fermentation process, as well as determining the biogas yield, at the Slovak university of Agriculture (SUA) there has been developed an experimental device enabling the pilot plant trials, which is installed at the biogas station within the area of the VPP SPU Ltd. in Kolíňany. A pilot plant experiment of biogas production based on Miscanthus × giganteus (Miscanthus sinensis Anderss.) phytomass within dry fermentation process was carried out at the period from 25 February to 25 March 2013. The monitored production of biogas was based on the substrate mixture of components formed as follows: the biomass from preceding cycle (farmyard manure) and ensilage from Miscanthus phytomass. In these experiments the amount of produced biogas, analysis of biogas and the input substrate were materialized by standard methodology. On base of the obtained results, we can formulate the conclusion: the tested substrate mainly consists of Miscanthus phytomass and manure was suitable for biogas production technology and anaerobic dry fermentation process. The yield of Miscanthus substrate in our experiments was around 117 litres of biogas per 1 kg of dry matter silage. For assurance of the continuity and uniformity in the production of biogas by dry fermentation process, the multiple-fermentation chamber is needed, which must be saturated gradually with dosing interval. This dosing interval is caused by residence time and the number of chambers. For example, at the residence time of 28 days and 4 chambers, the need of the substrate change will be on weekly base in each chamber.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"471 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116791390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identification Of Marginal Land Suitable For Biofuel Production In Serbia","authors":"U. Radojević, M. Ninković, J. Milovanović","doi":"10.1515/aree-2015-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/aree-2015-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The use of biomass as a potential energy source has both advantages and disadvantages. Biomass is a potential source of fuel energy that provides economic and environmental benefits such as less expensive and less energy intensive production, carbon sequestration and soil preservation. However, the main concern associated with biofuels is that land needed for food will be used for biofuel crops. One potential solution is the use of marginal lands which are not suited for food production. Marginal lands generally refer to the areas not only with low production, but also with limitations that make them unsuitable for agricultural practices and ecosystem functions. This can be due to various forms of land degradation such as pollution, surface exploitation of mineral resources, erosion, overexploitation and others. We used remotely sensed data, environmental data and field survey data to identify possible marginal lands in Serbia. All gathered data was transferred to GIS in order to create maps and database of potential marginal lands which could be used for biomass production.","PeriodicalId":201082,"journal":{"name":"Acta Regionalia et Environmentalica","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133568014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}