ALBERT

Description: Unpredictable climate changes are affecting water resources, especially in karst arid and semiarid areas. In such locations, the need for additional sources of water always arises. The paper gives insight into hydrogeological characteristics of Kazeroo County and resolves some unknowns around the catchment area of the springs important for water supply of the wider urban area of the city of Kazeroon, Iran, by using stable isotope analysis (δD and δ18O) and tracer test. Multiple tracer test and stable isotope analysis were conducted for research purposes. The uranine injected at Tale Milek 1 borehole was detected in the Chenar Shahijan spring in less than 2 and in the Seyed Hossein spring after 6 days. Small amounts of uranine were detected in the Sasan and Pirsabz springs. Based on the high apparent flow velocity (approximately 1750–2000 m/day), the underground system has a quick response to the precipitation during dry seasons. The assumed hydraulic connection between Shahneshin North (Asmari) and Dashtak Northzones has been confirmed by tracer test since the dye injected in Northern Asmari Shahneshin anticline appeared in the springs in Dashtak North zone. The results of water stable isotope measurements show that the catchment area of karst springs in the vicinity of Kazeroo is probably over 2000 m at the area of Shahneshin anticline and is positioned lower than the catchment area of Arjan spring.

Description: Rapid urbanization in cities can result in a decrease in green urban areas. Reductions in green urban infrastructure pose a threat to the sustainability of cities. Up-to-date maps are important for the effective planning of urban development and the maintenance of green urban infrastructure. There are many possible ways to map vegetation; however, the most effective way is to apply machine learning methods to satellite imagery. In this study, we analyze four machine learning methods (support vector machine, random forest, artificial neural network, and the naïve Bayes classifier) for mapping green urban areas using satellite imagery from the Sentinel-2 multispectral instrument. The methods are tested on two cities in Croatia (Varaždin and Osijek). Support vector machines outperform random forest, artificial neural networks, and the naïve Bayes classifier in terms of classification accuracy (a Kappa value of 0.87 for Varaždin and 0.89 for Osijek) and performance time.

Description: Excavation of clay soil is one of the most important economic branches in the northern part of Croatia. The impact of clay soil in Croatia compared to the global exploitation fields of clay soil is negligible. Modern methods of clay excavation during winter months due to negligible amounts are not profitable. Therefore, it is important to optimize clay soil excavation throughout the year to increase the efficiency of exploitation and increase profits. In the case of large amounts of precipitation (rain), clay absorbs water and becomes grain. For this reason, access to the exploitation field and excavation itself becomes impossible. Air temperature also plays an important role in excavation. Long-lasting low air temperatures below 0 °C during the winter months result in clay frost. As a result, excavation cannot occur at that time. The paper describes a new method of modeling the precipitation and air temperature on the exploitation fields of clay in Northwest Croatia on the exploitation fields of Cukavec and Cukavec II. The method involves the calculation of the drought index and use of the rescaled adjusted partial sums (RAPS) statistical method and its application on a time series of total daily precipitation and average daily temperatures as a climatic indicator of any observed area. Using this process, it is possible to determine the time period of the year when clay soil can be excavated.

Description: The most commonly used model for analyzing satellite imagery is the Support Vector Machine (SVM). Since there are a large number of possible variables for use in SVM, this paper will provide a combination of parameters that fit best for extracting green urban areas from Copernicus mission satellite images. This paper aims to provide a combination of parameters to extract green urban areas with the highest degree of accuracy, in order to speed up urban planning and ultimately improve town environments. Two different towns in Croatia were investigated, and the results provide an optimal combination of parameters for green urban areas extraction with an overall kappa index of 0.87 and 0.89, which demonstrates a very high classification accuracy.

Description: Seawater level changes are affected by natural and anthropogenic impacts. While climate changes are considered to be a cause for all significant recent variations in meteorological and hydrological parameters, there is still a need for the analysis at the smaller regional scale, especially of the seawater level changes. A regional analysis is essential for early warning of upcoming changes that could, firstly, affect islands and coastal areas and, subsequently, expand on larger areas. The determined regional changes could affect the salinity of drinking water sources, increase the presence of natural flooding, and impact land degradation. In this paper, an analysis of local seawater level fluctuations is provided for three available locations in Croatia distributed along the Adriatic Sea’s coast. The rescaled adjusted partial sums (RAPS) method was used and applied on time series of the average daily seawater levels for each location. Visual interpretation of the RAPS method indicated the appearance of common regularities of the observed quantities, in this case, averaged daily seawater level changes. Also, it was shown that the regional shape and indentation of the coast did not have a strong effect on the seawater level’s rise. Seasonal changes in the sea level are mostly periodic and, therefore, have symmetry visible in its behavior. Fluctuations in the dynamics of sea level studied in this paper were not regular and predictable with simple linear equations, but the symmetry was also found to be present in the irregularities identified with the RAPS method.

Description: Entering the European Union, the Republic of Croatia took over the INSPIRE directive called the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. A large amount of spatial data can be found through the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Geoportal. Data are available for viewing or downloading via different services, such as a web mapping service or web feature service. Although different spatial data are available, it is hard to access useful information through Geoportal. The aim of this paper is to prepare a spatial database which will gather different spatial data related to environmental engineering and present different queries and the visualization of the results. The main data used are related to protected areas in the Republic of Croatia, which register the environmental pollutants, air quality, exploitation and research fields of mineral resources, waste management, water management, and so forth. Alongside the national spatial data, the Copernicus Land monitoring service EU-DEM, the digital elevation model, is used. The classification of Sentinel-2 MSI data is used to provide land cover. Remotely sensed data are used in queries where aspect, slope, and land cover affect the results. Two predefined SQL queries are discussed. The first query discusses the danger of landslides, and the second query discusses threats from illegal landfills and the effect that they have on the environment. Predefined SQL queries enable users to quickly access needed data, even when the original data is updated. All data, databases, visualization, and results are presented in open access software.

Description: Natural capital is the wealth of nations that determine their economic status. Worldwide, vulnerable people depend on natural capital for employment, salaries, wealth, and livelihoods and, in turn, this determines the developmental index of the nation to which they belong. In this short review, we have tried to sum up the ideas and discussions over natural capital’s role in ascribing economic status to countries as well as the need for natural resource management and sustainability. This paper aimed to discuss how humanity’s prosperity is intertwined with the services that ecosystems provide, and how poor natural resource management (NRM) has adversely affected human well-being. Our preselected criteria for the review paper led us to evaluate 96 peer-reviewed publications from the SCOPUS database, which is likely the most comprehensive archive of peer-reviewed scientific literature as well as WoS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases. Our review revealed that the availability of ecological services is crucial for clean water and air, food and fodder, and agricultural development. We further discussed important concepts regarding sustainability, natural capital and economics, and determinants of human well-being vis-à-vis the intergenerational security of natural wealth. To ensure current and future human well-being, we conclude that an in-depth understanding of the services that ecosystems provide is necessary for the holistic management of the Earth system.

Description: The utilization of groundwater is becoming increasingly popular for heating and cooling buildings, as well as to regulate the temperature needs of industrial processes. Groundwater has excellent energy potential from various factors, of which environmental acceptability stands out, as groundwater is considered a source of renewable energy. Due to the water table depth below the surface, atmospheric conditions have a negligible effect on the temperature of groundwater, resulting only in minor annual temperature variations, thus also making groundwater a source of reliable renewable energy. This paper presents some aspects of the groundwater heat pump (GWHP) system’s design and addresses a particular problem on the influence of recharge temperature field as well as local utility lines on the pumping well water temperature. An example is given of a system designed for a production hall in the northern part of Croatia. Geological and hydrogeological conditions at the site are highly favourable regarding the groundwater temperature and aquifer parameters. For the needs of this research, precise electronic sensors with data loggers were installed inside the wells. Probe type GSR 120 NT manufactured by Eltratec, Slovenia, is capable of monitoring level, temperature, and electrical conductivity, including telemetric data transfer to the remote server. Mapping the obtained data revealed significant temperature breakthroughs from the recharge wells, as well as local temperature field deviation near the sanitary and precipitation drainage collectors. Utility installation seepage influence was differentiated by the increase in groundwater electrical conductivity measured at the pumping wells. Results show that not only distance between the wells, as the main parameter that affects the system, but also industrial utility lines can have an influence on thermal field breakthrough.