ALBERT

Description: The subject of the article concerns vertical urban farms that play an important role in nature-based solutions and ecosystem services for the city. In the face of a changing climate, progressive environmental degradation, and the related loss of agricultural land, vertical farms can be seen as an alternative to traditional agriculture. Woven into the blue-green infrastructure of cities, they may not only constitute a base for food production, but can also create a new valuable ecological, social, and economic hub in contemporary cities, changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this paper is to show whether it is possible to introduce various functions which support ecosystem and social services, and whether they affect measurable benefits for urban residents in a large-scale system of solutions in the field of vertical urban agriculture. This research shows that urban vertical farms can perform many functions and bring diverse benefits to the inhabitants of cities. In a multi-scale system, they allow for the creation of patchwork connections, which stabilise a specific city biome in the vertical space.

Description: As a new phenomenon, geotourism research is on the rise. Although South Africa has some interesting geoheritage sites, not much has been done to investigate the potential contribution of geotourism to the tourism sector, the protection of natural resources and employment generation, let alone the challenges that may be experienced in promoting geotourism. Therefore, this paper aims to describe the concept of geotourism and to identify the challenges of geotourism. It achieves this by looking at the case of the Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa, containing an abundance of geotourism sites. This research adopted a qualitative approach, with data collection involving semi-structured interviews with sixteen key informants to understand the challenges of geotourism. Manual content analysis was employed for analysing the data. A significant finding was that there were seven potential challenges in promoting and developing geotourism in the Kruger National Park: (1) a lack of packaging and marketing; (2) a lack of infrastructure; (3) security and access to geoheritage sites by tourists; (4) access to finance and markets; (5) destruction of geoheritage sites; (6) social challenges and (7) regulatory challenges. The results indicated that these challenges of geotourism can lead to negative perceptions about geotourism and can negatively impact the potential for geotourism development towards effective local social sustainability, especially for communities abutting the KNP. The major contribution of this study is its expansion of the geotourism academic literature through newly generated data on the challenges of geotourism in South Africa. Furthermore, this study theoretically contributes to the body of knowledge on geotourism and its challenges in Africa, particularly regarding the Kruger National Park.

Description: The intensive exploitation of water resources negatively affects the ecological situation in many international water objects. The problem of a shortage of drinking water is aggravating, water bodies are subject to pollution by domestic and industrial wastewater, and the water quality in the basins of international water courses continues to deteriorate. This situation primarily requires legal regulation. Until recently, despite a significant number of existing international treaties on the use of transboundary waters, there was no universal international legal act to systematize the basic principles and norms of behavior of the states in this area. The most important direction for improving public administration in the field of use and protection of transboundary groundwater bodies is the development and expansion of international cooperation and the legal consolidation of the rights and obligations of states through the adoption of legislative acts on various levels. Modern international policy in the field of transboundary groundwater resources management is undergoing significant changes. The very concept of a transboundary territory in relation to groundwater extraction was adopted both in Russia and in Europe in the early 2000s. However, the main criteria for the definition of a transboundary territory have not yet been formulated anywhere. This gives rise to the need to define a transboundary aquifer in international legislation, as well as to limit the size of this aquifer. This paper is devoted to the analysis of approaches to the definition of “transboundary aquifer”, emerging problems in this area, the legal framework, and conflicts in the field of transboundary regulation of groundwater. The zone of responsibility in groundwater extraction at the transboundary territory of neighboring states is defined.

Description: The biggest threat to cattle production in most South African communal areas is poor management of grazing, which negatively affects vegetation and soil structures. This study was conducted to assess the spatial variation of grass species density, production potential and quality in Breyten (Hutton soil type), Davel (Avalon soil type), and Wesselton (Clovelly soil type) communal rangelands in the highveld region of Mpumalanga province. Three 100 m transects per grazing area, placed at 50 m intervals (0, 50, and 100 m) were used to collect soil samples at 200 mm depth. A 100 m permanent line point method, replicated three times (50 m apart) per site, was used to identify and collect grass species samples. Grass species were classified according to life form, palatability, ecological status, and abundance. Grasses species were also harvested for chemical composition and in vitro ruminal dry matter degradability determination. Soils from the study areas had an acidic pH range (3.5–4.5). Hutton soil had the highest (p 〈 0.05) nitrate (N-NO3) concentration (0.770 mg/kg) compared to Clovelly (0.030 mg/kg) and Avalon (0.533 mg/kg) soil types. Thirty-one grass species composed of 28 turf perennials, two weak perennials and one perennial creeping grass were identified across the study areas. About 16% of identified grass species were classified as highly palatable, 39% as moderately palatable, and 32% as unpalatable. Across all the soil types, Digitaria eriantha had the highest (p 〈 0.05) crude protein (CP) (106.5 g/kg DM) content when compared to other grass species. In the Avalon soil type, D. eriantha had the lowest (p 〈 0.05) neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (696.4 g/kg DM). Across all soils, D. eriantha, Aristida congesta, Eragrostis curvula, Eragrostis gummiflua, and Eragrostis plana grasses had the same (p 〉 0.05) 48-h in vitro ruminal dry matter degradability Hutton soil had a higher proportion of common and dominant grass species as well as more palatable species with higher crude protein content than Avalon and Clovelly soils. However, for all three rangelands, there is a need for supplementary feeding to enhance the production efficiency of livestock given that the nutritive value of grasses was low.

Description: Since 2017, risk assessments for water intakes in Poland have provided the basis for decisions to establish indirect water protection zones. The preventive, risk-based approach and the related risk minimization measures are required under the provisions of the Drinking Water Directive (DWD) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption. This approach is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for water safety plans. The aim of this study was to present a methodology and to carry out a risk assessment of the threats to surface water intakes, which in Poland, should be completed by the end of 2022. Risk assessments were performed for four onshore-type surface water intakes located in south-eastern Poland. The results were presented in aggregate form, which enabled clear presentation and conclusions. It was found that the greatest risks are associated with seasonal changes in water quality (mainly high turbidity and water blooms), unregulated sewage management, the occurrence of floodwater flows and catastrophic events caused by the potential failure of wastewater treatment plants. Based on the results of the risk assessment, the need to establish new, or to adjust the existing, protection zones for the analyzed water intakes was identified.

Description: Composting is a sustainable method for recovering nutrients from various organic wastes, including food waste. Every input waste has different nutrient contents, in turn, suggesting that every compost has different fertilizer and/or soil improvement values. The phosphorus (P) concentration and relative distribution of P forms is related to the original organic material. The relative distribution of P forms determines how readily plants can absorb P from the compost-amended soil. The aim of this study was to investigate the content and relative share of P forms in composts made from fish waste, sewage sludge, green waste, and horse manure. Six forms of P (labile; bound to reducible metals; bound to non-reducible metals; bound to easily degradable organic material; and bound to calcium) were determined using sequential extraction method. The results indicated that fish waste compost had relatively high proportion of labile P, suggesting good biological availability. In comparison, sewage sludge compost contained the highest overall P concentration per dry weight unit, while labile P constituted only 6% of summary of P forms. The results indicate that the evaluation of composts as alternative P sources in agriculture should rely on the relative distribution of P forms in the compost in addition to the typically recognized value of the total P.

Description: Human resources are essential for the mining industry. It is important to understand the requirements of the companies regarding the characteristics of their employees. Job- and career-related web pages of 40 of the world’s top mining companies have been analyzed for the general demands on their employees. These demands are attributed intuitively to seven basic categories (each category includes words with more or less coherent meanings). It is found that the most commonly demanded characteristics are skills, dedication to the work, and personality. Surprisingly, the least attention is paid to social issues. The disclosed expectations are weakly coherent, with the only persistent demand being talent. It also appears that North American and European companies are especially concerned of work dedication, whereas Asian and African companies are primarily concerned of skills. The present study deduces that policy improvements in contemporary mining are necessary—at least, the demands on the employees should be made better in agreement with the actual needs of the mining industry.

Description: The main aim of this paper is to answer the research question, “Is the Gompertz model suitable for studying the diffusion of the ISO 22000 standard in Europe?” Forecasting models adopting the Gompertz model were developed to estimate to which extent the Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) based on the ISO 22000 standard are expected to be implemented and certified in the European continent. To provide a forecast for the next few years, data from the diffusion of renowned ISO standards, namely, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, were extrapolated in order to overcome the shortcoming since data concerning ISO 22000 certification was only available for the period 2007 to 2018. The results provide a cross-sectional portrayal of the European diffusion of ISO 22000 certification and suggest an interval of the estimated number of certificates issued in Europe. This research paper presents the first attempt to empirically analyze the dynamic of diffusion of the European ISO 22000 certification. A more accurate fitting with real results may be expected with further information available in the forthcoming years.

Description: The regulation of small rivers and the consequent maintenance works are common in the Central European Lowlands. This article attempts to determine the relationship between the invertebrate fauna (and consequently the biocenosis) of the small lowland river valley and its landforms (morphodynamics) under the conditions of very large and rapid changes caused by river regulation and maintenance. On this basis, an attempt to analyze the response of the ecosystem to rapid transformations associated with engineering works was made. The study covered Kraska, a small river typical for Polish Lowlands, which has been regulated along almost the entire length. The results showed that, in the regulated sections, where the natural forms of the relief were destroyed, there were significantly fewer taxa and significantly smaller numbers of the specimen. Despite the clear negative impact of the regulatory work on the ecosystem, the river in some sections showed the ability to spontaneously restore certain geomorphic features.

Description: Four nonlinear regression techniques were explored to model gas oil viscosity on the base of Walther’s empirical equation. With the initial database of 41 primary and secondary vacuum gas oils, four models were developed with a comparable accuracy of viscosity calculation. The Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion selected the least square relative errors (LSRE) model as the best one. The sensitivity analysis with respect to the given data also revealed that the LSRE model is the most stable one with the lowest values of standard deviations of derivatives. Verification of the gas oil viscosity prediction ability was carried out with another set of 43 gas oils showing remarkably better accuracy with the LSRE model. The LSRE was also found to predict better viscosity for the 43 test gas oils relative to the Aboul Seoud and Moharam model and the Kotzakoulakis and George.