Suchergebnisse

Slovak Republic is a member of the European Union and is a part of the European energy market. Although Slovakia contributes only marginally to global emissions, there is an effort to meet obligations from the Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. As in many countries, power industry emissions dominate Slovakia's emissions output but are partly affected and lowered by the share of nuclear energy. The transition from fossil fuels to renewables is supported by the government, and practical steps have been taken to promote the wide use of renewable resources, such as biomass or solar energy. Another step in this transition process is the support of new technologies that use hydrogen as the primary energy source. The European Union widely supports this effort and is looking for possible sources for hydrogen generation. One of the main renewable resources is hydropower, which is already used in the Slovak Republic. This article presents the current situation of the energy market in Slovakia and possible developments for future hydrogen generation.

Understanding interactions between ecosystem services (ES) is a high priority in ES research. Two types of interaction are commonly defined: (1) tradeoffs, in which one service increases while another one decreases in time or space; (2) synergies, in which both services either increase or decrease. Most studies on ES use statistical analysis and descriptive methods to assess ES spatial or temporal correlation. Recently, a new framework for ES interactions based on ecological-economic production possibilities frontier (EEPPF) has been developed, which relies on the production theory branch of microeconomics. Applied to natural capital, this framework considers different levels of ES produced across a broad range of management actions and landscape configurations and describes graphically the nature and intensity of ES interactions by determining the production frontier (i.e. the set of Pareto-optimal values for pairs of ES). This study aims to estimate empirically EEPPF using multiple ES maps and to compare the EEPPF framework with statistical approaches. InVEST software was used to model and map ES production in the upper part of the Reventazón watershed (Costa Rica) for carbon storage (C), water yield, sediment retention, nitrogen retention (n) and phosphorus retention (p). Agricultural production (pa) was represented by its economic value. Spatial concordance and temporal covariation between ES were analyzed using statistical correlations for four observed land-uses (LU) over time. EEPPF curves were constructed using a set of 32 contrasting LU scenarios generated considering slope and altitude constraints for some LU and assuming different LU proportions and distributions (either random or clustered). The nature and intensity of interactions between ES varied widely according to the methodologies used for evaluating tradeoffs. In comparison with the analysis of spatial and temporal ES correlations, EEPPF curves brought supplementary information related to tradeoff intensity and identification of optimal LU scenarios.

The European Union is one of the world's largest raw material consumers; however, the EU's share in global mineral raw material production is small. This creates a risk, because the economy depends on other countries/regions. To avoid this situation the EU encourages its members to increase exploration for and better exploitation of mineral resources. There are many historical and abandoned mining areas across Europe that could have high economic potential in the future. In this paper we would like to present through examples a method demonstrating how universities and students can provide data and new aspects for prospective research, governments and exploration companies. Our study shows that students with an interest in economic geology during their education could give us new perspectives and possibilities for supporting the national economies and the EU, as well.

Sheep and Goat - farming still have great economic importance and opportunities for further development in Serbia. One million ha of Yugoslav meadows surface are in Serbia. Majority of meadows are situated in mountainous regions far away from life environment pollutants. 328.750 sheep are property of Vojvodina, 407.000 of Kosovo, make a total of 2.575.000 sheep in possession of Serbia, 4-6% of the total are property of government farms 3% are in cooperation and 93% on private farms. 4.000 goats are bred on government farms. 23.0001 of lamb and sheep meat was delivered from this regions of Serbia which made 37,7% of the total Yugoslav production. Yugoslavia exported 2.327.000 kg in kind on foreign markets, and 40% of that amount was from Serbia. Mountainous region of Serbia, according to our investigation, is a perspective producer of biologically more valuable food with great possibilities of using the existing comparative advantages. ; U brdsko-planinskim područjima Srbije nisu dovoljno iskorišćene komparativne prednosti za proizvodnju biološki zdravijeg mesa i proizvoda (mleko, sir) ovčarstva i kozarstva. Efekat u proizvodnji jagnjećeg mesa na brdsko-planinskim terenima neuporedivo je veći u virtemberške rase i meleza pramenke i virtemberga u poređenju s autohtonom pramenkom.

Introduction According to the soil survey by Szabolcs, (1971) and Várallyay et al. (1979, 1980) the salt affected soils cover about 1 million hectares in Hungary. Salt affected soils (SAS) with structural B-horizon (meadow solonetz soils) represent the most widely spread group of SAS in Hungary. About 40-50 percent of these soils have been reclaimed and used as arable land until now. Bio-energy might offer an alternative land use of the territories covered by soils with different problems. The European Union aims at replacing 20% of the fossil energy in the transport sector by 2020 with renewable fuels (EC Green Paper, 2000). The territories with good soils are very limited and bio-energy production can reduce the territories for food production, that is why it is very important to investigate the production possibilities of energy crops on marginal soils. Sorghum seems to be a promising energy crop on SAS, because it can tolerate some salt content in the soil, and there were positive experiences with producing the different sorghum hybrids on heavy clay soils, and salt affected soils (Bocskai, 1968; Halász, 1968). In the Karcag Research Institute sorghum was introduced as an alcohol source by Kapocsi et al. (1984), Blaskó et al (2006).