Heavy rains in Brno Region (The Czech Republic)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The Petrikov deposits of potash salt is situated in Gomel oblast of Belarus in the south-east of Pripyat Trough, and have Northern and Southern prospects. Underground mining of potash salt will start at the Northern prospect with an area of 166 km2. It is expected that mining will last for between 50-80 years. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out at the design stage of the Petrikov mining and processing plant. The standard EIA procedure included a set of investigations, including assessments of surface subsidence, changes in groundwater level, changes in productivity of forest phytocoenoses and crops, and assessment of groundwater pollution due to production of potash fertilizers. Maximum values of possible surface subsidence (up to 2.3 m) will occur within the area, where the surface will be affected by the mining of potash layers 1, 2, and 3 of the productive horizon IV-Π, using a long-pillar mining system. Surface subsidence will influence surface topography, surface and groundwater, landscape structure and land resources. The result of surface subsidence will lead to inundation and swamping of land, as well as to an increase in the areas affected by annual floods in the valleys of the Pripyat and Bobrik rivers. Surface subsidence will affect the whole area of the prospect within the limits of planned mining fields, except the areas above safety pillars. In the result of raised groundwater levels the area with groundwater depth of more than 2 m will decrease from 69.1% to 17.8%, and the areas with groundwater depth from 3 to 5 m will disappear. The area with a groundwater depth less than 1 m will increase from 0.1% to 34.0%. In 19.5% of the area the groundwater level will raise above the surface level (the area of inundation). Surface subsidence and change in groundwater level will cause certain decreases in yields of timber and crops, and 2564 ha of forest, 68 ha of arable land and 324 ha of meadows will be inundated. In order to prevent inundation within certain areas protective engineering facilities have been designed, and an arrangement of groundwater monitoring wells has been proposed.</abstract>

JSC “Belaruskali”, Korzha Str. 5, 223710, Soligorsk, Minsk oblast, Belarus

JSC “Belgorkhimprom”, Masherova av. 17, 220029 Minsk, Belarus

An Environmental Impact Assessment of the underground operations at the designed Petrikov potash mine, Belarus

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The aim of this study was to investigate the socio-economic issues of a protected area and participation of the local stakeholders in conservation of the protected area. This study was conducted at 7 villages in Hamedan province in the midwest part of Iran. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Reliability of the data was determined by Cronbach's alpha. In order to investigate the relationship between the average incomes of different villages, a t-statistic test was used. Results indicated that at the 0.05 significance level, there were significant differences between most villages. Furthermore, the results indicated that there was no significant relationship between mean income of Jara and Saadat Abad villages. In order to investigate the interest for the preservation of different villages, a t-statistic test was used. Results indicated that at the 0.05 significance level of, there were significant differences between Shademaneh and Maloosan, Siyah Dare and Gheshlagh Najaf, Shademaneh and Taemeh, Taemeh and Gheshlagh Najaf villages. Results also showed that the Maloosan village has the highest income in the area and willingness to participate in conservation activities was highest at this village. The results of this study show a new approach to the protection of biodiversity of protected areas with connection to economic, biological and humanistic studies.</abstract>

Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Lahijan, Iran

Department of Environment, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch, Lahijan, Iran

Deptartment of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Sowmeh Sara, Iran

Faculty of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

A socio-economic evaluation of a protected area - A case study: Hamadan province, Iran

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The present investigation has been conducted to compare the level of environmental awareness among the University of Warsaw Bachelor students of selected fields of study, which are: economics, geography and environmental protection. Diagnostic survey method was used to collect data from 180 students. The research interviewees included 60 economics students (equivalent to 33.3% of all respondents), 56 geography students (31.1% of respondents) and 64 environmental science students (35.6% of respondents). The gender division was as follows: 119 females (66.1% of all respondents) and 61 males (33.9%) took part in the research. The survey consisted of two parts. The main part - “The study of environmental awareness” - referred to the dependent variable. Respondents were asked to provide answers to 21 questions. Twenty of them were closed-ended questions, while one was open-ended. The second part was demographics, which referred to independent variable – selected socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The data were subjected to descriptive and chi-square analyses. Statistical analysis software STATA for Windows was used for statistical analysis. The significance level was set at 5%. The study showed that the field of study significantly affects the answers declared by students in 6 of 21 questions (number: 6, 8, 11, 12, 16 and 20). Gender significantly affects the answers declared by students in 2 questions (number: 2 and 10). It can therefore be assumed that field of study had much stronger influence on student’s level of environmental awareness than their gender.</abstract>

University Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury Str. 93, 02-089 Warsaw, Poland

Department of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Długa Str. 44/50, 00-241 Warsaw, Poland

Institute of Sociology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Wóycickiego Str. 1/3, 01-938 Warsaw, Poland

A comparative study of environmental awareness among students pursuing Bachelor’s studies in selected academic fields at the University of Warsaw, Poland

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">It the long history of life on the Earth five major mass extinctions were observed. Nowadays, the impact of human activities on the planet has accelerated the loss of species and ecosystems to a level comparable to a sixth mass extinction, the first driven by a living species. Surprisingly, this fact rarely reaches the public consciousness. The negative influence of human activity is observed in whole area of land ecosystems, whereas marine ecosystems are at risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history. We have domesticated landscapes and ecosystems causing unforeseen changes in ecosystem attributes. Humanity has already overshot global biocapacity by 50% and now lives unsustainabily by depleting stocks of natural capital. Three the Earth-system processes - climate change, rate of biodiversity loss and interference with the nitrogen cycle - have already transgressed their boundaries. Human activities are of sufficient magnitude to suggest that we have triggered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The “Biosphere 2” project revailed that we are not able to build and control a different system life and that we are totally dependent on the present biosphere. The experiment known in the literature as “The Tragedy of the Commons” reminds us that we need frugality and cooperation to solve environmental problems and survive.</abstract>

The most important message in the history of mankind

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Amphibian species have been considered as useful ecological indicators. They are used as indicators of environmental contamination, ecosystem health and habitat quality., Amphibian species are sensitive to changes in the aquatic environment and therefore, may form the basis for the classification of water bodies. Water bodies in which there are a large number of amphibian species are especially valuable even if they are located in urban areas. The automation of the classification process allows for a faster evaluation of the presence of amphibian species in the water bodies. Three machine-learning methods (artificial neural networks, decision trees and the k-nearest neighbours algorithm) have been used to classify water bodies in Chorzów – one of 19 cities in the Upper Silesia Agglomeration. In this case, classification is a supervised data mining method consisting of several stages such as building the model, the testing phase and the prediction. Seven natural and anthropogenic features of water bodies (e.g. the type of water body, aquatic plants, the purpose of the water body (destination), position of the water body in relation to any possible buildings, condition of the water body, the degree of littering, the shore type and fishing activities) have been taken into account in the classification. The data set used in this study involved information about 71 different water bodies and 9 amphibian species living in them. The results showed that the best average classification accuracy was obtained with the multilayer perceptron neural network.</abstract>

Department of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska Str. 60, Sosnowiec, Poland

Department of Industrial Informatics, Silesian University of Technology, 40-019 Katowice, Krasińskiego Str. 8, Poland

Machine-learning methods in the classification of water bodies

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The aim of the studies presented in this article was a multifaceted approach to the problem of the processes of river adjustments to new conditions created by channel regulation. The Upper Odra channel has been significantly shortened by meander cut offs and locally by channelization. The influence of those changes on channel morphodynamics and the pattern of bedload transport were calculated. Pre-regulation channel geometry was reconstructed and the channel stability and bedload transport were characterized and compared with the present state. Also the flow duration curves (FDC) for the characteristic water stages and for the average discharges were plotted and analyzed to assess vertical channel bed movement. By comparing the behavior of natural channel sectors (both, present and fossil) to channelized and sectors shortened by cut offs it was possible to understand the intensity of changes depending on a way of channel regulation. The range of post regulation changes in bedload transport and channel stability was also calculated for the functioning, unregulated sector of the Odra channel. Flow duration curves reflect steady channel incision while the protected river banks prevent the channel from lateral movement. In order to achieve lateral stability, which is unnatural for meandering rivers, the Odra channel is totally remodelled and the new geometry and flow conditions created. The morphological response to the training works was channel incision and accelerated bedload transport.</abstract>

Department of Reconstructing Environmental Change, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska Str. 60, Sosnowiec, Poland

Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska Str. 60, Sosnowiec, Poland

Anthropogenic influences on the morphodynamics of the upper Odra channel

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Environmental & Socio-economic Studies

 Environmental &amp; Socio-economic Studies is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing original research papers, review articles and scientific communications concerning the interactions between human activity and the environment in urban and industrial areas, and the functioning of society and nature, both in periods of urban growth and economic development, and in periods of the restructuring of the economy and the development of post-industrial space. The research attention is focused on cities, metropolitan areas and their associated suburban and rural areas, industrial and mining districts, and other areas under human impact. The journal also presents research results across the fields of physical geography, economic and human geography, the biology of organisms, ecology and nature conservation, environmental protection and natural resource management, geology, environmental engineering, environmental law and social sciences.   The journal is indexed in Scopus and Web of Science - Clarivate Analytics Emerging Sources Citation Index.   Environmental &amp; Socio-economic Studies publishes the results of research across a wide variety of interests in the following fields:    Human impact on the environment   Biomarkers used in monitoring the environment   Urban ecology   Landscape and urban planning   Environmental protection and restoring nature   Environmental management   Reclamation of post-industrial and post-mining areas   Economic development   Urban growth, living conditions and social conflicts   Conflicts around the use of natural resources   Legal aspects of environmental protection and spatial planning   Sustainable development   Environmental education   Physical geography and geology      Archiving   Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.   Plagiarism Policy   The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.   Charges   The journal does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges. 