Search

In recent years we observe a significant growth in transport performance in passenger and freight transport. Generally speaking, traffic must meet high the requirements for the quality and speed of transport. The quality of transport infrastructure is closely related with the growth of living standards and economic development of the country. The objective of transport policy in our country, as well as in other countries around the world, is ensuring the sustainable development of mobility. Slovakia as a member of European Union respects and fulfils its recommendation in area of road safety, decreasing of emission and energy intensity. Therefore there is a need to implement such a measure, whit which is possible to reach the required goals. In a field of road administration is a need to search and implement new environmental acceptable materials and technologies, to develop of such transport modes, to ensure the transportation needs at particular quality and without negative effects on the environment and climate changes. The paper focuses on environmental efficiency related to the performance of transport and the impact on the environment - emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water represents the natural wealth of the state. It is the important raw material with strategic meaning, irreplaceable component of environment and all living ecosystems, but also the raw material entering to all technological processes and it is the limiting factor of sustainable development of regions and all society. Regarding its sensitive predisposition to vulnerability, as well as from the reason of incoming climatic change and its anticipated negative impact on environment including water, it is necessary for the state to protect, maintain and preserve its water resources as the precious and irreplaceable raw material. These facts are clear in mission statement of the government of the Slovak Republic for the years 2012 to 2016, within which the government of the Slovak Republic declared, that will dedicate particular attention to the protection and improvement of the situation of waters, optimization of its usage and protection against harmful effects of waters, including flood management measures. The particular attention is paid to the protection and rational usage of mineral, medicinal and geothermal groundwater as well as to ensure sufficient supply and quality of waters for public and environmental services and entrepreneurial activities. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the possible impacts of the constitutional protection of water mainly with the connection to the prohibition of its export behind the borders of the Slovak Republic by means of different types of transport or by pipeline also in the context of international relations. The topic of this paper directs mainly to the area of constitutional law, however it has strong interdisciplinary character, as it intervenes into other areas of law, particularly into administrative and european law and therefore seeks multidisciplinary or international law exploration of the matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the development of a sustainable society and an active approach to environmental protection, it is essential to focus on building energy efficiency and its increasing. Within the member states of the European Union, the process of increasing the energy performance of buildings is ensured by increasing the requirements for new buildings through legal and technical standards. This process is supported financially by various EU funding programs. One of the useful helpers in spreading awareness of the energy performance of buildings and at the same time being interested in building it is the ease and availability of information about building parameters in which people live or own. Information technology that is closest to contemporary human beings compared to information brochures or publications in paper form may be helpful to achieve that goal. This contribution provides insight into the possibilities of freely available resources and tools in the Slovak Republic, which can help owners or residents of older homes to informally calculate the energy performance of a home. Through these freely available resources and tools, in particular, the lay public can easily and freely obtain information about the characteristics of their homes in the Slovak Republic and at the same time find out how it would be possible to reduce the costs of consumed energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competitiveness of economy both at the national and regional levels needs to be perceived in close context with the principle of sustainable development because competitiveness and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. The concept of sustainable development encompasses three pillars: economic, social and environmental. If we are to analyse these three dimensions of sustainable development, there shall be suitable indicators available that would be capable of expressing mutual relationships between economic, environmental and social dimensions. The aim of the paper is to highlight the importance of indicators for monitoring of environmental sustainability. Of the whole set of indicators, only indicators of material flows developed in accordance with the Eurostat methodology are considered and assessed in the paper based on the analysis of the material flows at the macroeconomic level as well as their significance, application and development in the conditions of the SR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide geotourism growth and development often results in activities that are often connected to the geoparks - areas of geological heritage conservation, preservation and presentation. Geopark establishment represents one of the first steps in the process of geotourism development in any area. This paper is devoted to designation and description of legal formalities comprising of Acts and Announcements of Slovakia needed for geopark establishment in this country which has undisputed but still poorly used geotourism potential, including all the principal stages within the geopark establishment process: formation of the civil association, geopark building, and assessment of environmental impact. As geopark establishments positively affect geotourism development, support economic growth and sustainable development, it is desirable to make such activities that may help to run geoparks within geotourism attractive areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the business environment the principles of sustainable business are being progressively more respected. These are activities that contribute to minimizing costs, reduction of the load on the environment and take into account social aspects in the company. The main result of this paper is Quality index of regional business environment, which helped to create the rank of the different regions of Slovakia in the examined area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a tool that increases information in the project. Within the effective management of construction projects, a view on economic sustainability is important. In the context of this, the BIM issue needs to be addressed within the limits of economic parameters and the impact on sustainability from this point of view. This research is focused on the analysis of BIM technology from the point of view of the economic sustainability of construction project management (CPM). The goal of the research is to analyze the possibilities and impacts of using BIM technology on the economic sustainability of construction projects and smart and safety in construction. The research is based on data from the construction industry, where BIM technology has been used. Construction in Slovakia has a long tradition. Research conducted on a sample of respondents and various participants in construction projects such as investors, developers, contractors, and designers. Various large companies are represented in the research, which proportionally try to reflect their representation on the market. The results of the research point to the need to use BIM technology and to the assumptions of the impact on the design of economic sustainability in the management of construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current society, the topic of global environmental problems that people face in their everyday lives is becoming more frequent. The consumption lifestyle of people has a negative impact on the environment, which causes reduced quality of life on Earth. One of the most important tasks of education is leading children toward sustainable living. The study is focused on a specific pedagogical-didactical approach - Forest pedagogy as one of the options for environmental education as well as building a relationship towards sustainable development in the primary level of education. Forest pedagogy is focused on teaching about the forest ecosystem and children forming a positive relationship towards the protection of the environment on examples tied to the forest. Forest pedagogy introduces programs that are realized by forest pedagogues at school within formal education based on the condition set by the Slovak Republic. These programs lead towards the education of environmental thinking and a positive approach of a child towards the environment. The study features partial outcomes of the research on how the programs of forest pedagogy influence the development of children's knowledge about forests and their protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability assessment of buildings can be defined as a specific complex of proceedings oriented towards systematic and objective evaluation of a building's performance. These processes lead to the design, construction and operation of buildings with respect to criteria for sustainable development. The integrated assessment is not only a tool for control, but also a tool of sustainable building design. The purposes of assessments from environmental, economic and social aspects and indicators are due to the determination of real building states from a safety and reliability point of view, the possibility of building comparisons, the effect of environmental buildings potential and the proposal of measures resulting in sustainable buildings. These indicators are included in building environmental assessment systems and tools used in different countries for evaluating the integrated building performance. In recent years the evaluation of building performance in terms of environmental, social and economic aspects has become a topic of discussion in the Slovak Republic, as well. This topic is often discussed by architects, designers and developers. The new building environmental assessment system (BEAS) has been developed at the Institute of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Košice. The systems and tools used in many countries have been the foundation of the new system development applicable under Slovak conditions, mainly the SBTool. The BEAS has been developed for the preliminary stages of the life cycle, i.e. pre-design and design. This system contains six main fields and 52 indicators. The main fields and determining indicators of BEAS are based on the available information analysis from particular fields and also on one's own experimental experience. The proposed fields and indicators respect and adhere to Slovak standards, rules, studies and experiments. The fields and indicators are proposed on the base of available experience database analysis from integrated performance of buildings. The presented paper introduces the building environmental assessment system developed in Slovakia. The aim is however a weighting and analysis of significance of main fields and indicators of assessment using multi-criteria analysis and formal concept analysis to measure the quality of buildings in the Slovak republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of using renewable energy sources (RE) in the context of sustainable development is one of the basic precondition for prosperity and environmentally friendly manufacturing and production. RE is an important part of the economic policies of each country and only their effective use can greatly contribute to a sustainable, effective and more secure growth of economic stability. Mapping of RE by the most recent information technology tools and geographical information systems (GIS) can show the untapped potential sites for the location of renewable energy and thus help to increase their use. The contribution is through the use of GIS mapping of renewable energy in the Košice region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]