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Nitrous oxide is one of the atmospheric greenhouse gases whose amount is significantly influenced by human activity. Its major anthropogenic sources are the agricultural soils but the emission is known only with large uncertainty yet. The paper presents a tall tower based measuring system installed in Hungary, which is designed for the long-term monitoring of nitrous oxide emission of a regionally typical composition of agricultural fields by means of eddy covariance technique. Due to the careful calibration of the gas analyzer applied the measuring system is also suitable for the recording of the atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide on the globally compatible scale (WMO X2006A). The paper reports the results of the first two years of the monitoring program, which is the first of its kind in Central Europe. For the period of July 2015–June 2017 the concentration measurements indicate an increasing trend of 0.91 nmol mol −1 year −1 with an average concentration of 330.64 nmol mol −1 . During the two years of the project, the monitoring system recorded a total of 441 ± 195 mg N 2 O-N m −2 nitrous oxide emission with late spring/early summer maximum. The measurements also revealed the episodic nature of the emission typically triggered by major precipitation events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide further evidence of the reliability of a lumped parameter urban canopy model coupled with an EnergyPlus building energy model to estimate urban temperatures. In a previous paper, we presented a preliminary validation of the model using data measured at Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. At present, we conduct a more comprehensive validation based on BUBBLE experimental data measured in the Sperrstrasse, a street canyon located in Basel downtown, Switzerland. To extend the coupled scheme for the Sperrstrasse and future work, we developed methods for approximating waste heat releases generated by a heating system, anthropogenic heat gains created by traffic, and direct normal solar irradiance. Based on a baseline coupled scheme model for the Sperrstrasse, we evaluate the sensitivity of urban temperature estimates to ±20% variations of each parameter. We finally show, through Monte-Carlo analysis, that the coupled scheme can achieve satisfactory accuracy in a dense Central European city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Renewable energy can be transported by mixing hydrogen into natural gas pipelines. • Current pipelines limit hydrogen supply from North Africa to 9.5–23.2 TWh/a. • North Africa can supply renewable hydrogen to Europe for min. 54–119 €/MWh in 2020. Abstract Strong efforts are necessary to stem climate change. It requires to switch to renewable fuels. But as energy demand in Central Europe is high, renewable energy resources are of moderate quality, and available potentials are limited, energy imports from areas with beneficial renewable resources – such as North Africa – might be a promising option. Against this background this paper investigates the costs and potentials for hydrogen produced on the basis of electricity from wind and solar energy in North Africa and the subsequent transport as a blend with natural gas in existing pipelines. Linear optimization using hourly wind and solar data yields minimum hydrogen production cost. 2419 locations covering a 2° proximity of the existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure are considered in a lower and higher cost case for a near-term future (ca. 2020). Modell results provide lowest hydrogen production cost of 45 resp. 99 €/MWh. The production potential is in the range of PWh/a and therefore exceeds the hydrogen that can be transported in the existing infrastructure: Operating pipelines are potentially able to carry 10 vol% hydrogen in the natural gas feed with negligible adjustments to the infrastructure so that 9.5–23.2 TWh/a of hydrogen can be transported to Europe at minimum transport costs of 9 resp. 19 €/MWh. As these transport costs are low, supplying hydrogen leads to lower cost than transforming it to methane, Diesel or gasoline and is therefore the cheapest form of supplying a power based fuel. The hydrogen costs sum up to supply costs of 54 resp. 119 €/MWh free Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: On 25 June 2008, severe thunderstorms caused widespread damage and two fatalities in the Czech Republic. Significant features of the storms included numerous downbursts on a squall line that exhibited a bow echo reflectivity pattern, with sustained wind gusts over 32m/s at several reporting stations. Moreover, a tornado and several downbursts of F2 intensity occurred within the convective system, collocated with the development of mesovortices within the larger scale bow echo. The extent of the event was sufficient to call it a derecho, as the windstorm had affected Eastern Germany, Southern Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Northern Hungary as well. Ahead of the squall line, several well-organized isolated cells occurred, exhibiting supercellular characteristics, both from a radar and visual perspective. These storms produced large hail and also isolated severe wind gusts. This paper deals mostly with the forecasting challenges that were experienced by the meteorologist on duty during the evolution of this convective scenario. The main challenge of the day was to identify the region that would be most affected by severe convection, especially as the numerical weather prediction failed to anticipate the extent and the progress of the derecho-producing mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). Convective storms developed in an environment conducive to severe thunderstorms, with strong wind shear confined mostly to the lower half of the troposphere. These developments also were strongly influenced by mesoscale factors, especially a mesolow centered over Austria and its trough stretching to Eastern Bohemia. The paper demonstrates how careful mesoscale analysis could prove useful in dealing with such convective situations. Remote-sensing methods are also shown to be useful in such situations, especially when they can offer sufficient lead time to issue a warning, which is not always the case. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Old maps are a fundamental source for land-use reconstruction frequently used in biodiversity conservation and environmental management. In particular, cadastral maps as one type of old maps, depict both land tenure (discrete category) and land-use (continuous category); thus resulting in uncertainties in determination of individual parcels and their use. These uncertainties pose fundamental questions that are addressed in this paper: (i) to what extent land-use determined the delimitation of parcels?; (ii) how significant did the contrast between two land-use classes have to be to in order to delineate a new boundary? Agroforestry land-use classes were chosen as an example to demonstrate the approaches in the delimitation of parcels among different land-use combinations. We used Franciscan Cadastre, created in the mid-19th century under the Habsburg Monarchy (Central Europe), which depicts up to 10 agroforestry classes, to analyse factors that could influence delimitation of borders between patches (parcels) in old cadastral maps. The study area was located in the rural landscape of N Czechia, where approximately 10% of the agroforestry land area was used. We based our analysis on a detailed database of parcels and their land use type and property information. The novel approach to patch contrast indicator for old map analyses is introduced. The approach is based on statistical testing of the differences between parcel boundaries, separating similar/different owner, similar/different land-use and considering the length of the boundaries. Total number of identified parcels for all districts was 4108. Half of the boundaries length and 60% of boundaries count separated land of different owners. The rest of them separated land of one owner with different owner or with distinct parcels geometry. Our results indicate variable contrast between pairs of neighbouring land use categories. In particular, the contrast between pastures, wood-pastures and forests proved to be very low. Various factors, including land ownership, land-use, as well as landscape patch geometry and configuration were important to delineate a single parcel. We have concluded that these factors have important implications on inaccuracies and uncertainties of land use reconstructions based on old cadastral maps and used as historical baselines for current considerations on land change and environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the fulfilment of the environmental targets of the EU by introducing an innovative solution for envelopes of nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB). It presents the development of an environmentally friendly alternative to aluminium curtain wall systems for new constructions or renovations. The research and development were from the early stages led by design strategies for low embodied energy and embodied carbon structures. The first technical concept was analysed using comparative life cycle assessment (LCA). Prototypes were tested to verify their technical performance (air- and water tightness, fire resistance, acoustic properties, short- and long-term hygrothermal monitoring). The final pre-production design was subjected to a detailed LCA, and various possibilities for its improvement were suggested and assessed. The early-stage LCA showed a high potential for reduction of the embodied environmental impact by utilization of natural materials. The results of the experimental testing proved that thus developed curtain wall system fulfilled the standard technical requirements. The detailed pre-production LCA study proved that the fabrication of one panel of the curtain wall system being developed causes significantly lower environmental impact compared with a panel of a common aluminium curtain wall system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to perform a multi-criteria evaluation of selected European Union member states in Central Europe with regard to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enterprises in 2017. The analytic network process (ANP) methodology and k-means clustering were used. Basing on data obtained from Eurostat, ICT attributes were selected and the network of criteria was built. The preferences for main criteria were extracted from empirical data for each analyzed country (each decision variant). The obtained priority values reflected strengths of the analyzed regions. The preferences for sub-criteria were determined basing on that the criteria describing the newest fields of ICT development (e-commerce and e-business in general) are considered most important. With regard to that, the multi-criteria analysis showed that Slovenia and Austria were leaders in Central Europe in 2017, and the worst-performing country was Poland, preceded by Hungary. The results of the study can be used to generalize about the level of ICT development of each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant role in developing and shaping the city of Bratislava played Danube River. Since 1830 introduced a regular shipping service for people and goods. The Harbour of Bratislava began to grow. At the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, next to cargo harbour built a new part Winter Harbour. The harbour experienced a golden age between the world wars. In the 1 st half of the 20 th century belonged among the biggest inland river harbours in Middle Europe. The Czechoslovakia was one of the largest export countries in Europe. At that time, there were also held the International Danube Fairs. The harbour was almost destroyed during the Second World War. In the post-war period the function of the port revived and modernized. Currently consists of Passenger Harbour, Winter Harbour and innovative parts of the cargo harbour built lower downstream. From the beginning Harbour of Bratislava was built as internationally, enabling investment and implementation of activities of enterprises of different countries. According to available sources, we know that in harbour worked except to Slovakia, respectively Czechoslovakia, French, Austrian, Hungarian and German shipping company. In the past, the city with harbour was growing, presently with growing city the harbour decreases. Landing stages and the surfaces of Winter Harbour are taken for the new residential and commercial construction; the historical harbour buildings are demolished. In the past we kept pace with Europe, sometimes we even set an example. At this time is the question whether we would nowadays not take example from Europe. The paper will present a summary of the known, but especially the lesser known international contexts of Bratislava harbour. It shows a vision of which direction could move into its development, particularly with regard to its history and unique value which remained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is likely to exacerbate the negative effects of invasive alien species (IAS) as it will foster their further spread. This paper analyses the potential socio-economic effects of three emerging IAS (giant ragweed, Ambrosia trifida ; annual wormwood, Artemisia annua ; and burweed marshelder, Iva xanthiifolia ), which are known to cause substantial harm to human health and to have negative effects on agricultural production. The novelty of the study consists in an integrated approach that combines several aspects of IAS research and management. We model the future spread of the study species in Central Europe by the year 2050 under several climate change, management and spread scenarios. The costs and benefits of controlling the expansion of these IAS are based on this forecast. The results show that an early and coordinated response to the spread of these IAS yields substantial net benefits under all scenarios. Under the conditions of moderate climate change (+1.5 °C), discounted net benefits range from €19 to €582 million. Assuming more severe climate change (+2.4 °C), total savings over the full period are projected to add up to €1063 million. These large socio-economic benefits provide compelling evidence that public authorities should act preventively to restrict the spread of these three IAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing building stock has an immense impact on preserving a social, economic and ecologic sustainability – especially in Central Europe with low rates of new construction. This paper focuses on life-cycle based renovation strategies considering not only structural and thermal refurbishment, but also the social aspects of an ageing society needs, as well as a preservation of cultural heritage. For a case study of a specific housing block of the Red Vienna historic period, several refurbishment variants were developed and evaluated in a quantitative as well as qualitative way for the economic (life cycle costs and yields), ecologic (CO 2 emissions) and socio-cultural impacts (monument protection, accessibility, assisted living). According to the research, there are great potentials in structural refurbishment of the building stock for support of assisted living models. These prove to be substantially more cost efficient than the institutional care, providing a better comfort for the inhabitants, as well as the necessary social mix by a trans-generation housing in the social housing facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides empirical evidence of the impact of life satisfaction on the individual intention to migrate. The impacts of individual characteristics and of country macroeconomic variables on the intention to migrate are analyzed jointly. Using the Eurobarometer Survey for 27 Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Western European (non-CEE) countries, we find that people have a greater intention to migrate when dissatisfied with life. The socioeconomic variables and macroeconomic conditions affect the intention to migrate indirectly through life satisfaction. At all levels of life satisfaction, individuals with similar characteristics have greater intentions to migrate from CEE countries than from non-CEE countries. These findings underscore the importance of individual life satisfaction not only as a strong predictor of the individual migration intention, but also as a mediator between individual socioeconomic variables and macroeconomic conditions and that intention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study focuses on 15 August 2010, when many severe convective storms occurred over parts of central and Eastern Europe, with some of these exhibiting various interesting cloud-top characteristics observed by weather satellites. The importance of the phenomena of cold-U and cold-ring features in the infrared brightness temperature enhanced imagery stems from the fact that storms exhibiting these features are very often accompanied by severe weather. Therefore, besides the general description of the atmospheric conditions in the area, we seek possible reasons for the different cloud-top appearance of these storms from the perspective of Meteosat Second Generation and polar-orbiting weather satellites. Two main issues are discussed in this paper - the unusually warm appearance of the cloud-top of the “Prague hailstorm” and the presence of cold-ring and cold-U shaped storms in close proximity to the warmer “Prague hailstorm”. Both of these issues prove that the storm top appearance is very sensitive to the upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric conditions, with the first one strongly reflecting variations in the tropopause height due to the presence of the jet-stream over the region. The second topic addresses the strength of the storm relative upper level winds as a major discriminator between the cold-U and cold-ring storm top categories. Due to the above mentioned facts, 15 August 2010 was selected as one of the prime cases of interest for the Convection Working Group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Few studies have investigated the relationship between the recent global financial and economic crisis and FDI flows. This paper aims to analyze such a relationship for Central and Eastern European countries (EU members). The crisis had a major impact on capital flows to the region, although the magnitude of the impact differed notably, depending on the type of capital inflows and the receiving country. In order to highlight this, we use a regression model and panel data methodology, trying to find if there is some difference between the analyzed countries. The results will be very useful if there is a pattern for different countries regarding the main effect of the financial crisis and the interaction with economic growth over the FDI. Taking into consideration the fact that we found that economic growth has a significant influence over the level of FDI and, moreover, a positive influence, the present study is very important in supporting the regulatory environment of those specific countries, in order to attract more FDI, as a solution for recovery of the economies affected by crisis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In order to ensure the innovation-based competitiveness of the Central and Eastern European economies, in each one a more efficient exploitation of human capital is required, through the cultivation and by getting the outmost of the entrepreneurial spirit in conjunction with the active population''s creative and innovative features, as it appears in the objective of New Lisbon and Europe 2020 strategies. Based on the entrepreneurial process research model, considering the economical development stage and competitiveness level of Romanian, Hungary, Latvia and Croatia, the paper aims to identify the short-, medium- and long-term effects of entrepreneurship upon the labour market, at the level of each selected country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Amid recent financial crisis, has increased the risks related to the sustainability of the households’ banking loans. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bi-dimensional causality relationship between household sector and monetary policy in the experience of acceding countries Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania between 2007M01-2012M04. Using a Vector Autoregressive Model, we analyze the impact of short term interest rate on loan to deposit ratio for households. Our empirical results suggest that the excessive built-up of financial imbalances related to the households behavior is properly taken into consideration by monetary policy only in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The current economic and financial crisis has had a strong influence on stock market performances in the process of financing the economic activities. This paper aims to analyze the dynamic of the stock market in Central and Eastern Europe under the impact of the macroeconomic imbalances, emphasizing the volatility of the foreign capital inflows. The data selected for the study will be used to test the impact of stock market development on the correlation between foreign capital inflows and economic growth. The result will allow comparisons between the macroeconomic performances and identifying the adequate measures through which national capital market can become more attractive for investors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to examine the efficiency of foreign investment borrowing by Poland in the 1970s. That decade was of particular significance in the post-war history of Central and Eastern Europe. For the first time after the World War II, Poland – a major country in the socialist block – opened up to western economies by increasing foreign trade and by taking loans to finance the imports of modern technology and investments. Since there has been a major disagreement about the economic impact of the loans, we make an attempt to resolve this controversy. The considerations are conducted in a macroeconomic model. Based on the econometric analysis, we conclude that the efficiency of foreign investment borrowing was relatively high. It means that the policy of using external sources to finance economic growth was fully justified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper aims to study the Central and Eastern European Countries'' (CEECs) dynamics of financial integration in the euro area with the prospect of their integration into the European Monetary Union. Our empirical analysis is based, successively, on a MGARCH model with time-varying correlations, a state-space model and a Markov-switching model. The results show that financial integration (i) is not perfect but is increasing and (ii) is linked to currency stability. The growing financial integration in 2007–2009 seems to be rather the result of the shock propagated by the global crisis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: While estimating post-mortem interval from entomological evidence it is useful to divide it into two separate intervals: the pre-appearance interval (PAI) and the development interval in the case of immature insects and PAI and the presence interval in the case of adult insects. An accurate estimate of PAI is critically important particularly in the case of those insects which appear on remains late in decomposition. In this paper the possibilities of PAI estimation from temperature are evaluated in late-arriving, forensically important carrion beetle Necrodes littoralis. The relationship between PAI of adult and larval N. littoralis and temperature was modelled by using results of succession experiments in forests of Central Europe. In both stages PAI was found to be strongly, inversely dependent on mean daily ground level temperatures averaged for the duration of PAI. Several methods of PAI estimation were proposed and their accuracy was initially evaluated with external successional data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates the presence of long memory in the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries'' stock market, using the ARFIMA, GPH, FIGARCH and HYGARCH models. The data set consists of daily returns, and long memory tests are carried out both for the returns and volatilities of these series. The results of the ARFIMA and GPH models indicate the existence of long memory in five of eight return series. The results also suggest that long memory dynamics in the returns and volatility might be modeled by using the ARFIMA–FIGARCH and ARFIMA–HYGARCH models. The results of these models indicate strong evidence of long memory both in conditional mean and conditional variance. Moreover, the ARFIMA–FIGARCH model provides the better out-of-sample forecast for the sampled stock markets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper studies the spread between 10 year Euro denominated Central and Eastern European (CEE) government bonds and their German counterpart. With newly available time series, regressions are run for each country separately in order to deliver a first insight into the underlying determinants. While higher ECB reference rate and market volatility increase bond spreads and turn out to be the main driving factors, there is no common pattern of macroeconomic fundamentals, pointing to strong heterogeneity within the CEE region. Overall, market variables are more significant than fundamentals during 1999 to 2007. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is based on the author''s personnel experience in the Slovak Republic and on information gathered during a health impact assessment (HIA) workshop with participants from Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia. There is a long tradition of health impact assessment in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In the former Czechoslovakia, legislation made in 1966, although it did not explicitly mention HIA, provided a legal basis and made the public hygiene service responsible for assessment of health impacts. However, political structures, prevalent values, reliance on limit-based comparisons, and lack of adequate training meant that HIA had little influence on decision making. Political changes since 1990 are allowing development of HIA. This experience highlights the importance of values and methods in undertaking HIA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the short- and long-term relationships between the US stock market and three Central European markets. Low short-term correlations between these markets and the US are found. Application of the Johansen cointegration procedure indicates that there is no long-term relationship. The Granger-causality test does reveal a causality running from the Hungarian to the Polish market, but none with the US. Overall, the results suggest that US investors can obtain benefits from international diversification into these markets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]