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This study investigated commuting behavior at four technical faculties (BCTF) in Maribor. The main aim was to provide suggestions and solutions for challenges related to active commuting to the BCTF, while promoting advancements in CO2 emission reduction. The research methodology was based on analyses of a questionnaire survey and calculations of CO2 emissions. The results indicate that implementing measures to promote walking, bicycling and the use of city and regional public transport, in conjunction with supportive housing and parking policies, has the potential to eliminate car trips within 0–1 km of the BCTF and reduce car trips from other zones in favor of active commuting by 30% to 50%. These proposed transport scenarios could lead to an annual reduction in CO2 emissions ranging from 17% to 29%. The greatest potential for CO2 savings is observed within 0–5 km of the BCTF, where a shift to walking and bicycling could reduce emissions by up to 44%. The results also highlighted a notable disparity, indicating that students with term-time accommodations emitted 3.5 times and 4.1 times less annual CO2 within 0–5 km of the BCTF compared to students and staff commuting daily from their permanent residences in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the damming of the Sava river for the Brežice hydroelectric power plant on the rise of the groundwater level was studied in the intergranular aquifer of the Krško field and the Vrbina area, Slovenia. The study is based on the application of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes (18O, 2H and 3H). Parameters were determined for precipitation, surface water, and groundwater for periods before and after the filling of the accumulation basin, with the aim of evaluating the groundwater–surface water interaction and to elucidate the impact of the hydroelectric dam on aquifer recharge processes. The results show the proportions of the surface water component in groundwater sampled from four wells at high and low water conditions, separately for the period before and after the filling the accumulation basin. After filling the accumulation basin, the proportion of the Sava river component at high water conditions increased from 60% to 80% in the Brege and Drnovo wells (drinking water resources), from 50% to 80% in the Cerklje well and to almost 100% in the near-river NEK well. Combined with previous studies, the results provide important information about the direction of groundwater flow in the aquifer and improve the conceptual model of the study site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of commuting behavior at the University of Maribor (UM) was the subject of our research, which focused on the building complex of the four technical faculties (BCTF) and was based on the analysis of two questionnaire surveys (with 1057 and 462 respondents, respectively) and the transport policies implemented at the study site from 2010 to 2020. The research aimed to identify the factors influencing student and staff mode choice/shift over a decade period and to understand the weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities for improving sustainable mobility at the university. Since 2010, active commuting has predominated among students, while car use has decreased by 22%. Female students were 16% more likely to walk than their peers, while male students were 5% and 12% more likely to use bicycles and cars, respectively. Active commuting and car use by staff have not changed since 2010, and there was an insignificant difference between genders, 63% of whom used cars. Mode shifts were primarily related to trip origins, subsidization of bus use, availability or unavailability of free parking, and parking fees. Questionnaire responses were a powerful tool for finding the most effective interventions to manage transport at universities. The results also suggest that transport policies can be more effective if they are planned in coordination with housing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The groundwater recharge processes were investigated in the unsaturated zone of the Ljubljansko polje intergranular aquifer. The study based on application of environmental tracers. The monitoring of the drainage system was established at an urban lysimeter consisting of artificial and autochthonous sediment layers. Groundwater was sampled with the suction cups instaled at depths of 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 3.0 and 4.0 m. The results pointed out the most important factors that control the hydrodynamic processes and solute transport in the study site where the soil cover and vegetation are missing. The physico–chemical and isotopic properties of sampled groundwater indicated that the clayey layers have an important role in the hydraulic behaviour of the unsaturated zone. As a consequence of a piston effect the event and pre-event water concentrate above these layers causing lateral flow. A vertical breakthrough of this water into lower layers of the unsaturated zone could occur through preferential paths during intensive precipitation events in dependence on pre-accumulated water volumes. Under such conditions groundwater residence time is about 2 months in the unsaturated zone 3 m below the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The isotopic investigations of groundwaters stored in the Rogaška Slatina fractured aquifer system were performed in the periods 1978-1985 and 2007-2011 aiming at answering open questions on the groundwater recharge and dynamics, on connections between different types of aquifers and on solute transport. Environmental isotopes 2H, 18O, 3H, 13C of dissolved inorganic carbon and 14C were analysed in mineral, thermo-mineral and spring waters. Results indicated the source and mechanism of groundwater recharge, its renewability, a transit time distribution, hydraulic interrelationships, the groundwater origin and its evolution due to effects of waterrock interaction. They proved the hypothesis that the Boča massif should be a catchment area of the Rogaška mineral waters. The estimates of the mean residence time of mineral waters in the aquifer system are between 7200 and 3400 years, depending on the location and depth. Thermo-mineral water is the oldest water in the study area with the mean residence time of 14000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater from a Pleistocene sandy-gravel aquifer is a drinking water resource for the Union brewery, located near the centre of Ljubljana (Slovenia). A large part of the aquifer recharge area is highly urbanized, which represents a great risk for the groundwater quality assurance. The groundwater dating techniques were used to study the contamination risk of this drinking-water resource. The application of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and tritium-helium-3 (³H-³He) age indicator was tested, as they haven't been used in Slovene urban areas so far. The results reflect that the 3H-³He dating technique is the most suitable for a groundwater age determination in the study urban aquifer, since SF6 and particularly CFCs concentrations could be affected by the local contaminations. They indicated that average groundwater residence times range from 10 to 30 years. Boreholes that are more distant from the Šišenski hrib hill are more vulnerable to contamination due to flow of young groundwater from a direction of the main aquifer, which is exposed to the urban pollution. The presented results were supplemented with chemical investigations of groundwater organic pollutants. An unknown trace organic pollutant with a base ion mass-to-charge ratio 147 was put into focus. Its identification based on chromatographic separation and a mass spectrometric detection with GC-MS, LC-MS and LC-TOF MS techniques. The newly detected trace organic pollutant in sampled groundwater represents together with the ³H and ³He data a new technique to study the flow paths and contaminant transport in the urban aquifer in both, the lateral and vertical directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]