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The purpose of this research is examining how the parent material and land use affect physico-chemical and mechanical characteristics of the urban forest soil with the final goal of defining soil degradation indicators. Total of 53 soils samples from the urban forest at the Fruska gora Mt. near Belgrade, Serbia, were analyzed for the following properties: pH, electrical conductivity, oxido-redox potential, content of organic carbon, concentration of available cations, aggregate size and stability. The soils were developed on five bedrock types: serpentinite, marl, trachyte, shale, loess and two land use types: forest and meadow. The correlation between the obtained parameters was tested with two-way ANOVA and principal component analyses (PCA).

Background and Aims In the global distribution of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) forests play a key role due to the forest canopy efect. In this study, mountain beech forests were selected to identify the level and distribution of selected POPs. Methods Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were ana lyzed by capillary gas chromatography with an elec tron capture detector (GC–ECD). Analysis of poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was performed by gas chromatography with a mass spectrometry detector (GC–MS). The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed by liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC–DAD). Results The total ∑20OCP concentrations in the soil from mountain beech forests at a depth of 0 – 40 cm ranged from 24.46 µg kg−1 to 331.11 µg kg−1, and at a depth of 40 – 80 cm from 15.80 µg kg−1 to 247.12 µg kg−1. The mass concentration for ∑6PCB ranges from 9.21 to 95.28 µg kg−1 in the surface soil layer and from 8.07 to 66.56 µg kg−1 in the soil sub layer. The total concentration of ∑7PBDE congeners measured in soil samples from mountain beech forests across Europe was from 1.38 to 29.68 µg kg−1 in the surface soil layer and from 1.01 to 53.31 µg kg−1 in the soil sublayer. The total concentration of ∑16PAH varied from 271.52 to 1154.52 µg kg−1 in the surface soil layer and from 318.95 to 1052.54 µg kg−1 in the soil sublayer. Conclusion The results of this study can serve as an important basis for international, national, and regional measures of environmental protection of beech forests from POPs pollution

Purpose To anticipate the impact of illegal landfills, development of new models should become a part of environmental risk management strategies. One of such approaches includes applications of the artificial neural network (ANN). The main objective of this study was to elucidate the impact of illegal landfilling on the surrounding soil environment and human health, as well as to establish an artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting the hazards of illegal landfilling as an effective tool in decision-making and environmental risk management. Methods The identification of heavy metals source in soil was performed by principal component analysis (PCA). To assess the sensitivity of the soil ecosystem to heavy metal concentrations, Soil Quality standards and quantitative indices were used. The possible health effects were valued using the average daily doses (ADDs), hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), and carcinogenic risk (CR). ANN modeling was used for the prediction of heavy metal concentrations in the soil based on landfill size, municipality size, the number of residents, plant species, soil, and landform types. Results The average values of the pollution indexes for Cd were in the moderately contaminated and very high contamina tion categories. The HQ values were lower than the safe level. Cr and Pb posed a significant CR for adults and children, and Ni for children. The ANN models have exhibited good generalization power and accurately predicted the output parameters with a high value of the coefficient of determination. Conclusion Concerning heavy metal concentrations, illegal landfills near agricultural soil have a significant impact on the soil ecosystem and people’s health. The developed ANN models can be applied generally to anticipate the heavy metal concentrations in soil, according to the before mentioned input parameters, with high accuracy.

The main objective of this study is to determine the possibility of predicting the impact of land use and soil type on concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and phthalates (PAEs) in soil based on an artificial neural network model (ANN). Qualitative analysis of HMs was performed with inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES) and Direct Mercury Analyzer. Determination of PAEs was performed with gas chromatography (GC) coupled with a single quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS). An ANN, based on the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) iterative algorithm, for the prediction of HM and PAE concentrations, based on land use and soil type parameters, showed good prediction capabilities (the coefficient of determination (r(2)) values during the training cycle for HM concentration variables were 0.895, 0.927, 0.885, 0.813, 0.883, 0.917, 0.931, and 0.883, respectively, and for PAEs, the concentration variables were 0.950, 0.974, 0.958, 0.974, and 0.943, respectively). The results of this study indicate that HM and PAE concentrations, based on land use and soil type, can be predicted using ANN.

Rainfall simulators represent often-used equipment for soil research. Depending on their performance, they could be appropriate for some soil research or not. Dripping rainfall simulators (DRS) can provide rainfall that corresponds to natural rainfall, except in terms of the drop size distribution and wetted area. However, usually there are more factors that do not correspond to natural rainfall, such as the median drop size, volume and kinetic energy. The sizes of the drops generated by the simulator drippers are mostly in the range between 2 and 6 mm, while the number of drops smaller than 2 mm is relatively small. The intensity and duration of the simulated rain can be successfully produced to match natural values, with the most frequently simulated short-term rainfall of a high intensity. Most simulations were conducted at a fall height of up to 2 m, and then their number gradually decreases as the height gets closer to 5 m. Most simulations (58.6%) occur in the range between 20–90% KE, then 33.0% in a range of 90–100%, with only 8.4% lower than 20% KE.

Heavy metals as environmental pollutants can have natural or anthropogenic origin. To determine the river sediment pollution status, it is crucial to have appropriate reference samples, free of anthropogenic impact, and natural reference samples should be used wherever and whenever possible. The collection of reference samples should be performed in the vicinity of the research area in a place that belongs to the same geological environment and is undisturbed by human activity. The main purpose of this study was to compare concentrations of heavy metals from different rivers with background values to show that the usage of natural background values is the best option when assessing pollution status, but also to underline that the natural background values have to correspond to the analyzed sediments. In this study, 5 river sediments from Sava, 17 from Great War Island (GWI), 11 from Danube, 24 from Tisa, 47 from Tamiš, and 11 from Timok were evaluated relative to reference samples from the Sava and Tisa Rivers. The results indicate that geological origin has a strong influence on the content of heavy metals in river sediments, primarily regarding concentrations of Ni and Co. Furthermore, Tamiš, Tisa, Sava, and Danube sediments are under strong anthropogenic influence.

In this study we compared materials from less investigated badland sites in Turkey and China. Critical composition in badland material is the presence and ratio of the clay and silt size particles, clay mineralogy and presence of mobile ions, especially anions. In analyzed materials the presence of smectite governed the formation of surface crust. Surface cracks enabled ion leaching and became preferential paths from sediment movement. Critical composition in badland material is the presence and ratio of the clay and silt size particles and poor sorting. Sulphate and carbonate ions proved to be crucial for surface processes on these materials. Summarizing results it can be concluded that erodibility of badland lithologies is a combination of clay type, silt content and ion concentration.

The main objective of the project “Urban Forest Soil Indicators as a tool for Climate-Smart Forestry” (UrbanFoS) is to define soil degradation indicators in UF to adapt to and mitigate CC and anthropogenic pressure in urban areas. This goal will be achieved by determining the key sensitivity soil properties through pysico-chemical analyses and climate simulation experiments; and defining ecosystem services (ES) of UF. Defined indicators will be used to test existing soil degradation indices applicable to forest soils and a suitable soil degradation index for UF under CC conditions will be proposed. Finally, based on previous steps, UbranFoS will define restoration measures based on the principle of ecological engineering and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS).

Dripping rainfall simulators (DRS) are important instruments in soil research. Depending of their performance they could be appropriate for some soil research or not. Therefore, a large number of non-standardized DRS have been developed. The major component of simulator are drippers that come in a various type and size with diff erent modifi cations. The aim of research is to provide insight into the mechanism and ability of DRS drippers to generate drops of different diameters and the factors that affect it as are dripper size, type and dripping speed. Drippers performance was analyzed integrally, for simulators with more than one dripper (DRS>1) and with one dripper (DRS=1). The analysis showed that DRS can provide drops that corresponds to natural rainfalls. The sizes of the drops generated by drippers are mostly in the range between 2 and 6 mm, while the number of drops smaller than 2 mm is relatively small. Metal tubes (MT) are the most present, after which plastic tubes (PT) follow. They showed strong correlation of outer diameter (OD) with drop size, while ID correlation is moderate to weak. It is observed that with the increase of the ID of PT the relation deviates from the logarithmic curve that represents all dripper types together. Also, although the applied dripping intensity difference is quite big for MT, drop size does not differ much. On the other hand, PT generate much bigger difference in drop size for less drastic change in dripping intensity. Considering MT drippers generally have a thinner wall then PL or glass tube (GT) drippers the thickness of tube wall is imposed as a reason for such deviation.

Rainfall simulators are important instruments in soil research. In 2019 we have constructed and calibrated portable field spraying rainfall simulator for a research of effects of changes in soil moisture content on changes in mechanical parameters of soil and formation of surface runoff and soil erosion. Also, we have constructed a dripping rainfall simulator with one dripper for the research of splash erosion and calibration of hypodermic needles for a further development of dripping rainfall simulator with a more than one dripper for research of rainfall impact and runoff on soil erosion. Beside that we are in a process of modifying portable field spraying rainfall simulator in term of drops falling height and size, giving us a greater possibility in the application and analysis of soil erosion. In the paper we will represent our results and experience gained through the literature analyses and the process of construction and calibration of rainfall simulators for our research. We have analyzed process of development rainfall simulators, conducted an analysis of the design and performance of the current dripping rainfall simulators, while collecting data and creating a database related to the design and performance of spraying rainfall simulators improving our understanding of research needs and simulator abilities to simulate natural rainfalls. Such approach is pushing us toward to harmonization of some future rainfall simulators improving and facilitating data analysis of soil research all around the world. Scientific research in which rain simulators are used, and which can be applied in the fields of hydrology, agriculture, forestry, as well as in other industrial branches, are becoming increasingly necessary and frequent.

Rainfall simulators represent often used equipment for soil research. Depending of their performance they could be appropriate for some soil research or not. The aim of this research is to provide insight into the capabilities of existing dripping rainfall simulators (DRS) to mimic natural rainfall and frequency of simulated rainfalls of certain characteristics, to facilitate the selection of rainfall simulators that would best meet the needs of soil research and to reach step closer to standardization of rainfall simulators. DRS performance was analysed integrally, for simulators with more than one dripper (DRS>1) and with one dripper (DRS=1). A statistical analysis of the performance of DRS, wetted area, drop size, rainfall intensity, duration and kinetic energy (KE) was performed. The analysis showed that DRS can provide rainfall that resembles natural rainfall, except in terms of drop size distribution and wetted area. However, usually there are more factors that do not correspond to the natural rainfall, such as median drop size, volume and kinetic energy. The sizes of the drops generated by drippers are mostly in the range between 2 and 6 mm, while the number of drops smaller than 2 mm is relatively small. The intensity and duration of the simulated rain can be successfully produced to match natural values, with the most frequently simulated short-term rainfall of high intensity. The majority of the simulations was conducted at a fall height of up to 2 m; the other experiments were conducted at fall heights that increased from 2 m up to a fall height of 5 m. The KE of the majority of simulations (58.6%) occurred in the range between 20–90% of terminal KE, 33.0% in the range 90–100% and only 8.4% was lower than 20%.

The choice of drippers for dripping rainfall simulators (DRS) is often based on the experience of previous research or personal empirical knowledge, under the assumption that drippers in form of tubes and holes with a smaller internal diameter (ID) generate water drops of a smaller diameter and vice versa, neglecting other factors that affect the size of the drops. The aim of research is to provide insight into the influence of DRS dripper size, type and dripping speed (i.e., the number of water drops dripped out from a dripper per unit of time) on generating different water drop size. A search was conducted for all available scientific papers describing DRS and papers that include a wide range of thematically related papers to soil research in which DRS are used starting from 1941 until today. Out of a total of 188 scientific papers included in the analysis, 76 different types and 31 subtypes of DRS have been singled out. The analyses of DRS drippers design and performance was conducted in terms of the drops’ sizes that they are able to generate. The analysis was conducted integrally, for simulators with more than one dripper and with one dripper. Metal and plastic tubes (MT and PT), which are the most common drippers’ type, showed a strong relationship between the outer diameter (OD) with the drop size, while the ID relationship was moderate to weak. However, when increasing the range of MT drippers’ diameter size, the relationship significance became very strong for both ID and OD. It is observed that with the increase of the ID of PT the relationship deviates from the logarithmic curve that represents all dripper types together. Although the applied dripping intensity difference is quite big for MT, drop size does not differ much. On the other hand, PT generate much bigger difference in drop size for a less drastic change in intensity. It is suggested that a possible reason for such a deviation and difference in the functional forms that describes drop and dripp

With the goal of enhancing the quality of the environment, urban green infrastructure (UGI) is an essential element in sustainable cities, and nature-based solutions (NBS) are being carried out as new infrastructure solutions that increase the resilience of cities. In this research, the method of theoretical analysis and the content analysis as the basic fact-gathering technique was applied to answer to following questions: What are the hindrances and bottlenecks in implementing NBS? Are the current decision-making mechanisms helping NBS get in route to shape cities? Is there any binding policy in practice that promotes NBS? In Belgrade is planned Type 3 of the degree of intervention/level and engineering type-Creation and new ecosystem management in the classifications of intensive urban green space management; urban planning strategies; urban water management; ecological restoration of degraded terrestrial ecosystems; and restoration and creation of semi-natural water bodies and hydrographic networks. In the future, it is essential to implement policies and incentives on national, regional, and local scales that help encourage the usage of NBS in the development of urban infrastructure.

Forests in Europe are currently not endangered by soil erosion. However, this can change with climate change or with intensified forest management practices. Using a newly established network of plots in beech forests across Europe, the aims of this study were to (i) distinguish soil properties and erodibility indices in relation to bedrock, (ii) determine geochemical properties and organic carbon (Corg ) influencing erodibility, and (iii) assess the effect of soil depth on erodibility indices. Seventy-six soil samples from 20 beech forests were collected in 11 countries to quantify soil properties influencing erodibility indices: clay ratio, modified clay ratio, sodium adsorption ratio, and oxides ratio. The results indicate that the dominant soil properties, determined by bedrock, that correlate with forest soil erodibility indices are Corg, pH, electrical conductivity, calcium and sodium ions concentrations, total water-soluble cations, and the percentage of sand. According to the tested indices, soil susceptibility to erosion follows the order granite > andesite > sandstone > quartzite > limestone. Deeper soil horizons on granite are more susceptible to erosion than surface horizons are, but this is not the case for soils on limestones. In conclusion, forest management should consider the predisposition of different soil types to erosion.

Mercury (Hg) has been listed as a global high priority pollutant by many international organizations due to its mobility and persistence in the environments and high toxicity to organisms. This research was conducted with the aims to determine: (i) total Hg content (THg) and its spatial distribution in sediments of river Tisa along the river course, (ii) possible sources of THg and (iii) degree of THg pollution in sediments from the river Tisa through different criteria. Total Hg in the sediments ranged from 0.07 to 0.49 mg kg-1, with mean ± S.D. value of 0.26 ± 0.10 mg kg-1. The highest mean value of THg (0.30 mg kg-1) was found in the lower stream, while the lowest (0.13 mg kg-1) was found in the tributary. According to Principal Component Analyses (PCA) strong positive loading of metals in all parts of the river Tisa is mainly controlled from the same sources. These sources are related to anthropogenic activities based on calculated Enrichment Factor (EF) values. Total Hg are higher than background value. According to the Republic of Serbia official standard, THg values of river Tisa sediments were within the range of maximum permissible values. Compared with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) guideline, 80.49% of sediment samples indicated that THg in the river Tisa sediments represented minimal and possible risk towards the living organisms. Integrating the results of pollution assessment, it could be concluded that THg in river Tisa sediments in Serbia demonstrates considerable contamination according to Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), and Contaminant Factor (CF), and high pollution risk according to Potential Environmental Risk Index (PERI).