Екологичният мениджмънт и резултатите от екологичната регулация в България = Environmental management and the impact of regulation in Bulgaria

In placing increased emphasis on good environmental management, the Bulgaria government began providing resources on environmental management, such as guidance documents, case studies, and benchmarking studies. It also motivates businesses to understand the full spectrum of environmental costs and incorporate these costs into decision-making. Some of the difficulties are non-uniform definitions and non-uniform executions, and lack of comparable information. The report discusses the needs for good quality information to be available to both managers and society before further advances can be made. Keywords: • Environmental management; Environmental guidance documents, case studies, and benchmarking studies in Bulgaria, National schemes for environmental management, eco-audit, eco-account, full cost accounting, benefit/effect, return the cost of services in the water sector

Concept to Practice of Geospatial-Information Tools to Assist Forest Management and Planning under Precision Forestry Framework: a review

Precision forestry is a new direction for better forest management. Precision forestry employs information technology and analytical tools to support economic, environmental and sustainable decision; the use of geospatial information tools enables highly repeatable measurements, actions and processes to manage and harvest forest stands, simultaneously allowing information linkages between production and wood supply chain, including resource managers and environmental community. In this report, we reviewed the most recent advances in the use of geospatial information technologies in forestry, and discussed their potential opportunities and challenges towards forest management and planning in the framework of precision forestry

PENGEMBANGAN JASA LINGKUNGAN DI HUTAN LINDUNG DALAM MENDUKUNG EKONOMI MASYARAKAT DAN PENDAPATAN DAERAH

Developing environmental services in protected forests can be done in various ways, such as developing natural tourism, planting trees to reduce carbon emissions, and managing water resources. The approach used in this study is qualitative with the desk research method. The development of environmental services in protected forests can be carried out through various approaches, such as community-based forest management, partnerships between government and the private sector, and the use of information and communication technology. The development of environmental services can increase people's income by increasing the economic value of products produced from protected forests, assisting in maintaining sustainable management of natural resources, and increasing the availability of natural resources that are beneficial for human life and the ecosystem. The main challenges in managing environmental services are lack of access to capital and technology, as well as lack of public awareness and participation in managing natural resources. There are opportunities for developing environmental services in protected forests, such as increasing public awareness of the importance of preserving protected forests and advances in information and communication technology that can be used in developing environmental services. The development of environmental services in protected forests through social forestry programs is a solution to maintain human survival and preserve protected forests. This program provides economic, social and technological benefits for local communities and encourages sustainable forest management, as well as increasing community awareness in preserving forest functions

Toward eco-efficient and circular industrial systems: ten years of advances in production management systems and a thematic framework

Environmental sustainability urgently needs to be embraced as a driver of development for society and industry. While researchers and practitioners herald numerous benefits when adopting eco-efficiency and circular economy approaches, these green solutions are yet to become pervasive principles for designing and operating industrial systems. This study reviews the last ten years of research contributions from the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 5.7 (IFIP WG5.7) on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) through its dedicated annual conference. A systematic literature review method was employed to map the APMS conference papers against eco-efficiency principles and to identify how these principles have been addressed by this research community. A cross-thematic analysis further describes the trends around dominant themes in production research. Finally, the paper concludes with an update on eco-efficiency principles applied to manufacturing and a proposed framework to consider more systematically the environmental implications of advances in production research

Crossing Frontiers in Tackling Pathways of Biological Invasions

Substantial progress has been made in understanding how pathways underlie and mediate biological invasions. However, key features of their role in invasions remain poorly understood, available knowledge is widely scattered, and major frontiers in research and management are insufficiently characterized. We review the state of the art, highlight recent advances, identify pitfalls and constraints, and discuss major challenges in four broad fields of pathway research and management: pathway classification, application of pathway information, management response, and management impact. We present approaches to describe and quantify pathway attributes (e.g., spatiotemporal changes, proxies of introduction effort, environmental and socioeconomic contexts) and how they interact with species traits and regional characteristics. We also provide recommendations for a research agenda with particular focus on emerging (or neglected) research questions and present new analytical tools in the context of pathway research and managemen

Living up to the hype of hyperspectral aquatic remote sensing: science, resources and outlook

Intensifying pressure on global aquatic resources and services due to population growth and climate change is inspiring new surveying technologies to provide science-based information in support of management and policy strategies. One area of rapid development is hyperspectral remote sensing: imaging across the full spectrum of visible and infrared light. Hyperspectral imagery contains more environmentally meaningful information than panchromatic or multispectral imagery and is poised to provide new applications relevant to society, including assessments of aquatic biodiversity, habitats, water quality, and natural and anthropogenic hazards. To aid in these advances, we provide resources relevant to hyperspectral remote sensing in terms of providing the latest reviews, databases, and software available for practitioners in the field. We highlight recent advances in sensor design, modes of deployment, and image analysis techniques that are becoming more widely available to environmental researchers and resource managers alike. Systems recently deployed on space- and airborne platforms are presented, as well as future missions and advances in unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous in-water survey methods. These systems will greatly enhance the ability to collect interdisciplinary observations on-demand and in previously inaccessible environments. Looking forward, advances in sensor miniaturization are discussed alongside the incorporation of citizen science, moving toward open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data. Advances in machine learning and cloud computing allow for exploitation of the full electromagnetic spectrum, and better bridging across the larger scientific community that also includes biogeochemical modelers and climate scientists. These advances will place sophisticated remote sensing capabilities into the hands of individual users and provide on-demand imagery tailored to research and management requirements, as well as provide critical input to marine and climate forecasting systems. The next decade of hyperspectral aquatic remote sensing is on the cusp of revolutionizing the way we assess and monitor aquatic environments and detect changes relevant to global communities

Climatic vulnerabilities and ecological preferences of soil invertebrates across biomes.

Unlike plants and vertebrates, the ecological preferences, and potential vulnerabilities of soil invertebrates to environmental change, remain poorly understood in terrestrial ecosystems globally. We conducted a cross-biome survey including 83 locations across six continents to advance our understanding of the ecological preferences and vulnerabilities of the diversity of dominant and functionally important soil invertebrate taxa, including nematodes, arachnids and rotifers. The diversity of invertebrates was analyzed through amplicon sequencing. Vegetation and climate drove the diversity and dominant taxa of soil invertebrates. Our results suggest that declines in forest cover and plant diversity, and reductions in plant production associated with increases in aridity, can result in reductions of the diversity of soil invertebrates in a drier and more managed world. We further developed global atlases of the diversity of these important soil invertebrates, which were cross-validated using an independent database. Our study advances the current knowledge of the ecological preferences and vulnerabilities of the diversity and presence of functionally important soil invertebrates in soils from across the globe. This information is fundamental for improving and prioritizing conservation efforts of soil genetic resources and management policies

The Semantic Web as a Platform Against Risk and Uncertainty in Agriculture

In this article, we discuss existing literature on DSS in agriculture, on DSS that use data available in the Semantic Web, and on Semantic Web initiatives focusing on agriculture information. Our goal is to assess the readiness of the Semantic Web as a platform to empower DSS that can keep risk and uncertainty in agriculture under control. Key agricultural activities targeted by DSS reported in literature are nutrient management, insect and pest management, land use and planning, environmental change and forecasting, and water and drought management. The most relevant use of Semantic Web in DSS, is in data analysis, as a means of making DSS more intelligent. There are initiatives to produce vocabularies and semantic repositories in the domain of agriculture. However, data and models are still isolated in specific domain repositories, and interoperability is still weak.IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol. 506.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

The Semantic Web as a Platform Against Risk and Uncertainty in Agriculture

In this article, we discuss existing literature on DSS in agriculture, on DSS that use data available in the Semantic Web, and on Semantic Web initiatives focusing on agriculture information. Our goal is to assess the readiness of the Semantic Web as a platform to empower DSS that can keep risk and uncertainty in agriculture under control. Key agricultural activities targeted by DSS reported in literature are nutrient management, insect and pest management, land use and planning, environmental change and forecasting, and water and drought management. The most relevant use of Semantic Web in DSS, is in data analysis, as a means of making DSS more intelligent. There are initiatives to produce vocabularies and semantic repositories in the domain of agriculture. However, data and models are still isolated in specific domain repositories, and interoperability is still weak.IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol. 506.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding-based estimation of marine stocks

Information on species composition and biomass/abundance of exploited species in coastal fisheries is vital in management of resources. One of the most important mandates of the leading institution is judicious management of coastal and deep sea fishery resources. Traditional methods of identifying species and estimating biomass/abundance have inherent drawbacks which could be ameliorated by DNA marker based approach. Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be obtained from the skin, mucous, gamates, faeces, blood and other cells that are constantly being shed into the immediate environment by the organism. Analysis of this eDNA can give us information on the organisms, their abundance and biomass. Recent advances in next generation sequencing enable simultaneous sequencing of DNA from whole communities known as metabarcoding. Studies carried out in aquaria, large lakes, rivers and marine environment consistently suggest that eDNA metabarcoding outperforms traditional survey methods in terms of non-invasive sampling, sensitivity and cost incurred