Development of Grid e-Infrastructure in South-Eastern Europe

Over the period of 6 years and three phases, the SEE-GRID programme has established a strong regional human network in the area of distributed scientific computing and has set up a powerful regional Grid infrastructure. It attracted a number of user communities and applications from diverse fields from countries throughout the South-Eastern Europe. From the infrastructure point view, the first project phase has established a pilot Grid infrastructure with more than 20 resource centers in 11 countries. During the subsequent two phases of the project, the infrastructure has grown to currently 55 resource centers with more than 6600 CPUs and 750 TBs of disk storage, distributed in 16 participating countries. Inclusion of new resource centers to the existing infrastructure, as well as a support to new user communities, has demanded setup of regionally distributed core services, development of new monitoring and operational tools, and close collaboration of all partner institution in managing such a complex infrastructure. In this paper we give an overview of the development and current status of SEE-GRID regional infrastructure and describe its transition to the NGI-based Grid model in EGI, with the strong SEE regional collaboration.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, 4 table

Energy security issues in contemporary Europe

Throughout the history of mankind, energy security has been always seen as a means of protection from disruptions of essential energy systems. The idea of protection from disorders emerged from the process of securing political and military control over energy resources to set up policies and measures on managing risks that affect all elements of energy systems. The various systems placed in a place to achieve energy security are the driving force towards the energy innovations or emerging trends in the energy sector. Our paper discusses energy security status and innovations in the energy sector in European Union (EU). We analyze the recent up-to-date developments of the energy policy and exploitation of energy sources, as well as scrutinize the channels of energy streaming to the EU countries and the risks associated with this energy import. Moreover, we argue that the shift to the low-carbon production of energy and the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) might become the key issue in ensuring the energy security and independency of the EU from its external energy supplies. Both RES, distributed energy resources (DER) and “green energy” that will be based on the energy efficiency and the shift to the alternative energy supply might change the energy security status quo for the EU

Transport Policy in the European Union from an Eastern Perspective

Although the intention of developing a common transport policy was mooted in the early stages of the European Communities, it took the form in practice of regulation of isolated transport activities, with the aim in every case of removing advantages inadmissible in competitionpolicy terms. Only in the 1980s were the sights raised from such institutional matters to that of developing corridors between regions on a continental scale. This period brought the Union’s first White Paper on transport, under the motto “a single network for the single market”, aimed principally at removing regulatory, institutional and physical barriers to links between member-states. The next White Paper, appearing in 2001, displayed a strong change of outlook with enhanced attention to environmental constraints. The main demand was for curbs on traffic volume, including a decrease in the proportion of road transport. The 2006 revision of the 2001 White Paper marked a significant departure from the progressive change of outlook that had been initiated, leading to a serious degree of backtracking and reformulation of aims

Infrastructure Networks in Central Europe and EU Enlargement

This paper draws attention to the spatial dimension of sustainability, where spatial self-defence is an important part of control over local assets that have to be preserved. It should be added that well-structured local networks constitute an important requirement for effective spatial self-defence. In the existing European Union, where the national infrastructure networks have been relatively developed, the formation of a single market called first for concentration of efforts on the overlapping or inter-regional backbone level of networks. In the area now acceding to the EU, it is important to note that this programme cannot be applied with unchanged priorities in regions still lacking appropriate local networks, where great attention needs devoting to internal networks. In the integration process, the transition countries have to understand the importance of a multilayered network and pay equal attention to every layer of the transport network. The other issue that has been criticized is the structure of the backbone network. While the development of the trans-European networks in western Europe was governed by internal considerations – the intention of connecting national networks, the starting point in the eastern half of Europe was the external consideration of extending Trans-European Networks (TEN) to the transition countries. Even the backbone elements of the Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment (TINA) network, which enjoy priority today, still reflect this approach. The danger remains that the additions expressing the needs of candidate countries will become lost in the process. Turning to Hungary, the paper gives a brief account of how an overcentralized transport network developed over the last century and the process by which a new road-transport layer was being created. The country today faces a similar process, as the new layer is developed into the new structure. Nonetheless, the existing and emerging structure is mistaken. An effort to reorient the conception is being made by defining the networkdevelopment criteria for a long-term inter-regional road network offering a structure separate from the traditional network of trunk roads, by developing an open grid that ensures minimum disturbance from transit traffic

Geographic features of zero-emissions urban mobility: the case of electric buses in Europe and Belarus

This article reviews the emerging phenomena of electric buses’ deployment in Europe and Belarus within the general framework of the concept of sustainable and electric urban mobility. The author offers a brief overview of electric bus technologies available on the market and a spatial analysis of fleet deployment in Europe. The analysis of the spatial structure of the distribution of e-buses in Europe indicated that, in terms of the number of vehicles in operation, the UK and the Netherlands are the regional leaders, while in terms of the number of cities testing e-buses – Germany, Sweden, and Poland are the leaders. The analysis showed that the main factors supporting the distribution of innovative technology and public support are legislative and regulative framework as well as clear strategic planning and cooperation between local administrations and transportation authorities. Other important aspects, such as network building features, and the location of the charging infrastructure were also discussed. The analysis of the case study of Minsk (the first city to introduce electric buses in Belarus) outlined the typical limiting factors for all types of markets: high battery costs and dependency on infrastructure; recommendations are given to emphasise bus fleet replacement (instead of trolleybus) and to develop a comprehensive sustainable urban mobility strategy

Global patterns of cropland use intensity

This study presents a global scale analysis of cropping intensity, crop duration and fallow land extent computed by using the global dataset on monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas MIRCA2000. MIRCA2000 was mainly derived from census data and crop calendars from literature. Global cropland extent was 16 million km2 around the year 2000 of which 4.4 million km2 (28%) was fallow, resulting in an average cropping intensity of 0.82 for total cropland extent and of 1.13 when excluding fallow land. The lowest cropping intensities related to total cropland extent were found for Southern Africa (0.45), Central America (0.49) and Middle Africa (0.54), while highest cropping intensities were computed for Eastern Asia (1.04) and Southern Asia (1.0). In remote or arid regions where shifting cultivation is practiced, fallow periods last 3–10 years or even longer. In contrast, crops are harvested two or more times per year in highly populated, often irrigated tropical or subtropical lowlands where multi-cropping systems are common. This indicates that intensification of agricultural land use is a strategy that may be able to significantly improve global food security. There exist large uncertainties regarding extent of cropland, harvested crop area and therefore cropping intensity at larger scales. Satellite imagery and remote sensing techniques provide opportunities for decreasing these uncertainties and to improve the MIRCA2000 inventory

The transition towards a sustainable energy system in Europe: What role can North Africa's solar resources play?

Securing energy supply and speeding up the transition towards a reliable, sustainable, low-carbon energy system are among the major current and future challenges facing Europe. Importing dispatchable solar electricity from North Africa is considered as a potential and attractive option. Nevertheless, as things currently stand, the European Commission focuses mainly on the exploitation of the existing wind power potential in the North Sea, largely ignoring the solar power potential in the Sahara region of North Africa. After discussing the major challenges and issues facing Europe to achieve the assigned ambitious objectives, the paper emphasises the importance of North Africa's solar resources in helping Europe to successfully address the challenge of decarbonising its electricity system, in particular with regards to the security of supply and sustainability. Within these two major challenges, the paper explores the issues of access, barriers and opportunities. The paper highlights why the EU’s energy and climate goals will not be achievable without adequate grid expansion and grid-scale energy storage facilities, as well as other innovative measures to manage demand and ensure a secure energy supply. In this respect, the paper shows how the import of dispatchable electricity from North Africa via specific HVDC links could play a key role in helping the EU achieve its energy targets in a cost effective way without recourse to significant investments in transmission infrastructure and storage facilities. The paper then attempts to identify and analyze the main barriers that continue to inhibit the export of solar electricity from North Africa to Europe. Finally, to make the project more attractive and achievable in the near future, the paper proposes a systematic approach for setting up energy import scenarios. A promising import scenario is presented where energy import via Italy is shown to be a more viable and effective solution than via Spain.Peer reviewe

EU Neighbourhood policy: implications for public services and trade unions

The EU Neighbourhood policy creates pressures to liberalise and privatise public services. It affects 17 countries in North Africa, the Middle East and former Soviet Union