BUILDING ENVIRONMENTAL CAPACITIES IN KOSOVO AND ITS CHALLENGE TO COMPLY WITH EU ENVIRONMENTAL ACQUIS

This paper analyses the development of environmental governance in Kosovo, environmental laws, regulations, processes, and their conformity with the EU environmental acquis. Kosovo, like other countries in the Balkans trying to join the EU, will, in the process of accession, have to ensure that its legislation conforms to the Copenhagen accession criteria. While Kosovo authorities have progressed in the process of legal harmonization, there has been little progress in executing the legal framework in terms of institutional design, necessary processes and policy developments. The key question posed in this paper is whether the environmental governance approach in Kosovo, in line with EU accession process, represents an appropriate framework for dealing with the country‟s environmental problems. The current Kosovo legal framework, institutional set-up, and current practice will be evaluated against conformity with the EU acquis. The implementation of EU environmental acquis in Kosovo is to be seen as an important opportunity to create environmental governance and stable processes of assessing environmental impact and increasing environmental policy integration

Utjecaj toksičnosti metala na rast i sadržaj fotosintetskog pigmenta biljke Salix purpurea na području Mitrovice, Kosovo

In Mitrovica, Kosovo, mining activity is threatening the environment and living organisms. The major sources of this pollution are the open tailing dumps in the city of Mitrovica, causing contamination of soil, air, and plants. This study determines heavy metal contamination levels in Salix purpurea leaf grown in the city of Mitrovica and its surrounding area, where the industrial plants and open tailing dumps of mineral processing are located. Furthermore, the photosynthetic activity of the plant was used to assess the content of heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn). The two-year (2019 and 2020) study showed heavy metal upgrade in leaves and chlorophyll. Total chlorophyll, ratios of chlorophyll a over chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll over carotenoids was calculated. The obtained data were analysed using Minitab 19 statistical software. The results indicated that mining activities and the open tailing dumps initiate heavy metal pollution for plants with a high risk of accumulation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.U Mitrovici (Kosovo), rudarske aktivnosti ugrožavaju okoliš i žive organizme. Glavni izvori onečišćenja su otvorena jalovišta u gradu Mitrovici, koja uzrokuju onečišćenje tla, zraka i biljaka. U ovom radu odredila se koncentracija teških metala u listovima biljke Salix purpurea ubranim na području grada Mitrovice i okolici, gdje se nalaze industrijska postrojenja te otvorena jalovišta. Na temelju fotosintetske aktivnosti biljke procjenjivao se udio teških metala (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb i Zn) u biljci. Dvogodišnja istraživanja (2019. i 2020.) pokazala su povećanje udjela teških metala u listovima i klorofilu. Izračunat je ukupni klorofil, omjer klorofila a i klorofila b te omjer ukupnog klorofila i karotenoida. Dobiveni podatci analizirani su primjenom programskog paketa Minitab 19 namijenjenog statističkoj obradi podataka. Provedena istraživanja ukazala su da rudarske aktivnosti i otvorena jalovišta povećavaju udio teških metala u biljkama, odnosno da dolazi do njihove akumulacije. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna

Editorial to the Special issue on novel coronavirus-related crisis and crisis management

This is an editorial to the Special issue of Management - Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, dedicated to novel coronavirus-related crisis and crisis management. Guest editors for this special issue are Boštjan Aver (GEA College, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Mihone Kerolli-Mustafa (International Business College, Mitrovica, Kosovo)

Ecological Risk Assessment of Jarosite Waste Disposal

Jarosite waste, originating from zinc extraction industry, is considered hazardous due to the presence and the mobility of toxic metals that it contains. Its worldwide disposal in many tailing damps has become a major ecological concern. Three different methods, namely modified Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP), three-stage BCR sequential extraction procedure and Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI) Method were used to access the ecological risk of jarosite waste disposal in Mitrovica Industrial Park, Kosovo. The combination of these methods can effectively identify the comprehensive and single pollution levels of heavy metals such as Zn, Pb, Cd, Cu, Ni and As present in jarosite waste. Moreover, the great positive relevance between leaching behavior of heavy metals and F1 fraction was supported by principal component analysis (PCA). PERI results indicate that Cd showed a very high risk class to the environment. The ecological risk of heavy metals declines in the following order: Cd>Zn>Cu>Pb>Ni>As

Environmental Hazard Assessment of Jarosite Waste Using Batch Leaching Tests

Jarosite waste samples from Trepça Zinc Industry in Kosovo were subjected to two batch leaching tests as an attempt to characterize the leaching behavior and mobility of minor and major elements of jarosite waste. To achieve this, deionized water and synthetic acidic rain leaching tests were employed. A two-step acidic treatment in microwave digestion system were used to dissolve jarosite waste samples, followed by determination of Al, Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, S, Si, Sr, and Zn by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The validation of the procedure was performed by the analysis of two geochemical reference materials, S JR-3 and S Jsy-1. Two toxicity leaching tests revealed a high metal releasing of Cd, Cu, Ni, Mn, Pb, Zn, and As, and the metal release risk for these elements is still very high due the low pH and acid rain. The statistical analysis showed useful data information on the relationship between elements in jarosite samples in two different extraction conditions (deionized water and synthetic acid rain). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Conventional and Non-conventional Sintering Techniques of High Purity Alumina Ceramics

The goal of this study is to compare the properties of cold isostatically pressed (CIP) alumina (A2O3) samples sintered by conventional (electrical) and non-conventional (hybrid microwave) techniques. X-ray diffraction was used to determine phase composition of A2O3 samples (raw powder and granules). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were used to investigate the thermal behaviour of the Al2O3 powder and granules during the thermal treatment. Compaction of spray dried A2O3 granules into green compact bodies was performed by CIP, followed by sintering of green bodies at 1600 °C in an electrical and hybrid microwave kiln, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyse morphology of the Al2O3 granules and fracture surface of Al2O3 compacts derived by both sintering techniques. Higher linear shrinkage and densification were obtained for alumina samples sintered in electrical kiln (conventional method), while sintering by faster and more energy efficient hybrid microwave kiln (non-conventional sintering method) yielded alumina samples with finer grain size. Alumina samples sintered by electrical kiln displayed higher relative densities and lower porosities

Assessment of origin and fate of contaminants along mining-affected Rio Montevecchio (SW Sardinia, Italy): A hydrologic-tracer and environmental mineralogy study

Hydrologic tracer techniques were applied to Rio Montevecchio (SW Sardinia, Italy), a stream affected by mine drainage, allowing the calculation of discharge and contaminant loads. Discharge along the stream showed a constant increase throughout the 2.7 km-long study reach, up to 13.6 l/s at the last synoptic point. Calculated loads of mine-related constituents were large, reaching values of 1780 kg/day for, 340 kg/day for Zn, 47 kg/day for Fe, and 50 kg/day for Mn. The difference of the cumulative instream metal loads between the first and the last synoptic sampling points indicated gains of 421 kg/day for Zn, 2080 kg/day for, 56 kg/day for Mn, and 50 kg/day for Fe. The source areas critical for contaminants loading were almost all concentrated in the first 800 meters of the stream, with the exception of Pb, whose loading occurs evenly along the whole study reach. Precipitation of secondary minerals along the streambed was responsible for a very high attenuation of Al and Fe loads (66% and 77%) and affected also and Zn loads, though less effectively. Rio Montevecchio has the second highest metal load among the rivers investigated with tracer techniques in SW Sardinia. In comparison with Rio Irvi, which has one order of magnitude higher metal loads, natural attenuation processes limit the loads in Rio Montevecchio. Results are useful to clarify the hydrogeochemical paths involved in the release and attenuation of pollutants, improving our understanding of stream responses to contamination and aiding development of site-specific remediation actions