Gap Filling of Daily Sea Levels by Artificial Neural Networks

In the recent years, intelligent methods as artificial neural networks are successfully applied for data analysis from different fields of the geosciences. One of the encountered practical problems is the availability of gaps in the time series that prevent their comprehensive usage for the scientific and practical purposes. The article briefly describes two types of the artificial neural network (ANN) architectures ‐ Feed‐ Forward Backpropagation (FFBP) and recurrent Echo state network (ESN). In some cases, the ANN can be used as an alternative on the traditional methods, to fill in missing values in the time series. We have been conducted several experiments to fill the missing values of daily sea levels spanning a 5‐years period using both ANN architectures. A multiple linear regression for the same purpose has been also applied. The sea level data are derived from the records of the tide gauge Burgas, which is located on the western Black Sea coast. The achieved results have shown that the performance of ANN models is better than that of the classical one and they are very promising for the real‐time interpolation of missing data in the time series

Spatial Database Designing for Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making in Mitrovica Region, the Republic of Kosovo

The integration of spatial data analysis methods and thematic map models is an approach to reduce the negative impact of anthropogenic pressure on the environment due to mining and waste generation. The large amounts of industrial waste from mining in the Mitrovica region in northern Kosovo lead to serious environmental problems with organic and inorganic water and soil pollution. This study aims to design and establish a geospatial database for long-term environmental monitoring, provide analytical tools, and support appropriate management decisions by local authorities and agencies. The database contains topographical elements and ecological parameters collected from different national and open access International sources. All collected data have been analyzed, standardized and harmonized within the open-source QGIS ver.3 software. The results showed that in developed datasets were organized in different GIS layers and compiled several thematic maps. The designed database is unique by its architecture, providing an opportunity for periodical monitoring of the environment near the mining areas. Keywords: Environmental monitoring; Spatial database; Open source software; QGIS; Kosovo.   Copyright (c) 2021 Geosfera Indonesia and Department of Geography Education, University of Jember This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share A like 4.0 International Licens

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATIONAL DISASTER CENTRE “SAVE THE CHILDREN LIFE”

Millions of people are affected by natural and man-made disasters each year, among which women, children, elderly persons, people with disabilities or special needs, prisoners, certain members of ethnic minorities, people with language barriers, and the impoverished are the most vulnerable population groups in case of emergencies. Many national and international organizations are involved in Early Warning and Crisis Management training, particularly focused on the special target to safe children and improve their knowledge about disasters. The success of these efforts is based on providing the specific information about disaster preparedness and emergency in adapted for children educational materials, accompanied with simple illustrative explanations for easy and fast understanding of the disasters. The active participation of the children in the educational activities through appropriate presenting the information, short training seminars and entertaining games will increase their resilience and will contribute significantly to their preparedness and adequate response in emergency situations. This paper aims to present the conceptual framework of a project for establishing an Educational Disaster Centre (EDC) “Save the children life” at University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACEG), providing relevant justification of the necessity to organize such centre in Bulgaria and discussing good practices in Europe and worldwide for children' education and training in case of disastrous event. General concepts for educational materials and children training are shared. Appropriate equipment for the EDC is shortly described