Air Pollution Management: A Multivariate Analysis of Citizens' Perspectives and Their Willingness to Use Greener Forms of Transportation

The present research aims to understand how air pollution can be managed by public authorities, both central and local, starting from citizens’ perspectives on the issue. Air quality is a real problem, affecting people at multiple levels. Thus, we introduced the following variables to better understand the problem and to be able to formulate theoretical and practical implications for public management: the involvement of authorities in reducing air pollution; the involvement of citizens in reducing air pollution; financial incentives for citizens and companies for adopting behaviors that reduce air pollution; green investments in the city; the impact of air pollution on the community; and the need for independent bodies to monitor air pollution. The research methodology used is partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the required data were gathered from issuing a survey to citizens from the most important cities in Romania where pollution poses important challenges for the community and for the authorities. The results are useful to public managers in local and central institutions for creating better strategies meant to reduce air pollution, increase air quality, and improve the quality of the citizens’ lives

A Behavioral Approach to the Tourism Consumer Decisions of Generation Z

The main objective of our research is to identify the impact of recycling and waste reduction behavior on the sustainable tourism decisions of Romanian youngsters (18-25 years old). We used the PLS-SEM method and introduced four variables in the model: sustainable tourism decisions, the interest in recycling, the interest in waste reduction, and the interest in natural and less polluted touristic destinations. The main results emphasize the direct influence of recycling and waste reduction behaviors on the decisions made by Generation Z regarding sustainable tourism and on their preference for destinations that are better preserved and less touched by human intervention. The novelty of our research consists of the fact that we introduced variables such as waste reduction from the perspective of tourists because most studies address it as a management approach of the companies in the tourism sector. The findings are useful for managers in the tourism sector to create better strategies for attracting the younger generation who are preoccupied by environmental issues and sustainability in general

Rating Tourists' Interest in Tourism-Tailored Climate and Environmental Products

The scientific literature comprises a relatively large palette of studies focusing on tourist preferences regarding the weather and climate at the destination. However, the findings do not allow for establishing a hierarchy of climate and environmental features of interest for tourism based on destination type (urban/rural/mountain/seaside), but mainly to list them. We aim to identify some characteristics of a potential climate service targeting tourists by addressing in particular three aspects: 1. which are the weather, climate and/or environmental features most commonly marked as of interest in the general case of 'any destination type' and for the particular case of rural destinations; 2. which are the delivery and presentation forms of greatest interest; 3. how willing would be the tourists to pay for such a service. To this end, we used a questionnaire with five closed questions regarding these aspects, disseminated in Romania and Italy. The results confirm some expectations based on scientific literature and highlight the user interest in information encompassing several climates and/or environmental aspects, preferably in one single product. The results may be valuable for developing and providing effective tourism-oriented climate and environmental products and contribute to a better user uptake of such products and services

TEMPERATURE-BASED CLIMATE INDICATORS RELEVANT FOR AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGES IN OLTENIA

We present an analysis of changes of several thermal-based climate indicators relevant for agriculture in the context of climate changes for the near-future (2021-2040), aiming to highlight the extremes of these changes. To this end, we use bias-corrected results of climate projections performed with 5 regional climate models in the context of RCP45 and RCP85 scenarios at European scale, available from Joint Research Centre (https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/jrc-liscoast-10011). We firstly identify the models` simulations which lead to the lowest increase in the mean air temperature at national scale in the context of RCP45 scenario and respectively to the highest increase, in the RCP85 scenario.  We further use these instances to estimate the changes in 5 temperature-based indicators which are relevant for the agriculture sector. The indices characterize the bounding seasons (i.e. heating degree days) or are more specifically oriented for the growing season (i.e. Growing degree days; Winkler index).The target area is Oltenia, a region situated in the SW of the country and an important agricultural basin, which is analyzed in the context of changes over the entire territory. The results may provide additional elements for further studies focusing on the impact of climate change and adaptation solutions in this region

Holiday Climate Index: Urban—Application for Urban and Rural Areas in Romania

Nature, landscape, relaxation, and outdoor activities are important motivations when choosing rural destinations for vacations. Therefore, when selecting a rural area as a vacation destination, we assume that climate features are important. We investigated the appropriateness of the holiday climate index: urban (HCI:urban) in quantitatively describing the relationship between climate and tourism fluxes in such destinations. We employed data from 94 urban and rural tourist destinations in Romania and correlated the monthly mean HCI:urban values with sectoral data (overnight tourists) for 2010–2018. The results show that weather and climate influenced tourism fluxes similarly in rural and urban destinations, supporting the hypothesis that HCI:urban may be used for rural areas as well. The information derived from HCI:urban may be useful for tourists when planning their vacations as well as for tourism investors in managing their businesses and reducing the weather and climate-related seasonality in tourism fluxes

Changes in Cold Indices in the Recent Past in Dolj County, Romania

Socio-economic activity during cold season depends on a large degree by the air temperature and, in some cases, also on ground temperatures. In this context, the present study focused on two cold-season indices with practical applications, namely number of frost days (i.e., with minimum air temperature equal or below 0 °C) and number of frozen soil days (i.e., within minimum ground temperature equal or below 0 °C). The aim of the study was twofold: firstly, to investigate the observed changes of these indices in the last years; secondly, to assess the performance of alternative data sources for deriving information targeting specific beneficiaries of this climate-based information. The analysis concentrated on the area of Dolj county for the period October-April 2011-2022 and three data sources were used: observation data from weather stations, UERRA reanalysis dataset and E-OBS observation-based dataset. The results showed that for both indices the trend was negative. With low values of FD and FSD, autumn was a more favorable period for various activities than the early spring, whereas winter months were mostly unfavorable for outdoor activities. Thus, the study provided useful information for various end-users (e.g., in agriculture, construction sector) for better planning their activities

ASSESSEMENT OF THERMAL REGIME IN OLTENIA USING TEMPERATURE-BASED CLIMATE INDICATORS RELEVANT FOR AGRICULTURE SECTOR

We present a quantitative evaluation of current climate (1981-2010) thermal conditions relevant for the agriculture sector by using seven agrometeorological climate indices computed based on the ROCADA dataset. The temperature-related indicators characterize the cold period of the year (i.e. sums of minimum air temperatures ≤‐10°C recorded in December‐February interval), the bounding seasons (e.g. zero crossing days), heating degree days) or are more specifically oriented for the growing season (i.e. Growing degree days; growing season mean temperature during April‐October/ May-September interval; Winkler index). The indices are computed for the entire Romanian territory, highlighting the thermal climatic features of the Oltenia region

Variability and Change in Water Cycle at the Catchment Level

This study proposes a simple methodology for assessing future-projected evolution of water cycle components (precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and potential runoff) based on the two-level Palmer model of the soil and their impact on drought conditions at basin level. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) is used as drought metric. The catchments of rivers Arges, Mures, Prut, Siret and Somes (mid- and lower Danube basin) have been chosen as case studies. The present climate data consist of Romanian gridded dataset, monthly precipitation and values of streamflow from Romania and Republic of Moldova and potential evapotranspiration-related data from the Climate Research Unit (University of East Anglia). We used as future projections five numerical experiments with regional models obtained through the EURO-CORDEX initiative, under two Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios. The correlations between observed streamflow at the river basin outlets and PDSI-related components of the water cycle show that PDSI represents reasonably well processes taking place in the selected catchments. Depending on the specific scenario and catchment, droughts that in the Palmer classification were deemed as incipient, mild or severe under present climate will become a normal summer feature toward the end of this century, especially over catchments situated in the lower Danube basin

IR-BASED SATELLITE PRODUCTS FOR THE MONITORING OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR OVER THE BLACK SEA

The amount of precipitable water (TPW) in the atmospheric column is one of the important information used weather forecasting. Some of the studies involving the use of TPW relate to issues like lightning warning system in airports, tornadic events, data assimilation in numerical weather prediction models for short-range forecast, TPW associated with intense rain episodes. Most of the available studies on TPW focus on properties and products at global scale, with the drawback that regional characteristics – due to local processes acting as modulating factors - may be lost. For the Black Sea area, studies on the climatological features of atmospheric moisture are available from sparse or not readily available observational databases or from global reanalysis. These studies show that, although a basin of relatively small dimensions, the Black Sea presents features that may significantly impact on the atmospheric circulation and its general characteristics. Satellite observations provide new opportunities for extending the knowledge on this area and for monitoring atmospheric properties at various scales. In particular, observations in infrared (IR) spectrum are suitable for studies on small-scale basins, due to the finer spatial sampling and reliable information in the coastal areas. As a first step toward the characterization of atmospheric moisture over the Black Sea from satellite-based information, we investigate three datasets of IR-based products which contain information on the total amount of moisture and on its vertical distribution, available in the area of interest. The aim is to provide a comparison of these data with regard to main climatological features of moisture in this area and to highlight particular strengths and limits of each of them, which may be helpful in the choice of the most suitable dataset for a certain application