scholarly journals The role of alkalinity in setting water quality metrics: phosphorus standards in United Kingdom rivers

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1361-1372
Author(s):  
Alan D. Tappin ◽  
Alba Navarro-Rodriguez ◽  
Sean D. W. Comber ◽  
Paul J. Worsfold
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Quality Metrics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Reactive Phosphorus

UK implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive (for the 2015–2021 cycle) Ecological Status (ES) classification for river phosphorus is based on the calculation of reference conditions for reactive phosphorus (RP) using river alkalinity measurements.

scholarly journals European identity of Scotland in the context of Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Mikhail Grabevnik
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Key Factor

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union focused the issue of cleavage of British statehood by European criteria. According to the results of sociological surveys and polls, the distribution of preferences of Brexit is correlated with the national identification matrix. Most Scots and Irish of United Kingdom support remaining the membership in the European Union, while the most English defend soft or hard Brexit. However, the depth of such cleavage underlines the uncertainty in the preferences of citizens who identify as British in general. In the context of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the question of the European identity of Scots was also underlines by Scotland's regional political actors. This article is aimed to the analysis of the dynamics of the European identity of the Scottish community in 2016–2020 under Brexit conditions. The author concludes that the share of Scots with European identities increased after 2016, and Brexit was a key factor in the dynamics. At the same time, the actualization of European identity among the Scottish community is connected with the pragmatic strategy of the Scottish community and regional political actors to neutralize the negative economic and social effects of Brexit and plays an instrumental role in the national and European political arenas. The article starts with an excursion to the issues of national identity in the modern United Kingdom in the studies of Western and Russian authors. Then, based on an analysis of sociological data, the question of the European identity of Scots was raised, as well as the role of the national identity of United Kingdom citizens in the issue of membership in the European Union. At the end of the article, author proposes the description of the position and strategy of the Scottish community on the issue of Brexit.

scholarly journals BREXIT AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE CRISIS OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Populist Movements

The publication is devoted to the analysis of the UK exit from the European Union as a manifestation of the systemic crisis of the liberal democracy model. The causes and difficulties of this process are analyzed under the conditions of the failure of the political system to make political decisions. The problematic issues of liberal ideology and the model of liberal democracy were examined. The differences in the ideological convictions of the two founders of liberalism – Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, as well as the role of these differences in the modern functioning of liberal democracy in the United Kingdom. The role of globalization processes in the world in the context of the development and functioning of liberal democracy is analyzed. Some features of the course of globalization processes in the world are highlighted. The features of the existence of the European Union as an international supranational organization in the context of its influence on the functioning and stability of the political system of the United Kingdom are examined. The features of the functioning of the model of liberal democracy under conditions of strengthening the international way of making political, economic and legal decisions are emphasized. Particular attention is paid to the political motives of organizing of start of the process of the UK’s exit from the European Union, as well as the consequences of such a decision. In addition, the role of populist movements in this process, that have Euro-skeptical positions, has been established. The features of the functioning of populist movements are highlighted. The essence of the crisis of the model of liberal democracy in the United Kingdom is determined. The author analyzes the risks of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in the context of a peace settlement of the conflict in Northern Ireland as one of the indicators of the crisis of the liberal political system. In conclusion is performed analysis of some results of the referendum on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

scholarly journals Retrieval of Chlorophyll a from Sentinel-2 MSI Data for the European Union Water Framework Directive Reporting Purposes

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ave Ansper ◽  
Krista Alikas
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Chlorophyll A ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Atmospheric Correction ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sentinel 2

The European Parliament and The Council of the European Union have established the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) for all European Union member states to achieve, at least, “good” ecological status of all water bodies larger than 50 hectares in Europe. The MultiSpectral Instrument onboard European Space Agency satellite Sentinel-2 has suitable 10, 20, 60 m spatial resolution to monitor most of the Estonian lakes as required by the Water Framework Directive. The study aims to analyze the suitability of Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument data to monitor water quality in inland waters. This consists of testing various atmospheric correction processors to remove the influence of atmosphere and comparing and developing chlorophyll a algorithms to estimate the ecological status of water in Estonian lakes. This study shows that the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument is suitable for estimating chlorophyll a in water bodies and tracking the spatial and temporal dynamics in the lakes. However, atmospheric corrections are sensitive to surrounding land and often fail in narrow and small lakes. Due to that, deriving satellite-based chlorophyll a is not possible in every case, but initial results show the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument could still provide complementary information to in situ data to support Water Framework Directive monitoring requirements.

Setting the threshold: An analysis of different approaches for the definition of exemptions to water quality objectives in the European Union

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Bolinches ◽  
Lucia De Stefano ◽  
Javier Paredes-Arquiola ◽  
Carlotta Valerio ◽  
Alberto Garrido
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
European Union ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Member States ◽  
Environmental Objectives

<p>Continental water ecosystems and human water uses may be jeopardized by degradation of water quality.  To prevent this degradation, the maximum concentration of pollutants for freshwater bodies may need to be set in the legislation. In some cases, the actions needed to achieve those environmental objectives may be technically challenging or financially overburdening. In the case of the European Union (EU), the Water Framework Directive (WFD, Article 4) requires the achievement of the good status of water bodies but allows for the declaration of exemptions due to lack of technical feasibility or disproportionate costs. Twenty years after the WFD approval, the conditions to declare exemptions remain unclear and in practice their declaration  is highly discretional.</p><p>The extant scientific literature suggests several methods to formulate the justification of exemptions. Although the methodologies are diverse, they all require to select a threshold (e.g. in terms of cost disproportionality) above which a relaxation of the environmental objectives may be accepted. This threshold should be uniform across the EU River Basin Districts in order to guarantee a fair distribution of efforts across Member States. To date, however, there are very few studies that compare the application of exemptions in different regions to assess the uniformity of approaches to the declaration of exceptions.</p><p>When defining actions to achieve the good status of water bodies, the quantification of the different pressures, their interactions and the effects on receiving water bodies can be challenging. In the case of physico-chemical pollutants, however, it can be easier to define policy actions as pressures can be quantified (point loads of wastewater treatment plants, diffuse loads emanated by different land uses) and the evolution in receiving waters can be modelled.</p><p>In our research, we analyzed over one thousand water bodies in the River Basin Districts of five different Member States of the European Union (Estonia, a transboundary Ireland-United Kingdom basin, Italy, Spain and Portugal), using the available databases on Digital Elevation Models (Copernicus EU-DEM), land use (CORINE land cover), urban pressures (European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive dissemination platform and reported data), runoff and gauged flows (Water Information System for Europe, national gauging networks) and WFD exemption databases. Each water body was characterized according to the level of nitrogen and phosphorus pressures deriving from point and diffuse loads, and the declaration of exemptions to the environmental objectives for those nutrients. The exemption threshold is assessed for each River Basin District, allowing for a critical review of the different water policies in this significant aspect of the Water Framework Directive implementation.</p>

scholarly journals Migracje wielokrotne w Europie: polscy migranci w Wielkiej Brytanii, Holandii, Irlandii i Niemczech

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (2 (176)) ◽  
pp. 7-29
Author(s):  
Barbara Jancewicz ◽  
Justyna Salamońska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Polish Migrants ◽  
Access To Data ◽  
Selection Mechanisms

Multiple migrations in Europe: Polish migrants in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany Traditionally, research on migration studied one-directional flows of people occurring between the country of origin and a single destination country. Few studies go beyond this framework, mainly due to limited access to data. The aim of this article is a broader analysis of multiple migration, i.e. migration sequences, returns and re-emigrations, in particular to next destination countries. This is made possible thanks to the National Polish Bank survey of Polish migrants residing in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany in 2016. Analysing the results of this survey, we estimate that multiple migrants constitute around 11 % of all Polish migrants. We analyse the profile of Polish multiple migrants, as opposed to other migrants, and we compare the profile of multiple migrants in various countries. We find some similarities in the profiles of multiple migrants in the four countries, however this is not a homogeneous group, probably due to various selection mechanisms operating for the destination countries involved. In addition, we describe the destinations for multiple migrations of Poles and we point to the dominant role of the European Union Member States as destinations. Keywords: Multiple migration, Polish migration, European Union Streszczenie Tradycyjnie badania nad migracjami dotyczyły jednokierunkowych przepływów ludności z kraju pochodzenia do poszczególnych krajów pobytu. Niewiele badań wybiegało poza te ramy, głównie z powodu ograniczonego dostępu do danych. Celem tego artykułu jest szersza analiza, odnosząca się do migracji wielokrotnych, to jest sekwencji migracji, powrotów i powtórnej migracji, w szczególności do kolejnych krajów docelowych. Jest to możliwe na podstawie danych pochodzących z sondażu Narodowego Banku Polskiego na temat polskich migrantów mieszkających w Wielkiej Brytanii, Holandii, Irlandii oraz Niemczech w 2016 roku. Analizując wyniki tego sondażu szacujemy, że migranci wielokrotni stanowią około 11% wszystkich polskich migrantów. Porównujemy profil polskich migrantów wielokrotnych z profilem pozostałych migrantów oraz dokonujemy porównań wewnątrz grupy migrantów wielokrotnych. Odnajdujemy pewne podobieństwa pomiędzy profilami migrantów wielokrotnych w czterech krajach. Równocześnie wskazujemy jednak, że nie jest to grupa jednorodna, prawdopodobnie ze względu na zróżnicowane mechanizmy selekcji do różnych krajów docelowych. Ponadto przedstawiamy kierunki geograficzne migracji wielokrotnych Polaków oraz wskazujemy na dominującą rolę krajów Unii Europejskiej dla tych migracji. * Niniejszy artykuł powstał w ramach współpracy dwóch projektów finansowanych przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN): ‘W poszukiwaniu teorii migracji wielokrotnych. Ilościowe i jakościowe badanie polskich migrantów po 1989 roku’ (SONATA BIS, ID: 2015/18/E/HS4/00497)) oraz ‘Wpływ akumulacji własności przez migrantów ekonomicznych na ich mobilność i integrację: Polscy migranci w krajach Unii Europejskiej i w Australii’ (OPUS, ID: 2015/19/B/HS4/00364).

Euratom and Brexit: Could the United Kingdom Maintain One Foot in the European Union? Current Scenarios and Future Prospects of British withdrawal from the EAEC

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Andrea Circolo ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Independent Solution ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Energy Community ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The paper focuses on the very topical issue of conclusion of the membership of the State, namely the United Kingdom, in European integration structures. The ques­tion of termination of membership in European Communities and European Union has not been tackled for a long time in the sources of European law. With the adop­tion of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), the institute of 'unilateral' withdrawal was intro­duced. It´s worth to say that exit clause was intended as symbolic in its nature, in fact underlining the status of Member States as sovereign entities. That is why this institute is very general and the legal regulation of the exercise of withdrawal contains many gaps. One of them is a question of absolute or relative nature of exiting from integration structures. Today’s “exit clause” (Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union) regulates only the termination of membership in the European Union and is silent on the impact of such a step on membership in the European Atomic Energy Community. The presented paper offers an analysis of different variations of the interpretation and solution of the problem. It´s based on the independent solution thesis and therefore rejects an automa­tism approach. The paper and topic is important and original especially because in the multitude of scholarly writings devoted to Brexit questions, vast majority of them deals with institutional questions, the interpretation of Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union; the constitutional matters at national UK level; future relation between EU and UK and political bargaining behind such as all that. The question of impact on withdrawal on Euratom membership is somehow underrepresented. Present paper attempts to fill this gap and accelerate the scholarly debate on this matter globally, because all consequences of Brexit already have and will definitely give rise to more world-wide effects.

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