Active and passive adaptation of floating houses (Rumah Lanting) to the tides of the Melawi river in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Floating houses or Rumah Lanting are one of the settlement cultures found in most river streams in Kalimantan and are observed to be different from several other houses in the area. They are mitigation-proof houses designed to respond to the risk of disasters usually experienced in the traditional settlements of West Kalimantan. Their structures have the ability to adapt to environmental conditions including natural disasters such as the river tides routinely experienced as a flood during the rainy season and as ebb in the dry season. This study aimed to identify the human-adaptation process existing in these floating houses through direct observation for two years during the dry and rainy seasons as well as in-depth interviews conducted with occupants of these buildings. The adaptation processes identified include the active and passive adaptation of the dwellers. The active aspect was observed from the behavior of occupants in accommodating the occurrence of disaster in the surrounding environment while the passive was identified as the physical changes implemented in the building to mitigate the disaster. The focus of this research was on some dwellings on the river banks settlement in the Melawi River near Sintang Regency of West Kalimantan Province and a qualitative approach with a case study was implemented. The samples were determined through a non-probability approach in the form of a purposive sampling method based on certain selected criteria which included the previous experience of ebb and flow of river water in the Rumah Lanting. The results showed the existence of active and passive adaptations for the dwellers of the floating houses in West Kalimantan. The active aspect observed involves the behavior of the occupants in adapting to natural disasters with the focus on the changes in the activity patterns, territory, and privacy. Meanwhile, the passive aspect showed some modifications in the architectural elements of the building such as the position, orientation, access, and function.

Investigating outdoor thermal comfort of educational building complex in urban area: A case study in Universitas Kebangsaan, Bandung city

Campus building was a place to accommodate various educational activities, which were both carried out indoors and outdoors. The environment, including the building and its exterior, provided thermal comfort that was influenced by the context, such as the mass of the facility, vegetation, and constructing envelope materials. The microclimate also influenced the environment, such as temperature, wind speed, and humidity. This study aimed to investigate the outdoor thermal comfort of campus building in urban area during summer, while also identifying the influential factors. This research referred to a case study, examining the thermal quality of the educational building environment using ENVI-met software, based on the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index as an indicator of outdoor thermal comfort, in Universitas Kebangsaan (UK). The results showed that the outdoor environment had low thermal comfort conditions during the day, as it also had different thermal satisfactory situations, due to differences in physical characteristics in each zone. This characteristics included, (1) The SVF determinant as indicators of the shading factor should be supported by the presence of vegetation and the use of pavement material, (2) Although the wind speed factor does not really affect the thermal comfort in the outdoor space, the interconnection between open gaps is likely to make breeze distribution in the area better. This study offered direction for campus planning, in order to maintain the optimal capacity of the natural environment, such as (1) Strategizing to create a better shadowing factor in the outer space, which was supported by controlling the use of pavement materials, (2) Directing the density of buildings by making open spaces more permeable, in order for better wind distribution in the area. From this study, the campus current conditions and future design development potential was also observed.

A forgotten tributary of the Danube: The Vajas River

During the examination of the historical geography of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve, the reconstruction of the medieval landscape was carried out, within which the channel conditions of the main watercourses were sketched. The Vajas River is assumed to be the most important medieval tributary of the Danube. It can be located based on historical maps, medieval and modern written sources. During the research, it turned out - based on our sources so far - that there was no tributary called Vajas on the right bank of the Danube. Only the tributaries/branches on the left bank of the river were called Vajas. The Vajas River was not uniform but consisted of at least four sections in an area of about 140 km from Kalocsa to Plavna.

Ecotourism impact assessment on environment in protected areas of Serbia: A case study of Gornje Podunavlje Special nature Reserve

Ecotourism is a nature-based type of tourism, especially represented within protected areas. No matter the fact, just like the other selective types of this sector, ecotourism might affect the environment. In a process of writing the Visitor Management Plan in the Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve (SNR) in 2019, one part of the study was related to general projection of the ecotourism development impact on eco-educational paths within this SNR. The research was conducted throughout November 2019, in the form of interviews. The sample obtained 12 experts for nature protection, who stated their attitudes on three important topics: tourism in protected areas in general, tourism in the Gornje Podunavlje SNR and ecotourism within three concrete sites: Karapandža, Štrbac and Bestrement.

The nexus of tourism spending with economic performance: A panel data analysis for the Eurozone area

The paper investigates the nexus of tourism spending (i.e. leisure and business tourism spending) with economic performance (i.e. GDP and employment) for the Eurozone countries, during the period 2000-2018, employing sophisticated panel data analysis techniques. The issue is salient, given that within the Eurozone economic space the abolition of border impediments has released dynamics and brought into surface a new mix of opportunities, threats and challenges that has been changing the balance between centripetal and centrifugal forces. The findings of the paper identify the long-run equilibrium and confirm the bi-directional relationships among the variables considered, thus contributing to the discussion on the relationship between tourism and economic performance.

Using geoinformation tools for redistricting: Slovenian experiences

Electoral districts are an important component of the electoral system, as they have a significant impact on election results. Due to the uneven spatial distribution of electoral support political parties receive, district magnitude and the geography of electoral districts can have a decisive influence on the electoral viability of individual parties and candidates. Districting and redistricting are not a simple bureaucratic process but a politically very sensitive process with outcomes that can have far-reaching political consequences. Geoinformation tools can have a very important role in electoral district planning. In this article we aim to present the key advantages and disadvantages of their use. The presented results are derived from practical experience gained over the course of developing a new system of electoral districts in Slovenia.

Spatio-temporal changes in the heatwaves and coldwaves in Spain (1950-2018): Influence of the East Atlantic pattern

The Iberian Peninsula has a complex orography, which determines an important altitudinal gradient and alternation of valleys and mountains, and periodic cold/warm advections air. In the present investigation the evolution of the characteristics of heatwaves (HWs) and coldwaves (CWs) (number of events, frequency, duration, magnitude, and amplitude) was analyzed. A total of 28 homogeneous-period weather stations (1950-2018), grouped into six regions (cluster). After submitting the meteorological series to a process of homogenization and data quality control, various ET-SCI indices were estimated in order to obtain evolution trends in each climatic region. In all cases, there was an increase, often significant, in the recurrence of HW events (0.3 / 10 yrs) as well as a decrease in CW events (-0.2 / 10 yrs). In addition, the evolution of the above indices and anomalies was correlated with the evolution of the global index of the East Atlantic (EAi).

Surface water pollution with nutrient components, trace metals and metalloidsin agricultural and mining-affected river catchments: A case study for three tributaries of the Maritsa River, Southern Bulgaria

This work analyses changes in the content of nutrient components and trace metals and metalloids at three tributaries of the Maritsa River flowing in Southern Bulgaria with catchments affected by mining and agricultural activities. Input data includes information about 14 chemical water quality parameters (N-NH 4 , N-NO 3 , N-NO 2 , N-tot, P-tot, P-PO 4 , Al, As, Fe, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) obtained from the Executive Environment Agency for the period 2015-2018. Two documented methods were used in this work to determine the pollution status of river waters-Heavy metal pollution index (HPI) and CCME Water Quality Index. The results based on the CCME WQI ranked water quality as "Poor" (WQI values range from 31.2 to 39.9). The HPI ratings achieve scores exceeding the critical pollution value of 100 for some of the metals (Al, Cu, Mn, and Zn), which indicates that water is seriously polluted concerning those variables. Therefore, it can be summarized that the river waters are not appropriate for safe drinking , agriculture, and household use because of significant nutrient and metalloids and trace metalscon-tamination.

Measuring neighbourhood hardships and neighbourhood change between 2010-2015 in suburban neighbourhoods of Buffalo Metropolitan Area, New York

Neighbourhoods in urban and suburban areas experienced changes in terms of physical, social, economic, and demographics. Neighbourhood Hardship Index (NHI) had been used to measure neighbourhood socio-economic condition, using various census variables. Suburban neighbourhoods which underwent a change lead to stratification into striving outer suburbs and declining inner suburbs. The context of this study was suburban neighbourhoods in Buffalo Metropolitan Area (BMA), New York. This paper aimed at highlighting spatial variability of neighbourhood change in innerand outer-suburban neighbourhoods of BMA between 2010-2015. This study examined factors that significantly contribute to neighbourhood change. Also, this study examined whether there a difference in the change of neighbourhood hardship index between innerand outer-suburban neighbourhoods. Composite NHI was developed from economic, demographic, and housing variables. Neighbourhood change was measured by comparing the composite NHI 2010 with that of 2015. The findings depicted a variation of change in hardships index across suburban neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods with higher hardship index were primarily located in inner suburbs. Policy implications call for concerted efforts to tackle the decline in the economy, education, demography to promote equity across neighbourhoods in suburban areas.

Media outlets in Vojvodina and Slovenia: Demographic-economic indicators and media pluralism

The paper analyzes the relationship between demographic-economic indicators in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Republic of Slovenia. Both societies have relatively organized regulatory and political frameworks for the development of media pluralism. It has been established that there is a clear cause-effect relation between the number of media outlets in certain local self-governments and the average net salary: the municipalities and towns with the highest average salaries also boast the highest number of media outlets. However, our analysis has shown that the criteria and mechanisms for identifying risks to media pluralism are not provided: the variety of population representing different political, ideological, cultural and social groups and the variety of interests and standpoints relevant to the local and regional community.