• Rural Digital Europe
• 2018-2022close
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The increased demand for bio based products worldwide provides an opportunity for Eastern European countries to increase their production in agriculture and forestry. At the same time, such economic development must be congruent with the European Union’s long-term climate and biodiversity objectives. As a country that is rich in bioresources, the Latvian case study is highly relevant to many other countries—especially those in Central and Eastern Europe—and faces a choice of transition pathways to meet both economic and environmental objectives. In order to assess the trade-offs between investments in the bioeconomy and the achievement of climate and biodiversity objectives, we used the Functional Land Management (FLM) framework for the quantification of the supply and demand for the primary productivity, carbon regulation and biodiversity functions. We related the supply of these three soil functions to combinations of land use and soil characteristics. The demand for the same functions were derived from European, national and regional policy objectives. Our results showed different spatial scales at which variation in demand and supply is manifested. High demand for biodiversity was associated with areas dominated by agricultural land at the local scale, while regional differences of unemployment rates and the target for GDP increases framed the demand for primary productivity. National demand for carbon regulation focused on areas dominated by forests on organic soils. We subsequently identified mismatches between the supply and demand for soil functions, and we selected spatial locations for specific land use changes and improvements in management practices to promote sustainable development of the bio-economy. Our results offer guidance to policy makers that will help them to form a national policy that will underpin management practices that are effective and tailored toward local climate conditions and national implementation pathways.

A major driving force to promote the idea of sustainable bioeconomy could be local experiences, skills and knowledge in respect to the use of local and natural materials (at first, biomaterials). Sustainable bioeconomy is a concept under development, and as such it requires argumentation and demonstration of efficiency. The aim of this chapter is to study the local knowledge of the Baltic region in terms of the applicability of local biomaterials in production. In the context of bioeconomy, there is an evident need to identify the possibilities for the use of natural and local materials as well as the knowledge to manage these resources. Natural materials of the Baltic region, such as hemp, straw, timber, grain processing products (husk), reeds, moss and flax, will be studied in the historical context and in the use for innovations in modern bioeconomy. In addition, such resources as clay, organic lake sediments (sapropel), peat, sludge, ash, coal and biochar will be evaluated as potential source materials for the manufacture of innovative products. Regarding the use of natural resources, different sectors will be analysed, for example, agriculture and construction. The obtained results will give an insight into the knowledge and traditions of the Baltic region concerning the use of natural materials as a key for sustainability.

Abstract Concerns about drinking water (DW) quality contamination during water distribution raise a need for real-time monitoring and rapid contamination detection. Early warning systems (EWS) are a potential solution. The EWS consist of multiple conventional sensors that provide the real-time measurements and algorithms that allow the recognizing of contamination events from normal operating conditions. In most cases, these algorithms have been established with artificial data, while data from real and biological contamination events are limited. The goal of the study was the event detection performance of the Mahalanobis distance method in combination with on-line DW quality monitoring sensors and manual measurements of grab samples for potential DW biological contamination scenarios. In this study three contamination scenarios were simulated in a pilot-scale DW distribution system: untreated river water, groundwater and wastewater intrusion, which represent realistic contamination scenarios and imply biological contamination. Temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), total organic carbon (TOC), chlorine ion (Cl-), oxidation–reduction potential (ORP), pH sensors and turbidity measurements were used as on-line sensors and for manual measurements. Novel adenosine-triphosphate and flow cytometric measurements were used for biological water quality evaluation. The results showed contamination detection probability from 56% to 89%, where the best performance was obtained with manual measurements. The probability of false alarm was 5–6% both for on-line and manual measurements. The Mahalanobis distance method with DW quality sensors has a good potential to be applied in EWS. However, the sustainability of the on-line measurement system and/or the detection algorithm should be improved.

Abstract Mixed forests are suggested as a strategic adaptation of forest management to climate change. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) are tree species of high economic and ecological value for European forestry. Both species coexist naturally in a large part of their distributions but there is a lack of knowledge on the ecological functioning of mixtures of these species and how to manage such stands. This paper analyses these species’ intra- and inter-specific competition, including size-symmetric vs. size-asymmetric competition, and explore the effect of weather conditions on tree growth and competition. We studied basal area growth at tree level for Scots pine and Norway spruce in mixed versus pure stands in 22 triplets of fully-stocked plots along a broad range of ecological conditions across Europe. Stand inventory and increment cores provided insights into how species mixing modifies tree growth compared with neighbouring pure stands. Five different competition indices, weather variables and their interactions were included and checked in basal area growth models using a linear mixed model approach. Interspecific size-asymmetric competition strongly influenced growth for both tree species, and was modulated by weather conditions. However, species height stratification in mixed stands resulted in a greater tree basal area growth of Scots pine (10.5 cm2 year−1) than in pure stands (9.3 cm2 year−1), as this species occupies the upper canopy layer. Scots pine growth depended on temperature and drought, whereas Norway spruce growth was influenced only by drought. Interspecific site-asymmetric competition increased in cold winters for Scots pine, and decreased after a drought year for Norway spruce. Although mixtures of these species may reduce tree size for Norway spruce, our results suggest that this could be offset by faster growth in Scots pine. How inter-specific competition and weather conditions alter tree growth may have strong implications for the management of Scots pine-Norway spruce mixtures along the rotation period into the ongoing climate change scenario.

Highly productive dairy cow' ration under intensive production conditions causes the development of subacute rumen acidosis (SARA). In this paper we discuss a reticulo-ruminal long-acting cyber-physical diagnostic system' prototype, which applies Internet of Things (IoT) for monitoring rumen parameters of cows. The new diagnostic system architecture includes, reticulo-ruminal bolus with pH and temperature sensors, a microcontroller, a radio transmitter and a power supply module. The system includes gateways for data collection from boluses, an MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) broker, a web server and a database. The diagnostic system' prototype provides timely data on cow health status to the users, so they can evaluate the cow' health status and implement further actions. Therefore, the use of diagnostic system provides opportunity to increase cow productivity, longevity and to save maintenance cost of milk farms. The results of the first stage of the research are discussed in this paper.

Complex systems consist of multiple interacting parts; some of them (or even all of them) may also be systems. While performing their tasks, these parts operate with multiple data and information flows. Data are gathered, created, transferred, and analyzed. Information based on the analyzed data is assessed and taken into account during decision making. Different types of data and a large number of data flows can be considered as one of the sources of system complexity. Thus, information management, including data control, is an important aspect of complex systems development and management. According to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015, “the purpose of the Information Management Process is to generate, obtain, confirm, transform, retain, retrieve, disseminate and dispose of information, to designated stakeholders…”. Information management strategies consider the scope of information, constrains, security controls and information life cycle. This means that information management activities should be implemented starting from the level of primitive data gathering and ending with enterprise-level decision making. The articles, which have been recommended by reviewers for this issue of CSIMQ, present contributions in different aspects of information management in complex systems, namely, implementation of harmful environment monitoring and data transmitting by Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, analysis of technological and organizational means for mitigating issues related to information security and users’ privacy that can lead to changes in corresponding systems’ processes, organization and infrastructure, as well as assessment of potential benefits that a controlled (i.e. based on the up-to-date information) change process can bring to an enterprise.

The introduction of pottery vessels to Europe has long been seen as closely linked with the spread of agriculture and pastoralism from the Near East. The adoption of pottery technology by hunter–gatherers in Northern and Eastern Europe does not fit this paradigm, and its role within these communities is so far unresolved. To investigate the motivations for hunter–gatherer pottery use, here, we present the systematic analysis of the contents of 528 early vessels from the Baltic Sea region, mostly dating to the late 6th–5th millennium cal BC, using molecular and isotopic characterization techniques. The results demonstrate clear sub-regional trends in the use of ceramics by hunter–gatherers; aquatic resources in the Eastern Baltic, non-ruminant animal fats in the Southeastern Baltic, and a more variable use, including ruminant animal products, in the Western Baltic, potentially including dairy. We found surprisingly little evidence for the use of ceramics for non-culinary activities, such as the production of resins. We attribute the emergence of these sub-regional cuisines to the diffusion of new culinary ideas afforded by the adoption of pottery, e.g. cooking and combining foods, but culturally contextualized and influenced by traditional practices.

Agricultural credit is required for the development of agriculture scenario in any economy. Commercial, cooperative and regional rural banks have extended agricultural credit to the farmers in Dakshina Kannada district of India. The effectiveness of agricultural credit system depends on the utilization of credit funds by the borrowers. The present study made an attempt to understand the factors influencing the utilization of agricultural credit of banks in Dakshina Kannada. The study used primary and secondary data. Primary data are gathered from the borrowers of banks operating in Dakshina Kannada district. The study found that there is an impact of demographic, agriculture and agricultural credit factors on the purpose of utilization of agricultural credit in Dakshina Kannada district.

Considering the overall situations of cultivator’s economic degradation, food safety chain issue, and whole food supply chain, newer technologies are emerging in the field of agriculture over time. If we look at third world countries, these traditional food supply chains still play the main bearish down prediction. For the result, if any customer deceived by adulterated foods, then in most cases, he/she could not get the original source of the food where it was produced or processed. And in this case, also the administration cannot make this possible to identify and punish the fraudsters. This is where the fraudsters get the opportunity to mix adulteration in foods, put new expiration on expired foods, and release them in the market. Again because of the lack of efficient distribution facilities between cultivators and industrial or last stage vendors, most of the cases cultivators could not get fair pay. And to solve this problem and set explicit or trustworthy communications, the civilization needed immutable and trustworthy technology so that all these problems can be solved. And in that stage, blockchain comes to the picture. In this research paper, we propose an effective, efficient, and satisfactory model or system and service solution to agro traders and also a food traceability system based on blockchain and the help of IoT to make their business more smart and rich. And through the blockchain, smart contract, and the help of IoT sensors, we tried to do maximum effort to reduce human intervention.