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The impact of climate change is felt by people all over the world, but this change is more pronounced in Europe. In Slovakia, which is in Central Europe, we feel these changes in all areas of the economy, but most significantly in agriculture. We experience extremely high temperatures more and more often, and frequent periods of drought alternate with extreme intensity of precipitation. The aim of this paper is to compare these changes in temperature and precipitation with a reference period - the sixty-year climate normal (1961-2020). Based on data from 81 meteorological stations, maps of temperature and precipitation deviations from the climatic norm were created by interpolation for selected decades (1961-1970, 1991-2000 and 2011-2020) in the growing season (April - October). By overlaying the map outputs of temperature and precipitation, new attributes were created that comprehensively evaluate locations in Slovakia. The results show that in the 1960s the summer months were normal in terms of precipitation and subnormal in temperature, in the 1990s the areas were mostly normal in temperature and in April especially above normal in terms of precipitation. On the contrary, the last decade is characterized by above-normal temperatures throughout the entire period and belownormal precipitation at the beginning of the growing season and above-normal precipitation in the autumn months. With this contribution, we can help farmers visualize the development of temperatures and precipitation, and thus they will be able to better adapt to the development of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate changes represent an important problem in today's society. Our study refers to the West Region of Romania, formed by the counties of Arad, Timis, Caras-Severin, Hunedoara, and it shows that there are significant differences regarding the climate changes between these counties. In our paper, we analyze the evolution of annual, respectively seasonal precipitations, and of the minimal, maximal and medium air temperatures in the considered region in the time frame 1991-2021. The statistical analysis of data shows an increase of the medium annual air temperatures, the observed changes being more pronounced in summer and winter. Beside the increase tendency of the air temperature in winter, one could observe also that the time of heat waves has become significantly longer in the West of Romania, such that the number of hot days is larger. An increase of the maximum length of the periods without precipitation has been observed over the last decades in the west during summer, as well as monthly anomalies of temperatures and precipitations. Annual estimates of the Climate Altering Land Cover Index are presented for the analyzed period and we observe that there is a positive correlation between these indices and the mean air temperature. In conditions of the climate changes, the mean summer precipitations will reduce in the coming decades, which will affect the management of water resources and the agriculture, which leads to the necessity of adjustment to the climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the changes of trends in temperature and precipitation in the Azov sea basin. The nature of this territory has undergone major changes. It is an important agricultural and industrial area. The paper considers changes in temperature and precipitation at stations located mainly in the steppe zone. Maximum, minimum, mean air temperature and precipitation trends on a seasonal and annual time scale are evaluated from data recorded at twelve weather stations in the basin of Azov sea during the period 1966–2015. Since the 70s of the twentieth century, there has been a monotonous increase in air temperature. The warmest years not only for Russia, but also for the Northern hemisphere and the globe as a whole were 2007, 2002, 2005 and 2004. Analysis of maximum air temperature values showed that the warmest years in the basin were 2010, 2007, and 2015. The minimum temperatures were recorded in 1987, 1976, 1992-1993 years. Over the past 15-20 years there have been significant changes in climate features. Annual and season changes are analyzed. It is established a steady warming trend. An increase in annual temperatures by 0.4-2.8 °C, January - by 2.6-3.1 °C and July - by 0.7- 2.1 °C. The study of air temperature by season showed that winter become warmer by 1.1 - 5.8 °C. The precipitation trend is less noticeable. In the winter and autumn periods there is an increase in the amount of precipitation. In the spring the amount of precipitation increases for all the stations under. In summer precipitation changes complicatedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a global problem with serious social, economic and distributional effects on the environment. It is one of the main current challenges for humanity. Changing climate conditions in the long term, as well as short-term fluctuations and non-standard variation of temperature characteristics, have a significant impact on the behavior of pavement structure. Since the end of the 19th century, average temperatures have risen to 0.6 °C. The article describes the results of measurements and evaluations of non-standard climatic situations occurring in the territory of Slovakia and the assessment of their impacts on road pavement structure. For the design of pavements structures in the calculations, we consider the deformation of materials for equivalent temperatures derived from actual measured temperatures. The most important characteristics of the asphalt pavement temperature are considered to be the average annual temperature of the asphalt layer, the average daily temperature, and their average values in each of the seasons. The strain and stresses in concrete slabs are important/significant temperature gradients - the temperature difference at the top and bottom surfaces. The requirement from practice was to re-evaluate the behavior of pavement structures with respect to changes in the effects of the temperature regime by measuring temperatures with an analysis of their behavior. In the paper are examples of calculations and impact of standard and changing weather conditions on the dimensions of the structures and pavements lifetime. Some pavement structural design problems and solutions with respect to their temperature regime and climatic change conditions are described in sections dealing with asphalt pavements and pavements with cement concrete slabs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide there is a constant effort to reduce energy consumption in order to prevent the climate change by decreasing the gas emissions. Another major concern of the authorities is to preserve conventional energy sources by using energy from renewable sources. European laws promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings, by considering the outdoor climatic and local conditions, without disregarding the indoor climate requirements (comfort). Starting with 31 December 2020, all new buildings should be nearly zero energy buildings. The energy consumption should be very low and a large part of the required energy must be covered from renewable sources. In this paper is presented an analysis of the energy consumptions for single-family residential buildings, located in Romania, in different climatic conditions. The methodology used for calculating the energy performance is the one adopted in Romania according to the European framework. Some numerical values of energy consumption revealed in the study could be used as reference values of the minimum energy performance requirements for the definition of nearly zero-energy buildings in the national standards. The results of the analysis suggest that the reference values to be used in Romania should be based on the average monthly temperatures of different locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The territory of Slovakia is in Central Europe at the interface of the parts of the continent that are influenced by continental and by oceanic climates. This is reflected in the variability of weather and climate characteristics. Apart from traffic load, change of climatic conditions are one of the constant external factors with adverse effects on physical and mechanical properties of different structural multi-layers in pavements. These impacts together with frost index and their corresponding changes significantly affect surface characteristics of cement concrete pavements, which is the critical factor of pavements reliability and safety as regards road users. The strain and stresses in concrete slabs are important / significant temperature gradients - the temperature difference at the top and bottom surfaces. In the paper are described some pavement structural design problems and solutions with respect to their temperature regime and climatic change conditions in cement concrete slabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the widespread concern about the staggering effects of climate change, particularly in the agricultural sector, has become very serious. It has been agreed that the inter-annual, monthly and daily distribution of climate variables such as temperature, radiation, precipitation, water vapour pressure in the air and wind speed affects a number of physical, chemical and biological processes that drive the productivity of agriculture. Thus, understanding the possible consequences of climate change in agriculture matters for designing adaptation policies intending to minimise negative consequences and maximise positive effects. This research study aims to identify and evaluate risks in agriculture in the context of climate change. The results of this research study reflects the forecasts of the changing climate and the following effects to agriculture and summarises the political framework of assessing and mitigating climate change and the risks related to it. The paper also describes the impact of agriculture on the national economy and characterises social and economic values of this sector. Overall, the evaluation shows that agriculture is affected by a set of risks that may not be very high individually, but can cause serious damage to crop yields if a certain combination of the risks occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]