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The main aim of the research was to determine teachers' opinion on the importance of teaching equipment in geography classroom. The research was conducted during the school year 2020/2021. A total of 134 geography teachers from different districts in Serbia took part in the survey. In general, 57.5% of the participants stated that their school buildings have a specialized and separate geography classroom, while in other schools a classroom is shared between related subjects. It is interesting that 84.3% of the participants stated that in their classrooms they have internet at their disposal. Further, it was concluded that there is no statistically significant correlation between the availability of internet connection and the location of school (rural and urban). On the other hand, one of the biggest problems that 38.8% of the participants highlighted is that maps, which are essential for geography teaching, are approximately 20 years old. On average, the best grade for equipment is awarded to schools in the City of Belgrade (3.47) while the lowest grade is awarded to geography classrooms in Kosovo and Metohija province (2.00). On average, participants graded that their classroom equipment is "good" (3.02) while the importance of classroom equipment was graded with "very good" (4.49). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a natural phenomenon that occurs when the availability of water is significantly below the normal levels during a shorter or longer period of time and cannot meet the necessary demand. This study focused on hydrological drought assessment of the Tisza River on four gauging stations: Vásárosnamény, Szolnok, Szeged, and Senta for the period 1964-2018. An effective Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) has been recently proposed and widely used for determining hydrological droughts. Both long- and short-term droughts have very severe impacts on the investigated locations. Two drought periods can be singled out: the first period was from 1983 to 1993, with the exceptions in 1985 and 1987. This period is characterized by higher absolute SDI values on Vásárosnamény (-0.84) and Szolnok (-0.87) than on Szeged (-0.29) and Senta (-0.40) stations. The second period was more severe and lasted from 2011 to 2015, with an average SDI value of -1.32 on Vásárosnamény, -1.08 on Szolnok, -0.53 on Szeged, and -0.57 on Senta station. The Mann-Kendall test results indicate that there is no trend indicating transition from humid towards more arid condition over the investigated period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts are natural hazards that endanger the safety of population, their property and can create serious agricultural and ecological problems over the affected region. An analysis of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was performed by using the database of sixty years (1956-2016) of the monthly precipitation for the nine meteorological stations in Vojvodina region (Serbia). The SPI has been used for drought determination. The present study investigates the application of k-means clustering methods on the SPI at the 12-month timescale values to detect distinct drought clusters. For the purpose of determining the optimal number of clusters, the Gap Statistics was used. The results show that the total of four clusters (regions) can be identified in Vojvodina: three stations are listed in region 1 (Sombor, Palić, and Novi Sad), two stations in region 2 (Bač and Sremska Mitrovica), region 3 is a single-station region (Bela Crkva), while in region 4, three stations are grouped (Kikinda, Zrenjanin, and Vršac). The Mann-Kendall test has shown that only in region 1 there is a trend in SPI values ranging from arid towards more humid conditions in the 1956-2016 period. In other regions no trend was observed in the data series. These results could contribute to water resources and agricultural planning and management in Vojvodina region and also confirm the usefulness of clustering methods for drought regionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]