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Climate changes which we are experiencing at the moment are affecting the entire globe. Serbia, as a developing country, is in the process of defining its own energy strategy and priorities when it comes to the problem of increased energy consumption in its building stock. Research shows that residential sector consumes the largest quantity of energy. The CO2 emissions present another big problem which is in a direct correlation with energy consumption. Green roofs have multiple positive effects on buildings and their surroundings which make them a desirable option for retrofitting roofs. The aim of this paper is to investigate thermal properties of chosen green roof system and its potential to positively influence energy consumption for heating buildings and therefore CO2 emissions trough refurbishing existing old flat roofs. The municipality of New Belgrade was chosen for this research for its unique urban characteristics - existence of large number of similar or identical buildings, which have same structural characteristics and similar surroundings. For the purpose of this paper, blocks 45 and 70 were chosen. Results of this research are applicable on all of the 132 buildings found at this location, which have total roof area of 90.990 m². By calculating energy quantity needed for heating the building with the existing roof and two hypothetical models, which have green roof, it was possible to quantify energy savings, which are in a direct correlation with CO2 emissions. A control roof was introduced in order to examine if the proposed green roof possesses better characteristics than a traditional solution, most commonly used in Serbia. Apart from energy savings, overall impact of the green roof on the CO2 reduction per building was calculated. By multiplying these results, we drew the conclusion that a project such as greening roofs of existing residential buildings in blocks 45 and 70 would have a noticeable effect on both the energy savings and CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that mankind has occasionally been exposed to the devastation of catastrophic proportions throughout its history (extreme weather events, natural disasters, bioterrorism, and pandemics are having an increased global impact), which are increasing in the 20th century due to climate change, the risk reduction measures are being taken at the global level to reduce the severity of the consequences. Natural and technological disasters in the European countries have caused significant loss of life and damage to structures and infrastructure, which has led to the ratification of conventions at the world level in the field of disaster preparedness (Hyogo Framework for Action and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Management). Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are amongst those most jeopardized. The paper gives an overview of the methodology in the field of defining the resilience of healthcare facilities through determining the hospital safety index. Through the application of this and other methodologies in a case study conducted in Serbia, the paper examines the direct correlations between hospital safety index and climate change. Paper gives the results of hospital safety index calculation considering modules 2-4 and possibilities for the potential use of the module 1 (research on hazards) in separate evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthropogenic emission of GHG especially CO has to be limited and reduced due to 2 their impact on global warming and climate change. Combustion of fossil fuels in the energy sector has a dominant share in total GHG emissions. In order to reduce GHG emission, European Union established a scheme for GHG allowance trading within the community, and the implementation of the European Union emission trading scheme, which is a key to GHG reduction in a cost-effective way. An important part of emission trading scheme is prescribed methodology for monitoring, reporting, and verification of the emission of GHG including characterization of the local fuels combusted by the energy sector. This paper presents lignite characteristics from open-pit mine Borovica- Pljevlja, which has highest coal production in Montenegro (>1.2 Mt per year), including evaluation of its carbon emission factor based on the laboratory analysis of 72 coal samples. Testing of the samples included proximate and ultimate analysis, as well as, net calorific value determination. In accordance with the obtained results, linear correlations between net calorific value and combustible matter content, carbon content and combustible matter content, hydrogen content and combustible matter content, carbon content and net calorific value, were established. Finally, the non-linear analytical correlation between carbon emission factor and net calorific value for Pljevlja lignite was proposed, as a base for the precise calculation of CO emission evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban heat island has significant impacts on buildings' energy consumption. The phenomenon is associated with increased urban air temperatures compared to the air temperature of the surrounding rural or suburban areas. The ambient air temperature growth due to climate changes and the urban heat island phenomenon are dramatically increasing the cooling demand in buildings. This is worsened by irradiation conditions, construction technologies, and subjective comfort expectations. This paper examines the impact of the urban environment on the energy demand of buildings, considering the case of two districts of the city of Rome, Italy: one is representative of a central zone, the other of a rural zone. Weather data were then used to calculate the thermal demand of a typical Italian building, ideally located in the monitored areas of the city. Standalone building with modified weather file was modeled in TRNSYS. Results show that urban heat island intensity causes an increase in cooling demand up to +33% for the urban area (+20% for the rural area) compared to the demand calculated using weather data from airportual areas. On the other hand, urban heat island intensity has a positive effect on heating demand which turns out to decrease up to -32% for the urban area (-14% for the rural area). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of climate changes is most often based on the analysis of time series of temperature and precipitation in urban areas and the increase in the emission of gases having a greenhouse effect. On the other hand, the selection of representative and relevant stations and comprehensive analysis of climate indicators lead to better and more exact assessments on climate changes at the regional level. In order to connect climate changes with agricultural, biological, socio-economic, and tourism databases, the paper deals with the dynamic analysis of changes in thermal component expressed through the values of regional climate indices in four climatological stations with different geographical positions in Serbia. There are significant differences between the two time series data (1961-1990 and 1991-2013) on temperature and humidity, precipitation, insolation, and wind speed. However, after using the climatic indices as a tool for assessing climate changes, the results of the study suggest the relative influence of the thermal component on the change of climate indices, with a slight increase in the index of significance for human activities. Relying on the results of this alternative approach to the study of climate changes, the fact remains that the climate is not fixed but highly variable factor that should be taken into consideration in terms of monitoring, evaluation, and management of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban bio-retention system is meaningful in reducing rainfall runoff and enhancing infiltration capacity. But the moisture migration in bio-retention systems are not clear under climate change. The spatial and temporal distribution of moisture under different rainfall events in bio-retention systems are studied in this paper based on experimental data in Beijing. Richards model is introduced to simulate the spatial and temporal distribution of moisture including pressure head, hydraulic head and water content under different initial and boundary conditions. As a result, we found that from the depth of the node to the lower boundary, the values of pressure head and hydraulic head increase with depth and decrease with time, while the values of water content represent opposite trends relative to the distribution of pressure head and hydraulic head in bio-retention systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air temperature and precipitation variation trends of the upstream of Lancang river using the time series from 1957 to 2011 are evaluated. The Mann-Kendall method is applied to study the trend and climatic jump of the air temperature and precipitation time series. It shows that the temperature has an obvious uptrend with an increase of 0.023 °C per year. The annual precipitation of the upstream of Lancang river is 954.96 mm without any change, however, the precipitation is gradually increased from upstream to downstream. This paper is significant for understanding the climate change over the years, and it has practical significance for water resources allocation and management in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by undeniable climatic change, the temperature of the urban areas rises continually, increasing rapidly the energy problem of cities and amplifying the pollution problems. The thermal stress is increased, thus both the indoor and the outdoor thermal comfort levels are decreased, enhancing the health problems. Green roof implementation in the building envelope is strategy that provides heat island amelioration, thermal comfort for occupants and reduces energy consumption of buildings. Green living roofs are a passive cooling technique, which can stop the incoming solar radiation from reaching the building structure below. In this paper, we assessed the importance of the green roofs in providing environmental and building energy benefits, and brief investigation on the different configuration of the soil layer in the green roof assembly influences to the temperature of the roof surface was presented. Investigation was conducted for first phase of the living roof growth. Four cells were designed in SolidWorks software where the transient thermal study was performed in order to determine differences between the behavior of the conventional roof and three green roof types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the geopolitical elements of the emerging discourse on how to control, and cope with climate change. Two complementary approaches may be distinguished: the actor-related approach analyses the positioning of states and interest groups, which develop strategies on coping with climate change; the other approach addresses processes and problem areas (physical, economic, demographic…) emerging in the geographic space as a consequence of, or linked to climate change. With failing mitigation policies and instruments, the urgency of adaptation to climate change is increasing. Assessment of regional consequences of climate change includes the perceptions and motivations of presumed losers or winners. New security implications related to climate change are emerging in the Arctic, South-East Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Energy supply security is a dominant factor in geopolitical considerations. The geopolitics of climate change is inextricably linked to many other issues of globalization. Significant shift of global power raises the discussion of ethical responsibility. Climate change is evolving as a testing ground for competitiveness and innovation potential of political and economic models in achieving sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents results of the research in wood fuels consumption for household needs in Serbia. Research was performed during the period from October 2010 until April 2011, i. e. in the period of heating season in order to get the ac-tual situation regarding the presence of certain fuel types in the consumption of households with special highlight on types and amounts of wood fuels. For this purpose, an adequate methodological concept was defined with the aim to pri-marily get relevant and reliable data on wood fuels consumption and afterwards, by using FAO WISDOM methodology and adequate GIS software packages to perform their analysis, mapping, and graphic representation. One of the most significant elements of the adopted methodological concept was field research-questionnaire of households which was conducted on the sample of 36.946 households out of which 20.725 urban and 16.221 rural in 22 municipalities in Serbia, which was 1.46% of the total number of households in Serbia. Results of the survey showed that 23.2% of the total number of households in Serbia used district heating system (based on conventional fossil fuels as dominant), 25.3% used electricity, and 10.6% used gas for heating purposes. Most households (40.9%) used solid fuels such as fuelwood, coal, briquettes, pellets, agricultural residues and combinations of solid and other fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and other climate change phenomena became a worldwide exploited subject over recent decades. World science has made enormous progress in understanding past climate change and its causes, and continues to study current and potential impacts that will affect people in the future. All scientists agree that the Earth's climate is changing due to natural phenomena, and most of them argue that human activities are increasing the greenhouse effect, while some scientists attribute climate changes exclusively to the natural causes. Though there still is, and always will be, need for multiple lines of research on an extremely complex system like Earth's climate is, an immediate consensus is crucial for decision-makers to place climate change in the context of other large challenges facing the world today. This paper discusses the existing body of evidence on climate changes in the past, and uncertainties that prevent scientists to reach full consensus on how climate might change in the future. It extends the time scale of climate changes over the entire history of Earth to help better understanding of hypothetical changes and their consequences that could be expected both in the near and in a very distant future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper has examined the impact of variations of Atlantic multidecadal oscillation on the change in air temperature during the summer season on the territory of Montenegro. Starting from the fact that in recent years more and more extreme weather events occur, as well as from the intention to comprehensively consider the temperature conditions in the territory of Montenegro, first analysis is of changes in air temperature in 8 parameters, of which 5 climate indices; connections with Atlantic multidecadal oscillation have also been analyzed. To study changes in temperature extreme indexes proposed by the WMO CCL/CLIVAR are used. Research within the listed topics was realized using data from 23 meteorological stations for the period 1951-2010 and the calculations are done for the summer season. The results show that there is increased number of maximum and minimum daily temperatures of warmer value. The impact assessment Atlantic multidecadal oscillation, teleconnection pattern that is quite distant, showed that its variability affects changes in summer temperatures in Montenegro, both in terms of mean values, and the frequency of extreme actions presented by climate indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serbia is situated at Balkan Peninsula, and currently majority of the territory is under warm temperate - fully humid climate type with warm summers (Cfb type, according to Koppen-Geiger Climate Classification). Observed changes in climate conditions since 1961 until present time show significant increase in temperature change and change in precipitation patterns. Disturbances in heat conditions, which are recorded to affect human health, agricultural production and forest ecosystem, are priority in climate change analysis and application in adaptation planning. Future change analysis show accelerated increase of temperature by the end of the 21st century, which proves the needs for immediate measures for mitigation of negative impacts. Temperature increase averaged over the territory of Serbia is 1.2 °C for the period 1996-2015 with respect to the period 1961-1980, with highest increase of maximum daily temperature during the summer season, 2.2 °C. Using high resolution multi-model ensemble approach for analysis of the future changes with respect to the base period 1986-2005, in compliance with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report (AR5), it is estimated that temperature may increase by 1.9 °C according to Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenario and by 4.4 °C according to RCP8.5 by the end of the century. Spatial distribution of temperature increase, intensification of high precipitation events and decrease of summer precipitation, show intrusion of subtropical climate over the Serbia and increase of high temperature and high precipitation risks. Results presented in this paper, using high-resolution multi-model ensemble approach, provide climate change information for short term to long term planning in different sectors of economy and preservation of human health and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miyun reservoir is a surface water source of the city of Beijing. This paper explores the relationship between reservoir basin runoff and climate change. Statistical analyses are employed to analyze the variations in rainfall, air temperature, and runoff in the reservoir basin. Results show uneven inter-annual variability in rainfall data series. Air temperature show a rising trend with 1993 and 1994 being the two significant mutation years. Runoff has been decreasing over the years. Based one inter-annual analysis, July and August had the largest runoff. Elastic analysis shows no significant relationship between rainfall and runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change effects are most often presented with ongoing and expected temperature increase and sea level rise, but also stressed is the shift in rainfall patterns, often difficult to distinguish because there is much natural variability in precipitation. Statistical process control presents application of statistical methods and procedures for monitoring and control of the selected process. It aims to evaluate two potential sources of a process variation: natural (common) and assignable (special) causes. Statistical process control was recently used to evaluate climate change/variation, using previous referential period as a benchmark for addressing the present variations (e. g. in temperature or precipitation) as being triggered by natural or special causes. This means that either variation statistically should have been expected or the natural processes "capability" changed and variations are higher than one could expect. This paper analytically compares specific precipitation pattern changes in the three cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina with different annual participation. The comparison is based on the assessment of statistical behaviour of the precipitation data during the periods of 1961-1990 and after 1990. Such comparison allows preliminary conclusions on the studied geographical distribution of specific climate change/variation impacts. The presented results show that climate variations effect the precipitation patterns change, but do not confirm that they are as high as they could not be statistically expected, based on previous precipitation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal energy demand in the residential building sector represents a big challenge for Serbia. In order to understand how to reduce this demand, and thereby avoiding GHG gas emissions, a bottom-up simulation model was developed. The model built the business-as-usual and two decarbonization scenarios up to 2030. For each scenario, such results as useful and final energy consumption, associated CO2 emissions, energy costs, investment costs and others were prepared at each level of the building stock segmentation. To develop such a detailed model, the topology of the residential building stock was developed and used as an input. For each individual building type, three retrofit packages of different stringency were analyzed. The paper delivers several important messages for the decarbonization of Serbia. First, it argues that the level of thermal energy services consumed by Serbian households is inadequate to address their needs. Second, the households of Serbia are likely to consume more wood than it was reported by national energy balances. Third, thermal energy efficiency retrofits can significantly reduce household energy demand at the same time as offering higher thermal comfort. However, the required investments are high and therefore benefits beyond energy cost savings should also be considered in order to make the transition to the low energy building stock economically feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technology is since more than ten years considered one of the key options for the future climate change mitigation. This paper discusses the implications for the further development of CCS, particularly with respect to climate change policy in an international geopolitics context. The rationale for developing CCS should be the over-abundance of fossil fuel reserves (and resources) in a climate change context. From a geopolitical point, it can be argued that the most important outcome from the successful commercialisation of CCS will be that fossil fuel-dependent economies with large fossil fuel resources will find it easier to comply with stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets (i. e. to attach a price to CO2 emissions). This should be of great importance since, from a geopolitical view, the curbing on greenhouse gas emissions cannot be isolated from security of supply and economic competition between regions. Thus, successful application of CCS may moderate geopolitical risks related to regional differences in the possibilities and thereby willingness to comply with large emission cuts. In Europe, application of CCS will enhance security of supply by fuel diversification from continued use of coal, especially domestic lignite. Introduction of CCS will also make possible negative emissions when using biomass as a fuel, i. e. in so called Biomass Energy CCS (BECCS). Yet, the development of BECCS relies on the successful development of fossil fuelled CCS since BECCS in itself is unlikely to be sufficient for establishing a cost efficient CCS infrastructure for transport and storage and because BECCS does not solve the problem with the abundant resources of fossil fuels. Results from research and development of capture, transport and storage of CO2 indicate that the barriers for commercialization of CCS should not be technical. Instead, the main barriers for implementation of CCS seem to be how to reach public acceptance, to reduce cost and to establish a high enough price on CO2 emissions. Failure to implement CCS will require that the global community, including Europe, agrees to almost immediately to start phasing out the use of fossil fuels, an agreement which seems rather unlikely, especially considering the abundant coal reserves in developing economies such as China and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the potential role of biomass to meet regional CO2 emission reduction targets up to year 2050 in two counties in the west of Sweden. It is concluded that the region could double its production capacity of solid biomass to 2030, from 6 to 12 TWh. Modelling of the electricity sector in the region indicates that biobased electricity generation in combined heat and power plants could almost triple by 2050 while at the same time replace fossil based generation in district heating. Biomass can also contribute to fuel shift in the transport sector. Yet, the transport sector requires a series of actions to significantly reduce demand in combination with use of electricity and biofuels and its transformation is obviously strongly linked to an overall transformation of the European transport sector. The total need for biomass could potentially increase from 14 TWh in 2010 to 48 TWh already from 2040, considering the electricity and transport sectors and under the assumption that large energy savings can be achieved in the building sector and that all fossil based heat generation can be replaced by biomass heating. Assuming that biomass also replace the fossil based raw materials used by the industry, including three refineries, requires 170 TWh biomass to be compared to the 130 TWh currently used for the entire Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate comfort and its variability are of great importance to human comfort, health and well-being, as humans may suffer dire consequences when they are exposed to the environments with heat or cold stress. The climate comfort index represented the integrated effects of meteorological variables on the human thermal sensation. The annual and seasonal climate comfort index values were calculated based on the monthly data of the temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed from 591 stations in China between 1966 and 2016. Using the empirical orthogonal function analysis, the dominant modes of climate comfort index variations were extracted by the first two modes, which accounted for more than 50% of the total variance. The results showed that the annual and seasonal climate comfort index values displayed a latitudinal gradient, and increased towards the south except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The most frequently perceived thermal sensations were labeled as "cold", "comfortable", "cold" and "extremely cold" conditions from spring to winter, respectively. For annual and seasonal climate comfort index, the consistent increasing trend was detected in most regions of China in the first mode. The sensitive areas were mainly located in the central, eastern and southern China in winter, while in the northern and western China in summer. In the second mode, the fluctuations between upward and downward trends were observed. The sensitive areas were located in the central China in summer, in the southwestern and southern China in autumn, and in the northern China in winter. This study provides the important information for the improvement of human settlement comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become an increasingly dominant environmental issue which has been attracting more and more attention in recent years. It is necessary to determine the cycle and trend of annual precipitation in the Haihe River Basin in the context of climate change because it is the largest river system in northern China. A combined method of rescaled range analysis and wavelet analysis is applied to identify the cycle and trend in annual precipitation based on data from 12 weather stations in the Haihe River Basin. The results of wavelet analysis show that the 12 weather stations all have the long main cycles of 35-38 years and the mediumlength cycles of 22-25 years. Datong, Yuanping, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Anyang, and Huimin stations have the short-length cycles of 9-11 years. The results of rescaled range analysis show that all of the Hurst exponents are greater than 0.5, which indicates that the future trend of annual precipitation will very likely follow the historical trend. Therefore, nine stations will have the downward trends, and other stations will have the upward trends in the future, according to the analysis of the historical trends by the method of wavelet analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioclimatic design can effectively affect the environmental thermal comfort level through changing the surface of the study area. Using Zhengzhou Beach Park as a case study, the impact of three different bioclimatic design methods (changing pavement only, changing design only and changing both pavement and design) on outdoor thermal comfort, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed under the ENVI-met model is quantitatively analysed. The results show that the three bioclimatic design schemes significantly affect the predicted mean vote of the site. The overall decrease in predicted mean vote average after pavement renovation pavement renovation is about 0.03, the overall increase in predicted mean vote average after design renovation design renovation is about 0.01, and the overall predicted mean vote average decrease after combined renovation is about 0.02. The relation among different predicted mean vote values and occupied areas under different bioclimatic design backgrounds is quantified, and the difference-value of climate index change were visualized for the first time. This study firstly uses a series of figures to show different trends of predicted mean vote and their area changes under the background of different transformation modes, which can effectively promote the refinement of the research on biological climate design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adverse effects of global warming and climate change require critical measures for marine refrigeration technology because of its impact on GHG emissions. A novel transcritical CO2 two-stage compression/ejector refrigeration cycle for shipboard cold chamber is proposed in this research. A comparative analysis was conducted between the basic transcritical CO2 two-stage compression cycle and the cycle equipped with a two-phase ejector considering the COP. Meanwhile, the refrigeration cycle was analyzed using entropy analysis to elucidate the distribution of irreversible losses in each component of the two-stage compression/ejector refrigeration cycle, and the effects of system parameters such as the evaporating and gas cooler outlet temperatures as well as the intermediate and discharge pressures on the cycle were investigated. The results showed that the ejector had the largest power capability loss, accounting for 26.95 % of the overall system, which is followed by the low pressure compressor with 26.06%. The COP of basic and ejector system significantly increase as the gas cooler outlet temperature and intermediate pressure decrease as well as the evaporating temperature increases. Furthermore, the entropy production of the system components decreases gradually with increasing evaporating temperature, with the greatest reduction in the ejector. In addition, the entropy production of the two-phase ejector remains constant with the increase of the high pressure side discharge pressure and gas cooler outlet temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual and seasonal trends of surface air temperatures were analyzed on the territory of Vojvodina, north Serbia, using observed data from 10 meteorological stations during 1949-2006. Of the 15 analyzed time series statistically significant positive trends were found in only 2 series. In the remaining 13 series were found trends with reduced statistical confidence. In general, the behavior of temperature could be considered rather non-changeable, than changeable. Quasi-changeable temperatures from 1949 to 2006 are surprisingly similar to the last glacial July paleo-temperatures. It seems that Vojvodina is a territory with more stable climate parameters than other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has tremendously changed the hydrological processes with global warming. There are many uncertainties in assessing water resources vulnerability. To assess the water resources vulnerability rationally under climate change, an improved set pair analysis model is established, in which set pair analysis theory is introduced and the weights are determined by the analytic hierarchy process method. The index systems and criteria of water resources vulnerability assessment in terms of water cycle, socio-economy, and ecological environment are established based on the analysis of sensibility and adaptability. Improved set pair analysis model is used to assess water resource vulnerability in Ningxia with twelve indexes under four kinds of future climate scenarios. Certain and uncertain information quantity of water resource vulnerability is calculated by connection numbers in the improved set pair analysis model. Results show that Ningxia is higher vulnerability under climate change scenarios. Improved set pair analysis model can fully take advantage of certain and uncertain knowledge, subjective and objective information compared with fuzzy assessment model and artificial neural network model. The improved set pair analysis is an extension to the vulnerability assessment model of water resources system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With global warming, climate change has tremendously changed the hydrological processes. To discover the non-linear trend of the natural runoff and its response to precipitation and temperature in the Yellow River Basin, the non-linear relationships among the runoff, precipitation and temperature are analyzed by the wavelet decomposition and reconstruction methods, partial correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The main findings of this study are: (1) The annual natural runoff, precipitation and temperature have the similar periods (27-year, 12-year), which indicates that the periodicity of the natural annual runoff has closely relationship with the regional climate change. (2) The annual runoff, precipitation and temperature exhibit five patterns non-linear variations at five time scales (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 years), that is to say, their non-linear trends are scale-dependent with time. (3) The annual natural runoff has a significant positive correlation with the precipitation and has a negative correlation with temperature. In addition, the runoff variation is more sensitive to change in precipitation than the change in temperature at all the five time scales. (4) Although the runoff and the climate change factors have non-linear trends at different time scales, the runoff has linear correlation with the temperature and the precipitation, especially at a large time scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including renewable energy sources, climate changes and fossil fuels.

The Djerdap National Park in Serbia is vulnerable to fires. The variability of a fire in the Djerdap National Park is studied depending on the impact of climatic conditions. The influence was investigated on a yearly, monthly, and daily basis using data recorded at the meteorological station Veliko Gradiste. Data were analyzed for two periods: 1961-1990 and 1991-2017, and for the year of 2011. Special attention is devoted to the conditions for the emergence of the largest forest fire in the Djerdap National Park in September 2011. In this study, the Angstrom index, the Nesterov index, and method of deficit and surplus of precipitation are used to predict the risk of fire. There was an increased danger of fire in the forests in the period of 1991-2017 compared to the period of 1961-1990. Indices showing fire risk are increased for the months of June, July, and August. The September 2011 is characterized by an increase of average monthly air temperature by 3.7 °C and a reduction of the total monthly rainfall of 32.3 mm compared to a long-term average value which favorable influenced to the occurrence of large forest fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a complex and multi-facetted phenomenon, interpreted by an extensive body of interdisciplinary science. Although a great deal is known about the climate system, an enormous amount of uncertainty remains. Since uncertainty is usually equated with ignorance, this fact feeds scepticism onman-induced impacts on the global climate and links climate change with natural causes only. A broader concept of climate change science is presented by focusing on both early and modern scientific foundations of climate models and specific types of uncertainty usually encountered when formulating quantitative assessments of risks due to climate change. Major controversial issues of such risks and their origin is addressed with paticular attention paid to the widespread criticism for inconsistency of the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, based on the assumptions found not always justified by the real scientific methods. Major inconsistencies and misleading arguments on the climate change are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present research work is to bring to better understanding the recent climate change at regional scale. The tendencies of many-years variability of air temperature and precipitation in Northeastern Bulgaria are determined. In order to determine future tendencies in air temperature and precipitation variability the data from regional climate models are analyzed. The occurrence of extreme monthly temperature and precipitation totals are investigated by calculation of 10th and 90th percentiles of the empirical distribution in the reference period 1961-1990. The main result of present work is that there are a positive tendency in changes of air temperature and negative in precipitation. The regional climate model data show increasing of extreme hot and dry months which is considerable for the second part of 21th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we considered the extreme temperatures, precipitation and UV-B radiation in Vojvodina region, Serbia. We describe the actual climate conditions for the period 1981-2007 and applied a dynamic downscaling technique using the EBU-POM regional coupled climate model under the SRES-A2 scenario to assess the changes for the period 2021-2100. The results indicate that a warmer and drier climate in the Vojvodina region can be expected at the end of the century. Projection of climate indicates to a strong increase in the mean annual minimum temperatures, and much smaller increase in the mean annual maximum temperatures. The increase of both extreme temperatures is predicted to be the highest in the winter and the lowest in the summer. Mean annual precipitation is projected to increase toward the end of the first half of the 21st century and to decrease for the last 30 years of the 21st century. Precipitation amount will be the highest during the winter and spring. The model simulations show that, by the end of this century, annual mean UV-B dose will recover by 5.2%. Recovery will be faster in the first half of the 21st century and more slowly later on. The UV-B doses recovery is expected to be the highest during the autumn and spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change affects regions differently and therefore also climate change effects on energy systems need to be analysed region specific. The objective of the study presented is to show and analyse these effects on regional energy systems following a high spatial resolution approach. Three regional climate scenarios are downscaled to a 1 km resolution and error corrected for three different testing regions in Austria. These climate data are used to analyse effects of climate change on heating and cooling demand until the year 2050. Potentials of renewable energies such as solar thermal, photovoltaic, ambient heat and biomass are also examined. In the last process step the outcomes of the previous calculations are fed into two energy system models, where energy system optimisations are executed, which provide information concerning optimal setups and operations of future energy systems. Due to changing climate strong changes for the energy demand structure are noticed; lower heat demand in winter (between -7 and -15% until 2050) and -- strongly differing between regions - higher cooling demand in summer (up to +355%). Optimisation results show that the composition of energy supply carriers is barely affected by climate change, since other developments such as refurbishment actions, price developments and regional biomass availabilities are more influencing within this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]