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Early in the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 disease pandemic occurred, and European Union members made the decision to restrict their borders to protect the public's health. Demand for travel and transportation services has decreased as a result of the epidemiological scenario brought on by the movement restriction. The research focuses on how mobility affects traffic safety in the Republic of Croatia, considering the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of limiting human movement and contact in order to safeguard human health. In this paper, relevant traffic indicators and their effects on road traffic safety are analysed with the aim of analysing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mobility and traffic safety. The study compares safety indicators during different time periods, including before, during, and after the removal of restrictions prompted by a pandemic. The research aims to assess the impact of the pandemic on traffic safety and mobility patterns, providing valuable insights for future planning practices that incorporate emerging knowledge. The research aims to promote pedestrian and bicycle traffic, reduce air pollution, and contribute to global initiatives aimed at achieving road safety goals. Moreover, it offers a potential solution to help achieve the European policy targets for road mobility and safety by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present possible areas to plant different vegetation types near traffic jams to reduce air pollution in the capital of Croatia, the city of Zagreb. Based on main traffic road and random forest machine learning using WorldView-2 European cities data, potential areas are established. It is seen that, based on a 10 m buffer, there is a possible planting area of more than 220,000 square meters, and based on 15 m buffer, there is a possible planting area of more than 410,000 square meters. The proposed plants are Viburnum lucidum, Photinia x fraseri, Euonymus japonicus, Tilia cordata, Aesculus hippocastanum, Pinus sp., Taxus baccata, Populus alba, Quercus robur, Betula pendula, which are characteristic for urban areas in Croatia. The planting of proposed trees may result in an increase of 3–5% in the total trees in the city of Zagreb. Although similar research has been published, this paper presents novelty findings from combined machine learning methods for defining green urban areas. Additionally, this paper presents original results for this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper estimates the exhaust emissions of marine traffic in the Port of Rijeka based on the ship’s data obtained from the pilot company. The Port of Rijeka is the largest port in Croatia that includes several berthing locations with different terminals. The estimation is made for each of them respecting carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter (PM) as well as for the amount of total emissions for the area. The aim is to prepare basic records for estimation and further monitoring with respect to changes in the ongoing environmental regulation and restrictions. This paper will contribute to the overall national strategy of preparing shipping emission inventories for the Republic of Croatia. The estimation method is based on the bottom– up approach widely used in such research that starts with ship characteristics and activities when approaching the port. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corridor Vc is part of the European land corridor network which represents connection with the Adriatic Sea, and it goes from Budapest through Osijek and Sarajevo, all the way to the port Ploce in Croatia. It passes through the center of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its length is 330 km. Before starting the construction, it is necesarry to estimate the air pollution condition, i.e. zero state, to obtain the realistic picture about the impact of traffic to the air quality during the exploitation of highway. This paper presents the results of air polution measurements which will be the base for the further air quality estimation, when the highway becomes operational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The new method for the forecasting hourly concentrations of air pollutants is presented in the paper. The method was developed for a site in urban residential area in city of Zagreb, Croatia, for four air pollutants (NO2, O3, CO and PM10). Meteorological variables and concentrations of the respective pollutant were taken as predictors. A novel approach, based on families of univariate regression models, was employed in selecting the averaging intervals for input variables. For each variable and each averaging period between 1 and 97 h, a separate model was built. By inspecting values of the coefficient of correlation between measured and modelled concentrations, optimal averaging periods for each variable were selected. A new dataset for building the forecasting model was then calculated as temporal moving averages (running means) of former variables. A multi-layer perceptron type of neural networks is used as the forecasting model. Index of agreement, calculated for the entire dataset including the data for model building, ranged from 0.91 to 0.97 for the respective pollutants. As suggested by the analysis of the relative importance of the input variables, different agreements for different pollutants are likely due to different sources and production mechanisms of investigated pollutants. A comparison of the new method with more traditional method, which takes hourly averages of the forecast hour as input variables, showed similar or better performance. The model was developed for the purpose of public-health-oriented air quality forecasting, aiming to use a numerical weather forecast model for the prediction of the part of input data yet unknown at the forecasting time. It is to expect that longer term averages used as inputs in the proposed method will contribute to smaller input errors and the greater accuracy of the model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to assess the possible impact of air pollution on works of art kept in storage at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Soiling removed during the process of conservation-restoration was analysed for its ionic content, lead, soot arid polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. The samples were taken from four paintings: two of them had been kept in the central store within the Museum's building since the mid-1970s or 1980s, while the other two had been stored in temporary storage in the city centre since the mid-1990s. The common characteristic of all the soiling was the predominance of sulphate and calcium. These two ions are dominant in the aerosol composition found indoors, their source being either plaster soiling and/or chemical reactions of sulphur dioxide with calcite. The excess of sulphate relative to calcium found in the two paintings kept in the central store when time outdoor air pollution was highest, suggests time air pollution impact. No excess of sulphate was found in the two paintings stored in the temporary store since time 1990s, when the outdoor air pollution of sulphur dioxide was substantionally reduced. In this case high levels of calcium were found, probably due to calcite soil and building materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]