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As a semi-closed sea, the Baltic Sea is especially vulnerable to human activities and pressures, such as tourism, industry, and increasing population size, which is also associated with increasing levels of plastic pollution. Apart from legal frameworks and technical solutions (e.g., waste management infrastructure), one of the means to address the problem is the use of soft measures, understood as non-compulsory, non-infrastructure, low-investment and low-effort measures that can be implemented in a way that is less complicated and costly than technical solutions. Based on the perceived need to further understand this matter, this paper discusses the role of soft measures in tackling plastic pollution. This paper combines a multi-methods approach consisting of a literature review on the topic, complemented by concrete examples of soft measures from different countries across the Baltic region. Drawing from the experiences gathered, it provides some suggestions aiming to maximise the impacts of soft measures and encourage their use as one of the tools that can be deployed to handle plastic pollution in the Baltic Sea Region and beyond., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Based on the physical and geographical conditions, the Baltic Region is categorised as a humid climate zone. This means that, there is usually more precipitation than evaporation throughout the year, suggesting that droughts should not occur frequently in this region. Despite the humid climate in the region, the study focused on assessing the spatio-temporal patterns of droughts. The drought events were analysed across the Baltic Region, including Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This analysis included two drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), for different accumulation periods. Daily data series of precipitation and river discharge were used. The spatial and temporal analyses of selected drought indices were carried out for the Baltic Region. In addition, the decadal distribution of drought classes was analysed to disclose the temporal changes and spatial extent of drought patterns. The Pearson correlation between SPI and SDI was applied to investigate the relationship between meteorological and hydrological droughts. The analysis showed that stations with more short-duration SPI or SDI cases had fewer long-duration cases and vice versa. The number of SDI cases (SDI ≤ -1) increased in the Western Baltic States and some WGSs in Sweden and Finland from 1991 to 2020 compared to 1961-1990. The SPI showed no such tendencies except in Central Estonia and Southern Finland. The 6-month accumulation period played a crucial role in both the meteorological and hydrological drought analyses, as it revealed prolonged and widespread drought events. Furthermore, the 9- and 12-month accumulation periods showed similar trends in terms of drought duration and spatial extent. The highest number of correlation links between different months was found between SPI12-SDI9 and SPI12-SDI12. The results obtained have deepened our understanding of drought patterns and their potential impacts in the Baltic Region., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The accuracy of the operational models can be improved by using observational data to shift the model state in a process called data assimilation. Here, a data assimilation approach using the temperature similarity to control the extent of extrapolation of point-like phenological observations is explored. A degree-day model is used to describe the spring phenology of the bird cherry Padus racemosa in the Baltic region in 2014. The model results are compared to phenological observations that are expressed on a continuous scale based on the BBCH code. The air temperature data are derived from a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model. It is assumed that the phenology at two points with a similar temperature pattern should be similar. The root mean squared difference (RMSD) between the time series of hourly temperature data over a selected time interval are used to measure the temperature similarity of any two points. A sigmoidal function is used to scale the RMSD into a weight factor that determines how the modelled and observed phenophases are combined in the data assimilation. The parameter space for determining the weight of observations is explored. It is found that data assimilation improved the accuracy of the phenological model and that the value of the point-like observations can be increased through using a weighting function based on environmental parameters, such as temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baltic region comprises countries of great diversity. They have in common that they all face the challenge to combine a sound economic development with the stewardship for their environmental, social and economic resources. Using the Sustainable Value approach we first analyze their overall sustainability performance. We then further develop the value drivers of Sustainable Value to enhance the explanatory power of our analysis. We find that there are significant differences between countries. We show both conceptually and using our examples that there is no unambiguous link between economic growth, environmental and social stewardship and the efficient use of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The new case of transformations in the Baltic region and in the European Union in general, as well as the unified social, economic and technological space formation processes in the Baltic region are described and analysed. These processes are comprehended as an important factor of further social, economic and technological modernization in the Baltic countries, as an precondition for more intensive and active integration of Baltic economic systems into the European and global economic and technological structures, as well as an knowledge based society and knowledge economy creation factor The arguments determining the idea of the Baltic region community and unity, as well as opposing arguments are evaluated. The main principles of integration in the Baltic region, as well as the possible integration strategies are analysed. The unified social, economic and technological space in the Baltic region as an research area is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Baltic migration, and particularly the experience of forced migration, relates to broader comparative and methodological issues and debates in the emerging field of refugee history. Attention is given to the impact of two world wars and their aftermath in the Baltic, with particular emphasis on the ways in which refugees from the Baltic and elsewhere have related their experiences. The article concludes by drawing attention to the multiple readings of population displacement that historians need to entertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]