Eduardas Spiriajevas

Transitional waters play a vital role in the ecological health and sustainability of coastal areas. According to European Union legislation, transitional waters are coastal water bodies influenced by freshwater flows but are partly saline due to their proximity to the sea. This study focuses on agricultural and forestry regions adjacent to transboundary transitional waters—i.e., areas where two or more countries share an estuary, tidal inlet, delta, or lagoon and have a contiguous border in their territorial waters. The objective of the study is to determine the patterns of riparian agroforestry around the transboundary transitional waters in Europe and the dependence of the sustainability of these agro-silvo-pastoral systems under stress on the overall cross-border coherence of the countries sharing these waters. The innovative methodology uses GIS and geostatistical interpretation to quantitatively interpret multi-layered spatial data from remote sensing and other sources. The article’s main finding is that in the direct catchment areas of 12 transboundary transitional waters in three European bioregions—the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic and Black Seas, and the Northeast Atlantic—the Dissimilarity Index values vary from 1.5% to 8.2% in different agroforestry systems.

In all countries, cities and their suburbs are the most densely populated areas. They are also the places visited by the largest number of tourists and one-day visitors, who inevitably run the risk of becoming victims of crime. It is, therefore, important, not only at national but also at the international level, to know the structure of urban crime and identify urban areas that differ in terms of their criminogenic situation. This requires a geographical approach and regionalisation based on the quantitative data that can offer it. This paper presents the results of a study using big data regarding violent crime, property crime and infringements against public order registered by the police in 2020 in the territories of three major Lithuanian cities and their suburbs (n = 149,239). Events in open spaces were separately addressed. A series of experiments were carried out using several spatial clustering methods. The automatic zoning procedure method that gave the best statistical results was then tested with different combinations of parameters. In each city, seven types of areas of urban crime were identified. Maps of crime areas (regions) were created for each city. The results of the regionalisation have been interpreted from a socio-geographical point of view and conform with previous sociological urban studies. Seven types of areas of crime have been identified, which are present in all the cities studied and, according to a preliminary assessment, roughly correspond to the socio-demographic and urban zones of each city. The maps of crime areas can be applied for crime prevention planning and communication, real estate valuation, strategic urban development planning and other purposes.

Recreation in conservation areas has compelled special attention amid international travel restrictions. The tension between the conservation and economic use of these territories is increasing. This work aims to find ways to optimise and modernise environmental outreach and recreation in national parks — one of the conservation area types. Geotourism is a sustainable form of tourism, which bridges the gap between conservation and recreation. Several objectives have been attained to fulfil this aim. Firstly, best practices of geotourism development in conservation areas have been analysed. Secondly, the resource potential for diversifying ecotourism events in conservation areas has been measured. Thirdly, an algorithm for a geological heritage-focused ecotour — an innovative recreation product aimed at eco-education and community outreach — has been designed. The authors view the methodology for geotour design as an instance of heritage preservation and propose a new tourist route — the Geological and Geomorphological Chronicle of the Baltic Sea. This tour acquaints sightseers with the nature of the Curonian Spit national park, a unique geological and geomorphological feature whose landscapes are a product of centuries-long human-nature interactions. Twenty years ago, in 2000, the conservation area was listed by UNESCO as a place of considerable natural significance. The field studies were carried out as part of the international project Ecotour4Natur: Ecotourism as a Tool for the Preservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage within the Lithuania-Russia cross-border cooperation programme 2014—2020. The obtained algorithm for ecological route design may benefit other national parks as well.