New Prosperity for Rural Regions

The project deals with problems of marginal rural regions in the period of transformation in Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The course of the transformation, its impact, related border problems and environmental aspects were studied in seven model regions of the two countries, using geographical, cartographic, sociological, historical and remote-sensing methods. The opinions of both the local populations and the local authorities were also taken into account. The most important problems observed included the deepening of marginality, the worsening situation in the labour market, structural demographic degradation of the most marginal settlements and a lack of development programmes. In the Czech Republic the state had no effective regional policy up to the time of the research. Possibilities for future prosperity include exploitation of human and other local resources, the elaboration of local and regional programmes capable of gaining financial support and the utilisation of tranquility and the positive environmental situation. It is the local people who usually represent the main wealth of marginal regions and care for them is the task of the local authorities.

Lake Ladoga: Water Resources for the Sustainable Development of North-Western Russia and Finland

The aim of this project was to evaluate the present state and possible changes of water resources in Lake Ladoga and its drainage basin for the purposes of the sustainable development of North-Western Russia and Finland. The group assessed the state of the water resources in quantitative and qualitative terms, taking the system of sustainable development indicators suggested by the International Commission on Sustainable Development as a basis for assessment. These include pressure indicators (annual withdrawals of ground and surface water, domestic consumption of water per capita), state indicators (ground water reserves, concentration of faecalcoliform in fresh water, biochemical oxygen demand), and response indicators (waste-water treatment coverage, density of hydrological networks). The group proposed the following additional indicators and indices for the complex evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative state of the region's water resources: * Pressure indicators (external load, coefficient of anthropogenic pressure) * State indicators and indices (concentrations of chemicals in water, concentrations of chemicals in sediments, index of water pollution, critical load, critical limit, internal load, load/critical load, concentration/critical limit, internal load/external load, trophic state, biotic indicators and indices) * Response indicators (discharges of pure water, polluted water, partly treated water and the ratio between these, trans-boundary fluxes of pollutants, state expenditure on environmental protection, human life span) The assessment considered both temporal and spatial aspects and produced a regional classification of the area according to the index of water pollution. Mathematical models were developed to describe and forecast the processes under way in the lake and can be used to estimate the influence of climatic changes on the hydrological regime, as well as the influence of anthropogenic load on the trophic state of Lake Ladoga and to assess the consequences of accidental discharges of polluting admixtures of different kinds into the lake. The results of this mathematical modelling may be of use to decision-makers responsible for the management of water resources.