Within a life cycle assessment (LCA), normalization is an essential part for interpretation. In Europe, only the European Union normalization factors (EU NFs), with 2000 as the reference year, are available for LCA practitioners, although they work on a regional level. The hypothesis of this research was based on the assumption that some regional NFs deviate from the EU NFs due to unique regional profiles, or because of previously omitted or generalized human impact. In this particular case study set in Slovenia has been tested. By working on the ReCiPe 1.08 life cycle impact assessment methodology, 18 impact categories were investigated, and an additional 3 were added: electromagnetic radiation, light pollution and electric use. To meet practitioners’ needs, the most up-to-date inventory data was used with the reference years of 2007–2012. Out of 440 environmental interventions that were investigated, 139 had no characterization factors (CFs), 97 were estimated using machine learning and 42 had to be omitted. The final result confirmed our hypothesis. Twenty NFs were compared with the EU NFs, and the results have shown that on average, the NFs differ by a factor of 9.76 (median = 1.65). The reasons for the high deviation are due to natural land transformation, and ionising radiation, toxicological and ecotoxicological impact categories; where there are major data gaps in the CFs. The primary concern of the research was data availability for toxicological and ecotoxicological parameters for toxicity-related emissions, and the fact that original CFs covered only 50.25% of plant protection products used in Slovenia. Toxicological and ecotoxicological uncertainties were illustrated by comparing four different results. Future studies should be focused on the use of machine learning to provide the next generation of CFs and to go beyond the CFs’ damage-oriented assessment. Remediation should be the new endpoint category and its units should be Joules.
COBISS.SI-ID: 8061305
The goal of this study is to assess residents' preferences for a set of attributes describing the recreation setting in an urban forest (outstanding trees, forest openings, waymarks and information boards, and paved walking trails) and to explore the heterogeneity of those preferences. It was captured by a four-class latent class model used to segment a sample of residents of Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia), who responded to a choice experiment-based poll. The survey focused on the Rožnik urban forest, for which preferences (also willingness-to-pay) for hypothetical changes in the attributes were assessed. Respondents in class 1 were invariant to changes in the recreation setting. Those in class 2 and 4 stated positive preferences for having more outstanding trees. Class 3 and 4 were in favour of increasing the area of forest openings and enhancing the maintenance of waymarks and information boards. Those in class 4 expressed positive preferences for more walking trails, whereas class 3 valued this negatively. Class membership was affected by respondent age, number of adults in the household, frequency of forest visits, income, and purpose of the visit.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4203174
Existing studies have employed discourse analysis to examine the reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) but have only partially studied the implementation of the discourse in the context of CAP measures and budgetary distribution. The present study tries to fill this gap. By conducting a discourse analysis of the latest CAP reform (2014–2020) documents, we attempted to determine which discourses and discourse strategies predominated in the reform’s documentation and how they were implemented into measures and budgetary distributions. The findings show that in the process of CAP reform decision-making, European institutions justified the CAP with a transformation of key discourses (productivist, multi-functional and neo-liberal) by emphasising the hugely popular environmental element while, at the same time, employing a strong productivist discourse at the level of measures and the budgetary distribution between the EU member states and farmers’ groups. In order to retain a strong CAP as well as the current distribution of financial resources, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council employed greening as a justification strategy as well as a productivist discourse as a major component in determining CAP measures.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3498376
Selection of a proper cultivar is one of the most important management decisions when investing into apple orchard. This paper presents a methodology for evaluation of suitability for cultivation of some apple cultivars by using a multi-criteria model based on analytical hierarchy process. The software tool Expert Choice was used to support growers in making decisions about which new apple cultivar to grow. The model was applied to 13 cultivars with data derived from questionnaires completed by group of experts of different fields (orchardists, experts for fruit production economics and fruit marketing, cultivar breeders, experts of state service and commission for introduction of new cultivars, experts for fruit storage and fruit quality assessment, plant protection and fruit growing advisers). The results are shown as priority for individual cultivar. The potential of the model for assessing apple cultivar is demonstrated with the aim of providing a comprehensive explanation and justification of the assessment technique. It also indicates strong and weak points (in market potential, fruit estimation, production demands and tree estimation) of each assessed cultivar.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3913004
Beer is an important source of crucial nutritional compounds such as carbohydrates and proteins. Therefore, beer has become an indispensable part of the diet in many cultures. Apart from carbohydrates and proteins, alcohol also contributes to the total energy value of beer. There exist several approaches to the calculation of the energy value of beer, which are defined in brewery analytical methods (EBC, MEBAK, and ASBC) and in legislative rules. Two approaches were compared. The first is the direct calculation method defined in EBC 9.45. The second can be found in Regulation (EU) Number 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Whereas the direct method is fast, simple, and feasible, the calculation method is laborious and time consuming. However, the direct method does not provide accurate results for some types of beer. Therefore, the modification of the direct method was suggested and verified.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3963180