In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by adopting the EU Renewable Energy Directive and the European Green Deal, the European Union aims at an extremely ambitious goal to become climate neutral by 2050. This goal involves a massive investment plan to support this initiative, but also to reduce disparities between Member States, in order to transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the sustainable development and renewable energy sources relationship in EU countries from a new perspective. Based on Eurostat available data and with the help of hierarchical clustering analysis, the Member States were divided in 2019 into five clusters, highlighting the key characteristics of the selected variables. The results of this research revealed high-performing groups of countries, as well as countries that need increased attention and additional support to become more efficient in achieving their sustainable development goals and renewable energy source targets.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/8/2323/pdf

Assessing the Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Sources Relationship in EU Countries

Does the urban sprawl matter in Yangtze River Economic Belt, China? An integrated analysis with urban sprawl index and one scenario analysis model

Conversion of agricultural and forest land to other purposes in the context of land protection: Evidence from Polish experience

The article describes sustainable transport principles and guides that can lead cities towards a more efficient transportation network. The authors also show good practice used in different urban areas, such as London and Copenhagen. Furthermore, Vilnius was analyzed for its sustainable transport rules and mobility. The authors took into consideration components such as public transport indicators, car use and the number of trips made by bicycle and by pedestrians. Additionally, solutions such as shared space, developing cycle routes and public transportation networks, dividing different transport modes, reducing distance and the need to travel, policy shifts and technological innovation are proposed. Moreover, already taken actions are also verified. The article, additionally, shows guidance for Vilnius, so it could be possible to develop a sustainable traffic network in the city. All analyses and guidance were based on using geographic information system (GIS) tools which allowed the authors to obtain the most reliable results. The artefacts are presented by means of a combination of graph theory algorithms in order to obtain sustainable transport using the example of a part of Vilnius City.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8274/pdf

Sustainable Transport: An Efficient Transportation Network—Case Study

Studies regarding correct selection of statistical methods for the needs of increasing the efficiency of identification of land for consolidation—A case study in Poland

Dynamics of development of the largest cities - Evidence from Poland

Sustainable development is socioeconomic growth that integrates political, economic, and social measures alongside environmental protection to meet the needs of communities and citizens without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The sustainable development concept was initially based on three main pillars: environment, economy, and society. In successive years, this concept has been expanded to include new pillars. The awareness of these changes has influenced our research interests. The main research objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of geographic information system (GIS) tools (data, tools, and multidimensional analyses) to the implementation of sustainable development principles in rural areas. The study covered rural and nonurbanized areas in Poland, especially farmland, forests, fisheries, and farms. The study presents the results of our research into environmental, economic, and social determinants of growth in the spatial dimension. GIS tools continue to evolve, which improves access to information and increases database managers’ awareness that highly accurate data are needed for spatial analyses. GIS systems allow us to formulate, in a structured and formal way, models that reflect both the current state and forecast changes that will occur in space. It is a very useful tool in the sustainable development of rural areas.

Geographic Information Systems and the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas

The concept of studying the impact of legal changes on the agricultural real estate market

Knowing the exact number of fruits and trees helps farmers to make better decisions in their orchard production management. The current practice of crop estimation practice often involves manual counting of fruits (before harvesting), which is an extremely time-consuming and costly process. Additionally, this is not practicable for large orchards. Thanks to the changes that have taken place in recent years in the field of image analysis methods and computational performance, it is possible to create solutions for automatic fruit counting based on registered digital images. The pilot study aims to confirm the state of knowledge in the use of three methods (You Only Look Once—YOLO, Viola–Jones—a method based on the synergy of morphological operations of digital imagesand Hough transformation) of image recognition for apple detecting and counting. The study compared the results of three image analysis methods that can be used for counting apple fruits. They were validated, and their results allowed the recommendation of a method based on the YOLO algorithm for the proposed solution. It was based on the use of mass accessible devices (smartphones equipped with a camera with the required accuracy of image acquisition and accurate Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning) for orchard owners to count growing apples. In our pilot study, three methods of counting apples were tested to create an automatic system for estimating apple yields in orchards. The test orchard is located at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The tests were carried out on four trees located in different parts of the orchard. For the tests used, the dataset contained 1102 apple images and 3800 background images without fruits.

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Detecting Apples in the Wild: Potential for Harvest Quantity Estimation

Corresponding author: Cezary Kowalczyk. E-mail address: cezary.kowalczyk@uwm.edu.pl http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2014.124 © 2014 The Author. Published by VGTU Press. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Section: Sustainable Urban Development

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Cezary Kowalczyk

Papers

Dynamics of development of the largest cities - Evidence from Poland

Geographic Information Systems and the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas

The concept of studying the impact of legal changes on the agricultural real estate market

Detecting Apples in the Wild: Potential for Harvest Quantity Estimation

Dynamics of Changes in The Urban Space