Volumen 6 (2018): Edición 1 (March 2018)

The main attractions of national parks include their scenic beauty, security, wildlife and trees. For preserving and maintaining national parks, an appropriate pricing policy can be used. The current study focuses on using the travel cost method (TCM) and contingent valuation method (CVM) as a non-market valuation technique to value the National Botanical Garden in Bangladesh, a developing country where little or no previous works of this kind has been conducted before. The main objective of the paper was to suggest an appropriate entrance fee for the park by assessing the willingness to pay (WTP) from the TCM and CVM; by determining a revenue maximizing entrance fee from the CVM; and by considering socio-demographics, the characteristics of visits and the motivation of the visitors to preserve the National Botanical Garden. The study sampled 100 visitors. These visitors participated in a survey which consisted of closed questions followed by a semi structured in-depth interview. For data processing, SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used. Based on the travel cost demand function using the TCM, the study found that the amount respondents were willing to pay for entrance was 0.955 US dollars and yearly consumer surplus was 593634.5 USD. From the CVM, it was estimated that the WTP was 0.225 USD for the entrance and revenue maximizing entrance fee was 0.376 USD. Finally, the entrance fee suggested for National Botanical Garden was around 0.225 USD.

In the last two decades we can notice a significant increase of severe anemological events, which are mostly connected with mesoscale convective systems and a cold front of a deep low-pressure system. One of them are very strong winds with speeds more than 25 m/s. They caused material damage and threatening people's lives. The most dangerous are winds generated by mesoscale convective systems where radar reflectivity signatures of bow echo/derecho appeared. In this paper the area of occurrence of such phenomenon in Poland are described and the features of bow echo signatures on radar images are presented and explained. Additionally one of the most severe event and still very weakly known episode of 11^th August 2017 derecho in Poland is analysed. The damage data from European Severe Weather Database (ESWD) were analysed to confirm if the August 11th storm met derecho criteria. To identify the radar reflectivity signatures inside MCC the data from the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management shared on the radar-opadow.pl site were used. The CAPPI 1 km data were very useful to determine the convective forms. After that the data from synoptic station were examined for presenting the running of selected meteorological elements. Finally, some information about material damage in infrastructures and forests are mentioned.

Equity is central to concerns over environmental sustainability. Gender and economic power constitute prime bases of inequalities in human society. Moreover, university education has the potential to produce ideal individuals equipped to advance noble causes including environmental sanity. Hence, this study was designed to examine how economic and gender orientation affects attitude towards environmental abuse among a group of Nigerian undergraduates. Structured questionnaire were self-administered to 1120 randomly selected respondents and 1098 were analyzed. Multi-item measures were used to assess variables. One way ANOVA, Brown-Forsythe's test and Spearman's correlation r were used to analyze data. Results show that the mean score for attitudes towards environmental abuse was high (5.38±0.87, min. = 1.0, max. = 7.0) but, the generic pattern for attitude was fairly environmentally friendly because only 56.7% of respondents scored the mean or above. Age, sex and marital status had no effect on their attitude (p > 0.05) but religion and field of study did (p < 0.05). Economic and gender orientations were significantly and positively related to attitude towards environmental abuse (p < 0.05). Being Muslim and Christian as opposed to being a practitioner of a traditional religion; and undertaking studies within the field of biology and life sciences as well as science and technology, as opposed to social sciences, humanities and arts, predisposes students to healthier attitudes towards environmental abuse. Collectivist economic orientation and egalitarian gender orientation predisposes students to a healthier attitude towards environmental abuse.

Changes in river channel pattern in the middle reach of the River Liswarta and in the lower reaches of its tributaries near Krzepice were analysed, and were related to the construction, operation and decommissioning of watermills. For this purpose, old maps which covered the period from the beginning of the 18^th century until the 20^th century were used alongside written historical sources. Maps from the first half of the 19^th century provided valuable source material. Traces of old mill water systems in the valley floor were analysed on the basis of a numerical terrain model and aerial photographs as well as on the basis of detailed geomorphological mapping. The research made it possible to determine the locations of former mills mentioned in written historical sources and also changes in the course of river channels related to mill construction. It was found that some reaches of the River Liswarta channel and the estuary reach of its tributary River Bieszcza were in fact old mill races. These mill races account for around 31% of the length of the river channel reaches analysed. Analysis of old maps indicated that in the 19^th century, the River Liswarta near Krzepice had multiple channels. This development of the River Liswarta channel was not only the result of natural geological, geomorphological and climate conditions, but also the product of watermill construction, since some channels within this network were artificial canals, including mill races. As a result of the construction of mill races, river channel reaches ranging from 1 to 2.5 km in length were shifted. Of the mills studied, as many as 80% ceased to exist in different parts of the period covered by the research. Traces of some of them can still be found in the form of ruins of foundations or of a water system with the remains of hydraulic structures, while some have only left their mark on the river channel pattern.

This article describes two methods of showing the distribution of temperature on the surface and inside a spoil tip (coal mine waste dump) located in Wojkowice (in the Silesian Voivodeship). Two deterministic estimation methods were tested, i.e., Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) and Radial Basis Functions (RBF). According to isotherm maps the highest temperature on the surface of the “Wojkowice” spoil tip was in the NE area, while inside the heap the highest temperature noted was in the SW area. Better results were obtained from the application of the RBF method. A three-dimensional model (3D model) was generated by the method, which visualized the temperature distribution within the “Wojkowice” spoil tip. According to the 3D model of the temperature distribution the greatest heat centre inside the heap in Wojkowice was located in the SW part with a temperature of around 300°C. As a result, it can be concluded that the material of the “Wojkowice” spoil tip is burning out in a NW direction. On the basis of the model obtained it is possible to determine the location of potentially dangerous places which are exposed to possible deformations caused by the material burning under the surface. The results of the research presented make it possible to assess the thermal state of the spoil heap located in Wojkowice, Poland.

The study examined land accessibility constraints among migrants in rural border settlements of Ogun State, Nigeria. It specifically examined dimensions, extent of importance of the constraints and their joint interactive influence on land accessibility. Data were collected through questionnaires on migrant household heads. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the selection of 492 respondents for the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test, relative important index (RII) and correlation statistics). The study revealed that the majority of the sampled migrants were within an active and productive population (31-60 years). Also, the larger percentage of the respondents were male (64.8%), married (70%), farmers (67.2%) with no formal education (51.3%). Most of the migrants have stayed above 6 years (79.8%) in the study area. This is an indication that migrants would have detailed experience about their land accessibility constraints. Findings showed that the high cost of land was the major constraint to land accessibility and non-availability of land (scarcity) was the least constraint. The study further revealed that the high cost of land, inability to transfer land, difficulty in land transaction and insecure tenure jointly influenced migrants' access to land in the study area. The study therefore recommended the need for an efficient land administration and governance at local government level in order to accommodate the attendant needs of rural migrants in the study area.

The Katowice conurbation is an example of a typical old industrial region in Central and Eastern Europe, whose socioeconomic transformation, initiated after 1990, has led to spatial and functional changes. The aim of this article is to present the suburbanisation process in the Katowice conurbation based on demographic changes and an analysis of migration flow. This process has been taking place in the area since the 2000s and takes on the shape of a multi-centre development of newly created individual and developed housing zones (both in the core and in the suburban area of the conurbation). Since 1990, the cities of the Katowice conurbation have been undergoing a process of shrinking. This process is manifested in the decline in number of urban residents in the years 1991–2016, amounting to 366 thousand people. Moreover, the cities face numerous social, economic and spatial problems. Since 1995, simultaneous with the shrinking of the cities of the Katowice conurbation, there has been an increase in the number of inhabitants in its suburban areas (since 2004, the trend has continued to be positive). Population increases have also been recorded in some inner-city zones of the conurbation. The suburbanisation process in the outer zone of the conurbation includes, in particular, the communes located north and south of the cities constituting its core, including the communes of Ożarowice, Psary, Mierzęcice in the north and Mikołów, Orzesze, Wyry in the south-west. On the other hand, the areas of intense inner-city construction development, located in the areas of the Katowice conurbation core, which are attractive in terms of environment and transportation, are undergoing so-called, “internal suburbanisation”.