The paper presents the comparative analysis of the Kaunas city landscape change during the period between 2010 and 2015. For this analysis, the land fund statistics of the Republic of Lithuania, which had been grouped into a relatively natural and anthropogenic landscape, were used. Landscape change is graphically shown in the figures. Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature and legal acts as well as planning documents were analysed for the fulfilment of the work. The Kaunas city landscape analysis of the current situation was done. During the analysis the Kaunas city statistics were compared with the data of Kaunas County and the Republic of Lithuania. The analysis showed that during the analysed period the Kaunas city natural landscape area relatively increased by 1115.34 ha or 20.42 percent. The largest part of relatively natural landscape consisted of forests – 51.12 percent. During the period between 2010 and 2015, the anthropogenic environmental area increased by 47.33 hectares (2.80 percent.). In the period between the years 2010 and 2015, the Kaunas city anthropogenic landscape decreased by 1.189.41 hectares or 12.23 percent. This phenomenon was affected by the decrease of built-up areas of 1,233.36 hectares, or 14.10 percent. Built-up areas cover the largest part of the Kaunas city anthropogenic landscape – 88.09 percent. The analysis of the planning documents showed that after their implementation the built-up areas would increase, the aesthetic image of recreational environment would improve, the environmental condition would become of a higher quality.

Aim of the paper is to explore the possibilities of application of orthophoto maps in determination of land degradation. One of the forms of remote sensing is aerial photography. Orthophoto maps are made from aerial photography with specialized software orthophoto maps were analysed in perspective for several years – from 2005 to 2011.The results are based on the expert. With each year possibilities of application of orthophoto maps are expanding. During the research, data of survey and SWOT analysis of determination of land degradation by orthophoto maps. The study results prove that based on orthophoto maps mainly, it can be detected the following land degradation processes – agricultural land overgrowing with bushes and abandonment of built-up areas.

This study is a part of an extensive research of creep development in softwood (Pinus sylvestris) timber beams under natural environmental conditions. Large size test data sample obtained during long-term (approximately one and half year) static loading of timber beams in a four-point bending simulating the real service conditions of roof structures for winter and non-snow period has been processed and results presented. The correlation between creep deformation and its affecting factors, such as span to height ratio of beam, percent of latewood and width of year ring (a growth ring formed during a single year), orientation of year ring segments against main axis of cross section, number of year rings in 1 cm of wood, and density of wood have been analysed and corresponding coefficients of correlation presented. It is concluded that the most significant creep development affecting factor is density of wood. Strong relationship between creep development and width of year ring, number of year rings in 1 cm of wood and density of wood was observed during test. Orientation of year ring segments against the main axis of cross section, amount of latewood and span/depth ratio do not have noteworthy direct influence on creep development in terms of this study. Temperature can be neglected as creep affecting factor in terms of this study but in the moments of sharp raise or fall of temperature, almost immediate effect on creep development was recorded.

United States of America and European countries like Great Britain, Germany, Norway have long traditions in the development of scenic roads, special scenic routes for tourists, National Scenic Byway Programs. They have set criteria for road landscape planning and design, discussed the economic value of scenic roads. Scenic roads are also important for tourism, as well as visual and cultural countryside development in Latvia. Planning regions and regional communities in Latvia have strategic development plans and spatial plans. All of them include high value landscapes and protected, scenic territories. Some scenic roads are defined in these documents, but criteria for scenic road designation are set in every region individually. There are unlisted roads with high aesthetic value which could be protected. Common methods, criteria for the assessment of road landscapes and scenic road designation in Latvia are not developed. The aim of the research was to evaluate and understand the present situation of scenic roads in Latvia. An online questionnaire was carried out in order to find out peoples’ opinion about the road landscape quality. Spatial plans of regional communities and planning regions were examined. A field study of two sections of scenic roads was carried out. The research project was carried out from December 2014 to December 2015. Results show that current road landscape has a potential for development, and it needs improvements. The study gives a general insight into the scenic road situation in Latvia and provides basis for further research on scenic road planning and management.

The information about gardens of the Duchy of Courland in the 17th century is scarce and fragmentary, as part of documents is lost or exported abroad during the war. The time of the Duchy and its baroque gardens is attributed to reign of E. J. Biron in the first half of the 18th century, when impressive palace ensembles were created the help of architects F. B. Rastrelli and S. Jensen, building of summer residences in Rundāle, Vircava, Svēte, Luste. They served as summer amusement gardens or parks. In their arrangement, a compositional connection with the palace, the front courtyard, outbuildings and the garden was sought. These summer residences were located in rural plain areas, thus, the features of natural area - water, floodplains, terrain, nature of plantations and materials were used. The choice of planting materials was influenced by the climatic conditions - harsh winters, short summers, late spring frosts or early autumn frosts. Therefore, in the Duke’s time gardens, there are no delicate plants such as jews, boxwood plants, peach and mandarin fruit trees imported from the Western Europe. The local trees and shrubs, fruit trees, spice plants were used, vegetable beds made. The study examines two of the Duchy’s summer residences at Vircava (Wūrzau) and Svēte (Swethof), the study of which, as already mentioned, is made difficult due to the relatively scarce information.

This paper presents first results of monthly water stable isotope monitoring programme covering the most important surface and groundwater types in the Salaca River basin. The aim is to characterise the isotopic values of different water types in the Salaca River basin, and test if their contribution can be identified in the Salaca river runoff. A monthly groundwater and surface water stable isotope monitoring programme was initiated in August 2015 covering the most of the important surface and groundwater types in the study region – groundwater and surface water in the raised bogs, free-surface groundwater including artificially drained agricultural lands, water emerging from the Lake Burtnieks as well as Burtnieks and Arulika confined aquifers. Preliminary results show that stable isotopes are useful tool to identify distinct water components and their evolution. However, it is needed to continue monitoring programme to draw significant conclusions.

Peat is still mined in many parts of the world for production of peat substrates and energy. Many peatlands were affected by drainage in the past also for forestry and agricultural needs. Nowadays a raised attention to peatlands is focused, especially to drained peatlands due to their carbon reserves and their potential influence to the climate on the one hand, but on the other hand - due to raising awareness on protection of environment, habitats and biotopes. There are many examples on restoration activities in peatlands found worldwide, especially their water regime is the subject of regulation, which plays the major role to bring back original functions. In most cases in Latvia as the aim for protection and restoration of degraded peatlands was protection of EU biotopes and habitats. Of course, peatlands play an important role in emissions of the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4 and N2O, produced during mineralization of the drained peat organic matter. In literature, we can find only few cases where hydrological regimes are described for natural raised as well as restored block-cut peat extraction fields. This research analyses block-cut peat extraction field water level fluctuation influence on naturally raised bog hydrological regimes. Hourly data is analysed for six groundwater monitoring wells as well as for determination needs of water level fluctuations in excavated peat quarry as a response to precipitation.

Modern varieties developed under conventional plant breeding programs do not always perform well under organic and low-input growing conditions. Therefore, organic farmers need varieties adapted to variable environmental conditions. This means emphasis on traits such as nutrient uptake and use efficiency, good weed suppression ability and disease resistance and can be achieved via extended genetic diversity within the varieties: variety mixtures and populations of self-pollinating crops. The aim of the present study was to review published scientific literature about importance and research results on this topic. Scientific articles about the necessity of such studies and results of investigations performed in different countries have been studied. The main results show that variety mixtures have advantages in terms of disease control and yield stabilization and performance of mixtures may be affected by various factors – choice of components and its number, interactions between plants of components, manner of the mixing and growing technology. Depending on parental material, populations contain greater genetic diversity than variety mixtures. There are trends observed in the studies that yield of populations increased over generations and they are more stable than modern varieties, but there is no evidence that they would be significantly more productive. This research direction has recently become topical and is not sufficiently widely covered in the world agricultural science. The obtained results are inconsistent.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) fibre and seeds are widely used to produce healthy and environmentally friendly products. It is known that the main factors that influence flax fibre’ and seeds’ yield are genotype and growing conditions. The main task of the Latvian flax breeding program is to develop flax genotypes that are highly productive (both fibre and seeds) and well adaptable to changing environmental conditions. Goal of this study is to identify high yielding genotypes with good adaptation to local variable agro-ecological conditions. The agronomically important traits, such as yield of stem and seeds, total and technical plant height and fibre content were evaluated for 13 Latvian origin flax lines and standard variety ‘Vega 2’. The field trials have been carried out over the period from 2012 to 2015 at the Agricultural Scientific Centre of Latgale. The regression, correlation, coefficient of variation and cluster analysis between yield and yield provided components were used for identification of high yielding genotypes with good adaptation. On the basis of cluster analysis the genotypes were classified in two groups by lower and higher yield of stem, fibre content, total plant height and technical plant height. The line ‘I18-1’ was identifying as genotype with the highest average yield of stem (751.25 g mE-2) as well as highest yield against other genotypes in moisture and drought years. Most valuable by the average technical plant height was line ‘L26-1’ (73.05 cm).

Since the middle of the last century rapid intensification of agricultural production systems has resulted in dramatic increase in fertilizer consumption as fertilizer has been considered as one of the most important factors for increased yields. However, not all the nutrient ions in a fertilizer applied to soil are taken up by crops, thus certain amount of the applied fertilizer is lost from agricultural fields leading to increases in nitrogen surplus, nitrogen losses to the environment and harmful impacts on biodiversity, air and water quality. This study aims to focus on crop fertilisation planning which is based on the knowledge of physical and chemical properties of soil and involves performing soil tests, designing a fertilisation plan and its practical implementation as well as calculating the balance of N, and to evaluate crop fertilisation planning as a tool for achieving balanced economic and environmental benefits in crop farming, which play an important role in efficient farming. In this study, the authors have analysed current situation in Latvia regarding requirements for fertilization planning in crop farms and have assessed potential costs and benefits from fertilisation planning. The research finds out that total cost of introducing of fertilisation planning ranges from 34 to 22 EUR haE-1, however, fertilisation planning is a neutral measure where costs are compensated by savings from N inputs which ranges from 10 to 40 kg N haE-1.Fertilisation planning generates environmental benefits, i.e. – reduces direct N2 O emissions from agricultural soils by 47 – 187 kg CO2eq haE-1 through reduced N fertilizer inputs.