Although the problem of ecosystem diversity loss is of a global nature, the measures to solve it must be implemented at the national level. As a member of the European Union, Lithuania needs to have a clear position regarding the application of proposed socio-economic measures. The problems of lake ecosystem utilisation analysed in the article are based on the scientific knowledge which complies with the specifics of regional natural environment. The aim of the article is to systematize scientific knowledge about modern lake ecosystem services by explaining the fundamental adaptation patterns of ecosystems and their components. The article provides a complex assessment of the services provided by lake ecosystems, reveals management problems related to optimization of the use of lake ecosystems, presents recommendations on the improvement of legislation related to lake ecosystem services, regulations for protected areas, management plans, etc.

This study is based on the authors’ research started in 2017 that resulted in the development of theoretical strategic and tactical models for the construction of a prototype for automated assessment of tourism economic impact in specific regions, including regions of national parks (NP), as well as for other studies. The aim of the research was testing the performance of the prototype in a research e-environment using the travellers’ survey data obtained in a study in 2019 on the national parks’ target groups (visitor behaviour) during the Gauja National Park (GNP) Travellers’ Days. The prototype was based on the open-source platform Drupal, MySQL used as a database management system (DMS). Drupal united with the Jupyter Notebook platform. The methodological substantiation of the test study is based on aspects of consumer behaviour. A quantitative study with details of qualitative research has been performed. Simple data sampling was used in the data acquisition, but in the analysis – induction, deduction approach, synthesis, data sorting and segmentation, determination of mean values and their expression in proportion; a comparative analysis was performed and conclusions characterizing the sample were made. After completing the prototype performance testing, the authors’ main findings indicate that the prototype’s performance efficiency in terms of time consumption is 23.3 times higher than equivalent work in MS Excel. The prototype has yielded quantitative results from the calculations, and that allows the formulation of the GNP’s Travellers’ Days visitor profile, which is characterized by a sample of the surveys.

The culture industry and its human resources have been little researched in Latvia, yet research on the culture industry is important, because the industry makes a significant contribution to economic growth by promoting employment and the development of competitive regions. The culture industry encompasses libraries, folk art, theatre, music, museums, the creative industry and other sub-industries, yet in recent years those working in all the culture subindustries faced various challenges, including: a low remuneration and insufficient monetary and non-monetary bonuses, resulting in lower job satisfaction and a high personnel turnover. Accordingly, the aim of the research is to develop recommendations for hiring and retaining human resources by examining challenges in managing human resources in the culture industry. The authors conducted a survey among the personnel of the Board of Culture of Jelgava municipality. The survey found that the main challenges faced by the administration of the Board of Culture were an uncompetitive remuneration, the aging of the personnel and generational change as well as inefficient and insufficient motivation for working. The research has developed two scenarios for recruiting: ‘promotion of creativity and non-monetary motivation’ that aim to publicly appreciate human resources, so that they would feel important and significant as well as facilitate creativity, innovation and collective solidarity, while for the purpose of retaining human resources in a long-term and decreasing their turnover, the second scenario ‘competitive remuneration and the differentiation by position category’ aims to gradually raise the remuneration and differentiate it for all categories of personnel.

Company capital is essential in running business and creating value added for the stakeholders, including economy. How the view on company’s capital structure has evolved from theoretical perspective in the 20th century is needed to be assessed, in order to determine what concepts and theories, if any are relevant in the 21st century. Many theories have competed their way and transformed during the 20th century, while some, i.e. trade-off, signalling and stakeholder theories are still relevant in the 21st century. There are also new trends in the 21st century, new terms and quests shifting from determining and analysing optimal company’s capital structure to sustainable finance, taxonomy and also sustainability in capital structure. Therefore, the aim of this research: to establish existing main theories impacting and analysing company’s capital structure and to examine the theoretical shift of the theories based on the needs in the 21st century. Authors defined company’s capital structure and determined that during the years 1989–2020, number of research publications has grown significantly, thus validating the need to reassess theoretical background of capital structure theories in the 20th century, as well as to help to determine the trends still relative and emerging from the theoretical and practical aspects to company’s capital structure in the 21st century.

A survey of 8985 records on all fires in Latvia in 2019 gathered by State Fire and Rescue Service was performed to find out if gathered data is suitable and complete for establishment of statistical database for fire protection engineering. The purpose of the survey is to assess suitability of provided content for further studies of the characteristic building fire occurrence probabilities in different building occupancy classes and to obtain solid background for calculations of national values of fire activation partial safety factors which could be implemented in National Annex of Eurocode 1 part 1–2. Study contains data about the total number of building fires with relevance to their occupancy types and review of recorded fire causes for residential buildings that provide overall insight on typical causes of fires in dwellings.

Small rivers are important in terms of water quantity and quality as these rivers collect and deliver water to medium and large rivers downstream. Due to low water flow and high connectivity to adjacent land, small rivers are highly vulnerable to changes caused by natural and anthropogenic factors. This paper aims to assess the chemical and ecological quality of two small rivers including the Slocene and Age as related to dominant land use cover in the contributing area of these water bodies. The effects of land-use patterns and concentrations of chemical substances TN, NO3**- -N, NH4**+ -N, TP and PO4**2- -P in river waters will be determined. The highest concentration of total nitrogen (TN) as measured in the Slocene River was 21 mg LE−1 in spring, while the lowest concentration of TN was 0.86 mg LE−1 in autumn. The highest concentration of total phosphorus (TP) in the Slocene River was 0.14 mg LE−1 in late summer, the lowest was 0.03 mg LE−1 in late autumn. Similarly, in the Age River, the highest concentration of TN was 4.90 mg LE−1 in spring, while TN the lowest concentration of TN was 0.51 mg LE−1 in late autumn. The highest concentration of TP in the Age River was 0.3 mg LE−1 in summer, while the lowest 0.05 mg LE−1 in autumn.

Research in many countries across the world, including Latvia, shows that youth participation in national defence is a topical issue. So far, scholarly research focusing on the promotion of youth participation in national defence and the provision of career support at school age and after finishing school is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the research was to establish the basis for young people’s military career in national defence. Research results show that there is both theoretical and legal basis for young people to start a military career, already during school years. Based on the broad meaning of the concepts career and career development, young people’s self-development, self-management and self-actualisation in various fields of human activity over one’s lifetime emerge as topical issues. Such activities of various kinds may follow one another in succession or take place simultaneously, in parallel, in accordance with dual career theories. The beginning and development of young people’s military career in Latvia can occur in the context of various activities already present and available in the near future: 1) participation in the Latvian Youth Guard as a type of non-formal education, 2) acquisition of National defence training at school in the context of formal education, 3) upon reaching legal age, voluntarily joining the Latvian National Guard, which is a component of the National Armed Forces of the Republic of Latvia.

Dialogue (discourse) is the main indication leading us to the conclusion that mediation is constructive. Discourse, the main form of dialogue, allows to achieve a positive result of mediation – an agreement between the participants of the conflict, as well as to learn dialogue communication skills. The aim of this study is to determine the types of dialogue used in mediation, the usage of recognized dialogue, and to find methods for assessing the dialogue (discourse) skills that need to be taught to the participants of the conflict, as well as future mediators and to evaluate the effectiveness of mediation. The research was conducted based on the theoretical methods of analysis of modern concept of dialogue and empirical testing methods (using questionnaires) of the participants of the conflicts and future mediators. Methods of mathematical statistics were used, when processing and analysing the results of the questionnaires. As a result of this work, the types of dialogue used in mediation are identified; recommendations on the choice of components and barriers of dialogue to be considered by the mediator when training participants in the conflict and future mediators are made, as well as recommendations on assessment the effectiveness of mediation are offered.

Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies and Organizing Committee of Annual 26th International Scientific Conference on Research for Rural Development 2020 tried to continues a tradition of bringing together researchers, academic and professionals in Jelgava, from 13 to 15 May, 2020 from all over the world. But, unfortunately, this year the rules were set by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We did start new tradition from 2020, account from 1st until the 26th conference and totally are 35 volumes. The interdisciplinary papers contributed the most recent scientific knowledge in agricultural sciences, forestry and wood processing, food sciences, veterinary medicine, economics, rural and environmental engineering, water management; information and communication technologies and education. These Proceedings will furnish the scientists of the world with an excellent reference volume. We trust also that this will be an impetus to stimulate further study and research in all these areas.

This report showcases the results of the assessment conducted by the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development. The assessment aims to create new sets of criteria for the Nông Thôn Mới (NTM) program of Vietnam by investigating the impacts and issues brought by climate change. This is a part of the task, “Investigation and improvement of the national NTM criteria for rural development at all levels (commune, district, province) according to titles (standard, advanced, demonstration) in the period of 2021-2025.”