ABSTRACT. At the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century, catastrophic natural disasters became more frequent during the era of the scientific-technical revolution. Most of them are located in the mountainous regions of Georgia. There are floods caused by the interruption of the valleys and subdued floods associated with their breakthrough. Such processes have taken place and are still taking place in many parts of Georgia. They pose a threat to the environment, infrastructure, population and tourists.

River valleys are blocked by many factors, such as the arrival of glaciers, landslides, rock avalanches, shards of ice, avalanches, and river sediments.

These processes are determined by different factors. It is worth noting the large amount of precipitation that activates the natural dam mass. The geomorphological structure of the blocked mass is also important. If the embedded mass is stable then the probability of flooding decreases and vice versa, if it is not sustainable it is broken and flooding occurs. Of course, atmospheric precipitations increase sedimentation, which increases the negative effect of floods.

Due to the frequency of floods, it is necessary to study such areas in order to avoid impending disasters. The cartographic method involves transferring expected and actual natural events on the map. their territorial distribution. According to him, the formation of a new system. And geoinformatics and topographic maps determine the extent of natural disasters. All this will help us to avoid the impending flood.

ABSTRACT. The present article analyzes the dynamics of the labor force in the rural areas of North East Bulgaria, as well as its structure by age, gender, and education from 2011-2021. The article presents the main results of a study of the impact of changes in the age structure of the working-age population (aging) on the general level of activity, as well as the degree of demographic and economic strain on the labor force throughout the study period. The changes in the number and structure of the labor force in the rural areas of Northeastern Bulgaria have been calculated based on official statistical data. They are visualized in the form of maps. The proposed methodology can also be used for other rural areas, which makes comparison and spatial analysis possible.

ABSTRACT. The study aimed to identify land cover and land use transformations in the Chepinska River valley over the last 30 years. The total area of the considered territory is 976.86 km2. For the main aim of the article, applied methodology is based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis and assessment. We identified four classes of land cover at the first level of the CLC nomenclature in the study area at the beginning of the investigated period. These were Artificial surfaces (26.17 km2), Agricultural areas (159.73 km2), Forest and semi-natural areas (770.21 km2), and Water bodies (20.75 km2). Forest and semi-natural areas strongly predominated over the other three classes and occupied over 78% of the study area. This class is represented by the following classes at level 3: Broad-leaved Forest (CLC 311), Coniferous forest (CLC 312), Mixed forest (CLC 313), Natural grasslands (CLC 321), Transitional woodland-shrub (CLC 324), and Sparsely vegetated areas (CLC 333). At the beginning of the considered period, the Forest and semi-natural areas of the total area was 80.74% (788.71 km2), and today it is 78.84% (770.20 km2). The land cover and land use in the watershed of the Chepinska River are closely related to the economic and demographic situation in the municipalities in the area.

ABSTRACT. A geological 3D model of Koziakas mountain range, Thessaly, central Greece Dittopoulos P. S. and Chatzipetros A. Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece

The correct visualization of scientific data can have a big impact on the scientific community and the public. To be able to successfully communicate the results of a geological research for the benefit of both geoscientists and local communities, the visual applications can be highly effective. The main tool for the creation of such products, is the use of GIS software. In the field of open-source software, QGIS is one of the main suites used. Several methodologies have been developed by the community, giving solutions to various problems in different ways, one of which is the use of specific plugins. In the current methodologies, an absence of geological modelling is notable, posing limitations for the broader use of QGIS for geological 3D applications. To test the capabilities and limitations of such an approach as far as the representation of a geological structure is concerned, Koziakas mountain range in Thessaly, central Greece, was selected. Using QGIS software with the Qgis2web plugin, as well as a variety of pre-existing methodologies, a geological composition of published and newly acquired field data was created. The interactive 3D model, presents the geological features of Koziakas study area. This model can be viewed from any browser, making the scientific data easily accessible in a detailed visual format. Following a certain methodology, the final product includes layers of geological maps, geological cross sections, hydrology data, geological field data (strike and dip of rocks, fossils, faults, folds, etc.), contours, slope aspect map, hillshade map, satellite images and even the hiking paths of the area. The combination of different data can help the viewer to understand multiple factors regarding the geology of the mountain and suggest ways of accessibility for field work.

ABSTRACT. Optical satellite remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) represent an opportunity to integrate traditional methods for assessing surface water quality: advantages of remote sensing (RS) and GIS methods are the good spatial and temporal coverage, the possibility to monitor large areas such as river basins, and the reduced costs. Due to the fact that the inland surface waters are important components of the hydrosphere and inland water ecosystems, their monitoring and the assessment of their quality are critical for river basin management. In this work we present the preliminary results of optical remote sensing (from the Copernicus Sentinel˗2 satellite mission) and GIS techniques and methods applied to surface water monitoring which were combined with in situ measurements and water sampling for laboratory and statistical analyses throughout the Chepinska River Basin (Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria), as well as hydrological data sets obtained from the East Aegean River Basin Directorate in 2023, and data from the high-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes (1984-2021) from the Joint Research Centre's Global Surface Water Datasets. The integrated analysis allowed to determine the rank of water pollution in the river water bodies of the study area, as well as the points for long term monitoring of the surface of water quality in the investigated area.

ABSTRACT. Research on the anthropogenic impact on natural resources at the river basin scale and solutions for its modeling are essential parts of river basin management. To manage the data sets and information effectively, a unified and standardized geodatabase is necessary, which should provide mechanisms for collecting, entering, storing, analyzing, and modeling spatial data and information. The main goal of this paper is to present the spatial modeling technology for designing a multi-disciplinary integrated GIS database using the example of the Chepinska River Basin using the PostgreSQL/PostGIS software. The main steps in geodatabase design in this paper include: 1. Identification of the thematic data required to develop models of anthropogenic impact on natural resources at a river basin scale; 2. Identification of data sources; 3. Characterization of each thematic layer, including reference coordinate system, map projection, scales, data origin and format, and integration with other data sets; 4. Data specification, structures, relational properties, spatial rules for validation and completeness of the data; 5. Determination of the procedures for integration, homogenization and data compatibility, as well as of map visualization options; 6. Determination of the procedures for geodatabase building, editing, and maintaining; 7. Preparation of supporting documentation (e.g. metadata and map templates). The process of the geodatabase design, including its conceptual, logical and physical modeling phases is related to the structuring of both geospatial and non-geospatial data in different formats (e.g. vector – ESRI shape format - polygon, line and point files); raster (grids), tables, texts, photos, documents, matrices, and metadata. Further activities will focus on the geodatabase extending and upgrading, as well as on the application of this database schema in the geodatabase development for another case study – the Chepelarska River Basin. This will us enable an integrative analysis in a next working phase.

ABSTRACT. Traffic accidents are a prevalent problem worldwide. Even though the number of traffic accidents in Serbia is decreasing, in certain areas and at a certain time, a higher number is recorded. This paper deals with the analysis of traffic accidents patterns in the Vojvodina Region (NUTS 2) in Serbia in the period 2016–2022. The temporal variability (by hours, days of week, month, and year) of traffic accidents was analyzed and then spatial clusters were identified using Optimized Outlier Analysis. Finally, the paper adopted space-time mining pattern analytics, including the Space-time Cube and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis, to better understand the temporal evolution of the observed phenomenon in space. The results showed that the number of traffic accidents varies over time. Concerning spatial patterns, a cluster of high values (High-High) is evident in the southeastern part of the Vojvodina Region, while a cluster of low values (Low-Low) is identified in the northeastern, eastern, and southeastern parts of the region. Eleven out of 16 categories of hot and cold spots have been identified and their spatial grouping is noticeable. Detection of temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal patterns of traffic accidents and their better understanding requires cartographic support. Cartographic visualization of obtained results enables the detection of the location of interest in a simple and sophisticated way. The findings of this study may be beneficial to traffic managers and decision-makers in the creation and evaluation of traffic and other public policies at the local level.

ABSTRACT. With the development of the modern world, the extraction, and processing of natural resources are also increasing. Therefore, negative influences on nature increased too, such as air pollution, the spread or rise of several diseases, and so on.

The same process is also happening in Georgia. One of the active places is the Zestafoni municipality, where the "Zestafoni ferroalloy factory" is located (working since 1933). The development of which contributed to the development of Zestafoni city, and the improvement of socio-economic background in the municipality and in the country. But, at the same time, the process of negative influence on nature from pollution started too. The statistics of the spread of various types of diseases in the territory of the municipality have developed and started increasing. Besides factory production, other factors have an important influence too, such as small factories, household waste, car exhaust, and so on.

Hence, the geographical, cartographic, and GIS analysis of the mentioned issues, and the creation of appropriate thematic maps to promote the sustainable development of the municipality is very important.

During the creation of thematic maps, we used the materials of state and private structures, as well as the materials contained in the works of Georgian scientists.

We processed the existing information with geographic, and cartographic methods, and using modern geographic information systems (GIS), we created a database and relevant thematic maps, such as disease distribution among the population, forest cover map, distribution of animal diseases, and others.

These cartographic products will help relevant authorities in the visibility of the current situation, analysis, and development of relevant regulations.

ABSTRACT. Technological progress in Earth remote sensing provides an expanding array of tools and opportunities for monitoring and studying georesources. However, open source satellite imagery data has spatial resolution limitations. Satellites require several days to revisit specific territories, and data quality heavily depends on atmospheric conditions and cloud cover. These features of remote sensing pose challenges in providing temporal data for monitoring agricultural crops. Modern agricultural processes require acquiring precise and immediate data, regarding the condition of vegetation and soil in specific areas. Early detection of problems enables quick and appropriate decisions and actions. Ultimately, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have become increasingly recognized as effective and budget-friendly tools for obtaining data on agricultural crops. UAS are equipped with cameras, providing data not only from the visible electromagnetic spectrum but also beyond it. UAS allow for swift and easy acquisition of multispectral images. Multispectral images with high spatial resolution, enable monitoring of crop health, growth, and development through the calculation of NDRE and NDVI indices. The advantages of this data collection technology over traditional remote sensing include not only higher spatial resolution but also daily data availability upon request and the ability to capture images even in cloudy weather. This paper focuses on the process and challenges to capture images via multispectral UAS, conduct experiments with various indices, and analyze the results obtained. Additionally, it foresees the creation of a technological scheme for effective and timely monitoring of agricultural crops in Bulgaria through UAS, facilitating informed decisions regarding crop processing, reducing costs, saving resources, and increasing agricultural yields.

ABSTRACT. Georgia began its independent political and socio-economic life about 30 years ago. With the help of world donor organizations, the construction of the economy started from scratch. The use of spatial data analysis technologies – geographic information systems (GIS) – played a major role in this matter. The land-cadastre, which has become the basis of the country's economy, has been conceived and developed with the help of these technologies since the end of the last century. Today, this project is implemented at the level of state institutions in the form of the National Agency of the Public Registry of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. In the agency, within the framework of NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure), several projects are being carried out at the same time: system registrations, addressing of populated areas of the country, navigation project and others. This significantly accelerates the country's economic and social development and creates important prerequisites for joining the Euro-Atlantic space.

At the initial stage of independence, from the point of view of using GIS technologies, the country met new challenges prepared. These technologies were introduced to us at the beginning of the 80s of the last century at the Tbilisi State University, which is a great merit of Professor Nikoloz Beruchashvili. In the late 1990s, his students brought GIS to a commercial scale - commercial GIS companies emerged, which laid the foundation for corporate GIS in the country. At the same time, these technologies were being implemented in government agencies. The increased demand for GIS specialists is being met by various higher education institutions. Artificial intelligence is gradually being used in GIS to solve modern problems.

ABSTRACT. The increasing demand for water resources and the critical role of water infrastructure necessitate effective management strategies to ensure the resilience and reliability of water supply systems. This paper presents a development and implementation model in GIS for water pipe criticality assessment, aimed at enhancing the understanding of vulnerabilities within a water supply system. The database incorporates information on pipe materials, diameters, age, and historical failure data. With this data, we built the model in ArcGIS using the Python programming language. With this model, it is possible to identify the pipes that are in critical condition and need to be replaced. The importance of this paper is that in the future, water supply companies will have an automated model in GIS to assess the condition of their network as well as plan the necessary investments for the rehabilitation of critical pipes with a high probability of failure.

ABSTRACT. Currently, the population of Kvemo Kartli region (Bolnisi municipality) faces the need to solve several problems. Among them are: prevention of the demographic behavior of the population and degradation of land resources, improvement of the socio-economic situation through permanent employment, improvement of the efficiency and diversity of agricultural production, improvement of the living standards of the population and the ecological condition of the living environment, spatial planning and targeted management of land resources.

The foothills landscape area of Bolnisi municipality mainly includes the catchment basins of the Foladauri and Mashavera rivers and the foothill landscape areas of the municipality. Here, in the municipality, the indicators of local production of fruit trees give a picture of a decline.

In the municipality of Bolnisi, in the zone of distribution of fruit crops, the correction of the socio-economic and ecological situation requires solving several interrelated issues. Among them are: optimization of land use, promotion of permanent (year-round) employment of the population, sustainable development of healthy fruit growing, restoration of degraded areas, creation of favorable conditions for the development of tourism, etc.

Landscape planning and GIS analysis of the territory of the villages included in the landscape zone of the foothills of Bolnisi municipality are discussed in the paper. The created cartographic product (series of planning maps and corresponding geo-information system) will contribute to the improvement of biodiversity in the region.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, the landscape-ecological studies and geo-informational mapping conducted in Georgia allowed us to compare the studied regions and evaluate them from the landscape-ecological point of view. Two contrasting regions of Georgia, Autonomous Republic of Adjara and Upper Svaneti, were selected for conducting research and mapping.

It should be noted that the field landscape-ecological studies conducted in 2015-2020 gave us interesting results for determining the practical importance of the landscapes of the mentioned regions. On the one hand, the main direction of the Georgian landscape school is the spatio-temporal analysis and synthesis of the geosystems of mountainous regions. In this regard, these regions were particularly interesting due to their contrast, complex structure and location. On the other hand, in terms of determining the resource potential of landscapes, in terms of its sustainability and criticality, and of course because of its dynamism tendencies.

Based on the above, we focused on several issues in our work: a) Exact areas of landscapes (landscape genus) represented in the region and their verification on a large scale - 1:50 000; b) index of sustainability of forested landscapes and their comparative analysis for the mentioned regions; c) the potential rate of forestation of the territory of Adjara and Upper Svaneti and the results of their dynamics for a certain period of time; d) Areas with protected status in the mountain landscapes of the study regions.

Using the survey data, a large-scale landscape map of both regions was compiled and a landscape GIS analysis was conducted.

ABSTRACT. One of Georgia's key priorities at this stage is rural development and the advancement of agriculture. Consequently, land resource accounting, which has not been implemented nationwide for the past 30 years, has gained significant importance. A concept document was developed to achieve the set goals, which include the creation of a unified geodatabase on land resources, protection of targeted land resource use, and the development of a land information system to provide consumer services. Based on this concept document, practical activities commenced, mobilizing the material and technical resources, as well as highly qualified GIS specialists, system administrators, and programmers focused on spatial data management. Within a short period of time we developed a geodatabase model and generated initial geospatial data within the GIS environment by integrating spatial data, decoding aerial images, and employing remote sensing methods. We are currently testing innovative spatial software based on geoinformation technologies, which generates detailed spatial information for both field and office work. The geodatabase, developed according to the concept document, integrates continuously generated thematic and sectoral geospatial data. This integration supports recommendations on land resources management and periodic updates of the national land balance. These resources are accessible to contributing agencies, as well as other organizations and individuals with user-only status.

ABSTRACT. Floods are dangerous phenomena that can lead to serious negative consequences on nature, ecosystems, and man and connected activities. As a result of the local climate, weather and a wide range of physical/geographical factors water inundate the low-lying terrain forms. For this reason the proper evaluation of local topographic patterns can help significantly in the flooding vulnerable territories detection. One possible option in this direction is implementation of the Topographic Position Index (TPI) for proper analysis and classification of landforms in a Geographic Information System (GIS) medium, allowing also determination of the floods exposed areas. Along with the existing data for a specific territory or catchment, accounting the river body, river infrastructure, roads network, settlements, etc. in GIS can be correctly delineated specific hot points that are prone to flooding, but are also potentially vulnerable due to their existing position regarding the existing structures. Such data can be well visualized on maps and can easily serve in help of decision makers in the area. To clarify the presented this material shows in brief the results of a study for the Bulgarian Blato river. It is defined as especially risky to floods according to the Flood Risk Management Plans adopted in Bulgaria. For this reason, with the use of GIS for the entire watershed, an integration of the watershed data and existing settlements, structure and infrastructure and TPI index calculations was carried out. The results were visualized on the map, showing the floods vulnerable areas.

ABSTRACT. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are widely developing their functionality, thus expanding the fields of application and research. For example, in geology GIS technologies are represented by the solution of several important tasks: search and mapping of minerals; inventory and management of geological data on the basis of a database; study of environmental problems due to the impact of mining and geological works and others. In this article, special attention is paid to geological databases of digital maps, as such databases satisfy the needs of a wide range of consumers: governmental organizations, subsoil users, researchers and educational institutions. For logical and systematic provision of information, the databases are divided by territorial coverage according to the principle "from general to particular": global, subcontinental, national. The web-map of Major mineral deposits and OneGeology were considered as global GIS databases, the Geological Map of Europe and Adjacent Territories was considered as subcontinental, the Geoportal of the State Geological Institute Dionysus and the Database of State Geological Maps of Russia were taken as examples of national GIS databases. The article presents the current state and problems of GIS of geological data in the Republic of Kazakhstan. One of the reasons for the existing problems in development is the lack of a national database for the development of the geological industry of Kazakhstan. The estimation of existing database on deposits of East Kazakhstan is given, and also the structure of systematization of geological data is offered.

ABSTRACT. One of the important areas of modern thematic cartography is geographic information cartography of agriculture. The need to create maps and atlases for assessment and prognostic purposes has been increased upon considering the requirements of practice. When creating maps and other cartographic images for agricultural purposes, special attention is paid to mapping such a priority sector of agriculture as viticulture, which produces raw materials for the development of wine production. Research and spatio-temporal cartography of this area are a practical necessity for such country as Georgia.

It is known and recognized worldwide that Georgia is one of the birthplaces and cradle of grapes; Over the centuries of history, aboriginal varieties of these cultures have been bred here, which have no analogues in the world.

During the research in Kakheti region, categories were identified according to the favorable development and spread of viticulture. These gradations are:

1. indicator of the minimum positive characteristic for the favorable development of viticulture; 2. indicator of the moderate positive characteristic for the favorable development of viticulture;

The article presents an assessment map of viticulture in the region under study using a spherical system, and assessment and analysis of potential viticulture territories is carried out.

The compiled map can be used in spatial planning and management of the agricultural sector.