L’emprise de la lumière artificielle s’étend de manière importante et rapide à travers le monde entier et est en train de changer le paysage nocturne menaçant ainsi une large part des écosystèmes. L’augmentation des niveaux de lumière la nuit entraîne une perturbation du rythme circadien et par là une modification des comportements des espèces nocturnes mais aussi diurnes et des interactions entre espèces. Malgré l’importance de l’enjeu que représente la pollution lumineuse, le manque de connaissances dans le domaine limite la création de réglementations pour réduire l’impact de l’éclairage nocturne sur la biodiversité. Il est donc urgent d’apporter des éléments concrets pour construire des recommandations et des outils d’évaluation à destination des gestionnaires du territoire.Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier l’impact de la pollution lumineuse sur la faune nocturne à deux échelles paysagères afin de préconiser des méthodes d’évaluation et de gestion de l’éclairage artificiel. Nous avons utilisé les chauves-souris comme modèle d’étude car elles sont longévives et nocturnes et donc fortement affectées par la pollution lumineuse. De plus, il a été montré que les tendances de leurs populations tendent à refléter celles d’espèces plus basses dans la chaîne trophique, les rendant ainsi d’autant plus sensibles aux pressions anthropiques. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié l’effet de la pollution lumineuse à l’échelle de villes, une échelle paysagère en cohérence à la fois avec les distances de déplacement des individus et avec une réalité de gestion de l’éclairage. Malgré que les espèces anthropophiles vivant toujours dans les grandes villes soient considérée comme bénéficiant de l’éclairage artificiel, ce travail a montré qu’à une échelle regroupant tous les aspects des déplacements quotidiens des individus, l’effet global de la lumière est négatif. De plus, bien qu’une part significative de la pollution lumineuse soit due à l’éclairage public de par sa permanence et son étende, l’étude montre que l’éclairage privé n’est pourtant pas à négliger. Au-delà d’un effet sur le niveau d’activité, la lumière artificielle peut avoir un effet de barrière dans le déplacement des individus et ainsi réduire la connectivité du paysage. Alors que les politiques environnementales sont en faveur du développement de corridors écologiques, la non-inclusion du facteur pollution lumineuse pourrait réduire significativement leur efficacité pour les espèces nocturnes. Un travail de modélisation mettant en lien des données biologiques d’activité avec des aspects paysagers mais aussi lumière a permis de construire des corridors adaptés pour les espèces nocturnes. Cela a aussi mené à des outils d’évaluation de scénarios d’éclairage qui peuvent être utilisés en amont d’aménagements afin de prédire l’impact d’un changement et de les adapter aux enjeux de biodiversité. A une échelle plus fine, il est nécessaire de comprendre quelles caractéristiques des points lumineux sont les plus pertinents à maîtriser afin de formuler des recommandations pour limiter l’impact sur la biodiversité. Nous avons mené une étude de terrain dans un espace protégé où les enjeux sur les chauves-souris sont d’autant plus importants que les espèces les plus sensibles à la lumière y sont protégées, ainsi que leurs habitats, à l’échelle européenne. En travaillant à l’interface entre urbanisation et habitats semi-naturels, nous avons pu montrer que c’est la quantité de lumière émise qui ont l’effet le plus notable. C’est donc ce paramètre sur lequel il faut travailler en priorité pour limiter l’impact de la lumière sur des zones pouvant servir de corridor ou de zone refuge aux espèces sensibles. / The spatial extent of artificial light is increasing rapidly and significantly on Earth surface hence changing the nocturnal lightscape and threatening an important part of ecosystems. The rise in nighttime light levels induces a perturbation of the circadian rhythm and thus a modification of nocturnal, but also some diurnal, species behavior and interactions between species. Despite the spread of light pollution being of major concern, the knowledge gaps in this field limit the creation of regulations to reduce the impact of nighttime lighting on biodiversity. Therefore it is urgent to produce clear and practical information to build tools and define recommendations for land managers. In this context, the aim of the PhD thesis is to study the impact of light pollution on nocturnal fauna through two spatial scales in order to propose methods to evaluate and manage artificial light. We used bats as a model species as they are long-lived and nocturnal and thus highly impacted by light pollution. In addition, it has been shown that their population trends tend to reflect those of species lower in the trophic chain which makes them even more sensitive to anthropic pressures. First, we studied the effect of light pollution within cities. This spatial scale is both coherent with bats distance of movement and with the reality of public lighting management. Although some urban-adapted species living within large cities are considered to benefit from artificial light, this work showed that, at a scale including all aspects of bats daily travels, light has a negative effect on bats activity level. Also, even if a large part of light pollution is due to public lighting, the results show that private lighting should not be neglected. Beyond the impact on bat activity, artificial light can have a barrier effect when individuals are transiting and thus reduce the landscape connectivity. Whereas environmental policies are promoting the development of ecological corridors, not considering light pollution could significantly reduce their efficiency for nocturnal species. Modelling the link between biological data and landscape variables including light level allowed us to build adapted corridors for nocturnal species. This lead to the development of a tool to evaluate lighting scenarios that could be used prior to the implementation of a lighting plan in order to predict the impact it would have and hence adapt it to the local biodiversity issues. At a finer scale, it is necessary to understand which light characteristics are the most relevant levers of actions to formulate recommendations to limit light pollution impact on biodiversity. We carried a field work experiment in a protected area where conservation issues on bat species are even higher as the species most sensitive to light are protected there, together with their habitat, at the EU level. We worked at the interface between urban and semi-natural areas and showed that the illuminance was the most important light characteristic. Hence it is on this parameters that regulations should be applied in priority to limit the impact of light on areas that could potentially be used as corridors or dark refuges for sensitive species.

The Bureau of Land Managements (BLM) Emergency Fire Rehabilitation (EFR) policy was developed in 1985 to encourage protection of sites from soil erosion and to minimize potential changes in vegetation communities that may result from the dominance of weedy species. To achieve the goals of EFR policy, managers often used introduced perennial grasses that established quicker and competed better with introduced annuals than did native plants. However, the change of sagebrush-grass communities to communities dominated by introduced forage grasses has led to concerns for wildlife habitat. This concern contributed to a policy change encouraging the use of native species, when available, for rehabilitation projects. This study attempts to assess the effectiveness of BLM EFR projects in meeting the stated goals of the BLM EFR policy in the Great Basin. To do this, two field offices per state were randomly selected from an inclusive list of all Great Basin field offices. In 2001, we randomly selected three EFR projects per field office from those projects that used native species. On each project site, we used a common monitoring technique in association with monitoring techniques implemented by the BLM to assess if national EFR objectives were being met. A semi-structured survey was developed to determine the potential reasons why native and introduced plants were either used or not used, why monitoring was and was not proposed, and whether monitoring was implemented in rehabilitation projects. BLM monitoring techniques did not adequately evaluate EFR goal achievement. The time it took to implement any of the BLM methods did not differ significantly from the time needed to implement the common protocol on the two projects where BLM had implemented monitoring and used native plants (F[subscript 3,12]=1.63, P=0.23). Cost to implement the common monitoring technique was minimal and it directly measured aspects of stated EFR policy goals. Vegetative cover of all natives, seeded and volunteers, contributed half of the overall cover on EFR projects and was significantly higher than sown introduced species. Invasive species were intermediate and did not differ significantly from either the natives or the introduced. The seeded species were a subset of the native or introduced classes. Composition by cover between sown native, sown introduced, and invasive species did not differ significantly. Vegetation cover increased the surface soil stability 39% of the time and subsurface stability 56% beneath the vegetation. Respondents of the survey stated that they generally use more natives and more complex seed mixtures than they did historically. Many also stated that they prefer to use native over introduced species. However, most felt that introduced species are more effective in meeting EFR goals on the degraded sites than native species. All respondents would like to access a summarized report of other rehabilitation projects. The respondents were split between accessing it through the World Wide Web or through a written report. We believe that a common database could be created and maintained on the World Wide Web if a common sampling protocol was implemented. / Graduation date: 2004

Ecological research, both basic and applied, can inform management decisions on public land in a number of ways. Most importantly, it can illuminate any negative effects of a given land use practice as well as the causes behind that effect. This type of information can be important to a management agency, such as the BLM, with a multi-use mission as these studies indicate under what management regimes a land use is in contradiction with other goals, such as conservation or restoration. The current body of research, however, is flawed. In order to make fully informed decisions, land managers are in need of site or ecosystem-specific studies, which may not be available for the ecosystem in question. In addition, as is the case with investigations of the effects of extraction of natural gas, lack of baseline data and systematically controlled experiments lead to incomplete answering of questions pertinent to land managers. To produce research that is more pertinent to land managers, researchers and managers can work together more closely. This could be facilitated if funding were available to BLM field offices to solicit investigation into questions they need answered locally. This may necessitate a certain level of decentralization or at least more discretionary power given to local managers within the agency. Close collaboration between researchers and land managers from the beginning would ensure the produced results could better inform management decisions. Public land managers of the BLM cannot only consider scientific research when making land use decisions, however. Its multi-use mission statement requires an integration of conservation, restoration, recreation and resource use and extraction. This can lead to a number of conflicts or contradictions between goals. In addition, national, state, and local values and priorities play into which land use practices are deemed acceptable, often regardless of scientific research. In order to remedy the situation, boundary spanning, a transdisciplinary approach, and decentralization have been suggested.

The tendencies of changes in water consumption are discussed in this final master’s studies research during different periods. The object of the research was chosen the biggest Lithuanian cities such as Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Panevezys and Siauliai, also the lower reaches of the Nemunas, the basins of the Venta-Lielupe and the Neris. The purpose of the research is to collect and to analyze the data about the water consumption and its tendencies of changes and to do the analysis of factors, which influence water consumption. This research paper analyses factors, which could influence the increase or decrease of water consumption. These factors might be the decrease of production amount, increasing water tariffs, the establishment of water-meters, low incomes of citizens, old water-supply systems, which influence bad water quality for consumers. Whereas designed water-supply do not match current standards of water consumption, water is held there for too long and this could influence connecting new water consumers. However at present land’s economy revives, the GDP is increasing and so the incomes of citizens increase too, which influence the increasing standards of water consumption, although they have not reached the level of the standards in 1989-1990. Analyzing statistical data about water consumption there was looked for a connection between the amount of consumed water and unemployment. Also analyzing the dependence on middle income and the level of water... [to full text]

Military grounds are territories with specific purpose. Various kinds of military installations, ammunitions and explosives are used in such areas. Because of these reasons, soil in military grounds is very often polluted with heavy metals and oil products; because of continuous damages, made to the top soil, vegetation is very scarce, in some spots missing – sandy wastelands are formed. Explosions, performed in military grounds, can be characterized by both thermal and chemical effect (soil pollution with such compounds, like lead, zinc, copper etc). Not only soils in military grounds and surrounding areas can be polluted because of military activities, but surface water bodies and groundwater as well. Aiming on determination and estimation of the level of pollution and disturbance of superficial layer of soil in military grounds, it is essential to do comprehensive research on physical (explosions and other mechanical effects) and chemical (pollution with heavy metals) effects on soil, caused by military activities, and to evaluate potential danger of pollutants spread and groundwater pollution. It is important to foreseen changes of soil damage and pollution depending on impact strength, type and intensity of military action, performed in specific area, and to evaluate pollution dispersion in deeper layers of soil, relying on investigation results and long-term prognosis. It is necessary to apply and elaborate effective methods for cleaning of polluted soils from military... [to full text]

Marijampolės rajonas kartu su Marijampolės miestu užima 156771 ha žemės plotą. Marijampolės rajone šlapių žemių fondas yra 102346 ha. Darbo tikslas: išnagrinėti esamą melioracijos statinių būklę Marijampolės rajone ir numatyti priemones tolimesnės eksploatacijos užtikrinimui. Iki 1996 metų sausio 1 d. nusausinta 82456,6 ha žemės, iš jų drenažu – 74514,6 ha, iš jų intensyviai – 65038 ha. Pagal atliktos 2006 metų inventorizacijos duomenų analizę melioruotos žemės plotas, įskaitant plotą sausinamą drenažu, padidėjo nuo 1996 metų daugiau nei 2 kartus. Blogos būklės statinių padaugėjo 10,75 karto. Po atliktos inventorizacijos nuspręsta nurašyti 434,74 ha melioruotos žemės ploto, 2,4 karto daugiau nei 1996 m. Didžiausi pažeidimai melioruotame plote: užmirkęs drenuotas plotas, žemės ūkio naudmenos neveikiančio drenažo plote ir drenuotas plotas užstatytas statiniais, kur yra nutiesti keliai ar kitos komunikacijos. Išanalizavus 2006 m. inventorizacijos duomenis paaiškėjo, kad pralaidų būklė Marijampolės rajone yra gera: 70,38% jų yra techniškai tvarkingos. 26% pralaidų yra pažeistos vietinių įgriuvų, įgriuvę antgaliai, apirę betoniniai elementai. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: melioruota žemė, melioracijos statiniai, drenažas, grioviai, pralaidos, techninė būklė. / Marijampole district, including the city takes 156771 hectares area. Wet territory corpus is 102346 hectares in Marijampole district. Main job goal is to inspect existing melioration building‘s condition in Marijampole district and foresee armamentarium for further operating conditions. At period in 1996-01-01 there were drained 82456,6 hectares of land, 74514,6 hectares of them by drainage (65038 hectares intensively). According inventorisation data analysis accomplished in 2006 improved land‘s area, including drained area become bigger twice from 1996. Quantity of buildings in bad shape became bigger almost 11 times. 434,74 hectares were discarded as unusable. Most common drainage system break is influated by new buildings, roads and communication systems. After inventorisation were done become clear that 70,38% trenches system is working properly and 26 % needs to be renovated.

Natūralus gamtinis kraštovaizdis dažnai yra naikinamas, keičiamas, arba sukuriamas naujas kultūrinis kraštovaizdis. Esant tokiai situacijai, būtina išsaugoti teritorijas, turinčias ekologinę, socialinę bei kultūrinę reikšmę. Įvertinta Šiaulių apskrityje esančių kraštovaizdžio vertybių naudojimo ir apsaugos sistema bei jų tvarkymo organizavimas. Analizės rezultatai parodė, kad problematiškiausios yra kultūros paveldo ir gamtos vertybių teritorijos. Vykstant žemės grąžinimo procesams, savavališkų statybų invazijai, dėl žmonių žemo ekologinės savimonės lygio, šios teritorijos gali prarasti vertybinį funkcionavimo pagrindą, skatinti didesnę ar mažesnę natūralaus kraštovaizdžio biodegradaciją. Norint apsaugoti kraštovaizdžio vertybių kultūrinę vertę, sustabdyti gamtinio kraštovaizdžio nykimą gamtinio karkaso bei saugomose teritorijose, atliekamas Šiaulių apskrities generalinio plano koncepcijos strateginių pasekmių vertinimas; rengiami saugomų teritorijų planavimo dokumentai; kompleksiškai organizuojama saugomų teritorijų priežiūra; vykdomi NATURA 2000 saugomų teritorijų tinklo gamtotvarkiniai projektai. / Natural landscape very often is being destroyed, replaced or created as a new cultural landscape. In such a situation it is very important to preserve areas, which has got it’s own ecological, social and cultural significance. The main purpose of this work is to estimate the valuable landscape’s, located in Šiauliai district, usage, protection system and how it’s regulation is being organized. As results of the analysis show, the biggest problems meet cultural heritage and valuable natural areas. While land rehabilitation is being in progress, illegal building is being held, because of people misbehavior, these areas may loose they own natural values, bigger or smaller natural landscape destruction may began. Trying to protect natural landscape’s cultural values, stop its disappearance and destruction in natural frame and conservation areas, general (long term) plan concept ional strategies consequences in Šiauliai district estimation is being held, conservation areas planning documents being created, conservation areas completed supervision being organized, NATURA 2000 conservation area’s network landscape management projects being arranged.

Šiaurės Lietuvos karstinis regionas – vienas iš labiausiai komplikuotų ir probleminių regionų. Dėl gamtinių ypatybių jame ypač sunkiai suderinami ekologiniai, ekonominiai ir socialiniai teritoriniai interesai. Tai lemia gilėjančius kraštotvarkinius konfliktus šioje teritorijoje. Problematiškiausia yra ta karstinio regiono dalis, kurioje tankiausias paviršinių karstinių darinių tinklas (Biržų, Pasvalio rajonai). Tai aktyvaus karsto zona, skirstoma pagal paviršinių karstinių darinių tankį bei jų atsiradimo intensyvumą. Tokį teritorijos suskirstymą lėmė ne proceso intensyvumas, bet problematiškas ūkinis panaudojimas. Šiaurės Lietuvos karstiniame regione per trumpą laiką atsiranda vis naujų reljefo formų, būna sunku ūkininkauti, tenka imtis specialių gamtosaugos priemonių, kurios skatina geriau pažinti karstinio reljefo raidos ypatumus. Šio darbo tikslas – išryškinti žemės naudojimo tendencijas Šiaurės Lietuvos karstiniame regione bei numatyti žemės ūkio plėtros, žemės naudojimo perspektyvas, atsižvelgiant į gamtinius ypatumus. Darbe analizuojami žemės ūkio paskirties žemės naudotojai, jų žemėnaudos dydis, siekiant numatyti žemės ūkio plėtros, žemės naudojimo perspektyvas. Išryškinti dirvožemio dangos savitumai, dirvų sukultūrinimas ir derlingumas (pagal ekonominius balus) skirtingo sukarstėjimo teritorijose. Analizei pasirinkta: Biržų rajono Širvėnos, Parovėjos, Pabiržės seniūnijos ir Pasvalio rajono Krinčino, Pasvalio apylinkių, Pušaloto seniūnijos. Ūkininkų ūkių veiklai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The sinkhole region of Northern Lithuania is one of the most complicated and problematical regions. It is difficult to co-ordinate ecological, economical and social interests in the region because of the peculiarities of land and nature in it. This causes many conflicts connected to organization of land exploitation in this region. The most problematic district of the sinkhole region is the one where the sinkhole derivatives are very dense (regions of Birzai and Pasvalys). It is the zone of an active sinkhole, which is allocated according to sinkholes density along the surface and the intensity of appearance of them. Such an allocation was not determined by the intensively of the process itself. It was determined by a problematic employment of the land in an agricultural way. An active perfunctonary sinkhole zones is called to be the most complicated territories for employment of nature and ecology. One needs to have an exceptional knowledge about the territories mentioned in a case to employ them for agricultural purposes. New forms of relief are to appear in a very short period of time in the sinkhole region of Northern Lithuania. This makes farming difficult, special safety measures need to be taken into consideration. This stimulates to find out more about the peculiarities of the evolution of sinkhole relief. In this paper there are the users of agricultural land and their land-tenure analyzed in case to preview the expansion of agriculture and the perspectives of... [to full text]

Lietuvai tapus ES nare didelis dėmesys bei lėšos nuolatos yra skiriamos aplinkosaugai. Susidarančių problemų analizė skirstant lėšas projektams, jų statybai ir eksplotacijai, turi padėti išvengti jų ateityje. Jau prieš įstojant 2004 m. Lietuvai į Europos Sąjungą, buvo galimybė naudotis jos finasine parama, kuria Lietuva ir naudojosi. ES fondų lėšų administravimui bei veiksmingam šiomis lėšomis finansuojamų projektų įgyvendinimui užtikrinti Lietuvoje 2002 metais buvo įsteigta ISPA programos įgyvendinimo agentūra prie Aplinkos ministerijos. Šiuo metu ES lėšų iš ISPA/Sanglaudos fondų panaudojimą, projektų rengimus, pirkimus, administruoja Aplikos projektų valdymo agentūra (APVA). Vandentvarkos projektus per „kaimo infrastruktūros tobulinimo“ kryptį prižiūri Nacionalinė mokėjimo agentūra (NMA). Darbo tikslas- apžvelgti ES fondų lėšų panaudojimą nuotekų valyklų projektams ir jų įgyvendinimui, išanalizuoti nuotekų valyklose taikomas technologijas ir iškylančias statybos ir eksplotacijos problemas. Uždaviniai: Išanalizuoti senųjų nuotekų valyklų pritaikymą šiuolaikinėms technologijoms, išnagrinėti ES fondų lėšų panaudojimą nuotekų valyklų statyboms, atlikti naujose projektuose taikomų technologijų analizę. / In May 2004 Lithuania became the member of the European Union; therefore now it has more opportunities for using the financial assistance provided by the European Union. New members are concerned with the utilisation of support funds of the European Union. The Ministry of Environment in 2002 established ISPA Implementing Agency that controls utilisation of EU assets from ISPA/Cohesion funds, organizes project preparation, procurements, consultations etc. In 2004 the Agency was renamed to Environmental Projects Management Agency. The National Paying Agency was established for administration of SAPARD support. Main investment targets in the field of water resource protection are: improvement of fresh water quality, reduction of surface water contamination with domestic waste, reduction of underground water pollution. Goal of work is to review the usage of EU funds for wastewater treatment projects and their implementation. This work describes the technological and regulatory changes that have occurred over the last ten years in this discipline, including: improved techniques for the characterization of wastewaters, fundamental understanding of many of the existing unit operations and processes used for wastewater treatment, especially those processes used for the biological removal of nutrients, greater implementation of several newer treatment technologies.

Darbo tikslas yra įvertinti Raseinių rajono savivaldybės nuotekų sukeliamą taršą ir priemones jai mažinti. Raseinių rajone gyvena 43,7 tūkst. gyventojų, iš kurių apie 79 % prisijungę prie geriamojo vandens tiekimo ir apie 64 % - prie nuotekų šalinimo sistemos. Kiti individualūs gyventojai turi įsirengę vietinius nuotekų sukauptuvus arba turi vietinius nuotekų valymo įrenginius. Dėl blogos sukauptuvų priežiūros dažnai įvyksta persiliejimai, ir nevalytos nuotekos patenka į aplinką. Prieš 30-40 metų įrengtos centralizuotos nuotekų šalinimo sistemos rajone yra susidėvėjusios, todėl jose neišvengiama avarijų. Siekiant sumažinti avarijų, taršos židinių skaičių, būtina rekonstruoti senus vamzdynus, išplėsti nuotekų surinkimo tinklą, prijungiant kuo daugiau gyventojų prie centrinės nuotekų šalinimo sistemos. Vandentvarkos ūkio renovacija ir plėtra Raseinių rajone vykdoma Europos Sąjungos (ES) fondų, Lietuvos ir savivaldybės biudžetų lėšomis. Darbe nagrinėjama vandentvarkos ūkio būklė, ES fondų, Lietuvos ir Raseinių savivaldybės biudžeto remiamų priemonių įtaka aplinkosaugos būklei. / The purpose of this work is to evaluate the wastewater pollution in Raseiniai district and to sugest means to reduce it. Raseiniai district has a population of 43,7 thousand people. 79% of them are connected to the centralized drinking water system, and 64% of them use wastewater disposal system. The remaining individual householders usually use their own wastewater tanks or their local wastewater treatment equipment. Because of the poor wastewater system condition there are the leaks of wastewater to the environment. Since the wastewater treatment systems are 20 – 30 years old, a lot of happening accidents are inevitable. The old pipeline must be renovated in order to decrease the number of accidents and the sources of waste. In addition, more householders should be connected to the centralized wastewater system. The renovation and expansion of the Water – treatment network is financed from the budget of Raseiniai local administration, the structural funds of European Union(EU), and the Cohesion fund. The work includes the inspection of the current state of water-treatment network in Raseiniai district also the influence of the EU structural funds and other means which are used to improve the state of the environment.