The environment of a city is influenced by global and local climate changes, pollution load from transport, industry and local heat sources. Green spaces as part of the urban green infrastructure ...fulfil multiple ecosystem services and improve the environmental and residential quality of a city. The level of positive effects of green spaces depends on their area, distribution within the city and the proportion of trees. The aim of the paper was to evaluate land cover structure in a selected segment of the housing estate Klokočina in Nitra, Slovakia. The evaluation focused on the share of biologically active and inactive surfaces, as well as the parameters of woody plant structure in green spaces. Green areas account for 58.70%, while built-up areas, parking lots and roads cover in total 41.30%. Biologically inactive anthropogenic horizontal and of building envelope areas represent 67.30%. Biologically active green areas represent 32.70%. The share of areas with tree crown overlap on horizontal areas is 20.82%, other areas are paved surfaces or grassland. We calculated the indices of the quality of green spaces from the individual categories of areas: proportional green area index (PGAI), effective green area index (EGAI) and tree shade index (TSI). The tree species composition consists of 36 deciduous and 11 coniferous tree species, and 20 shrub species. We evaluated the biometric traits of trees as the tree height, crown width, stem girth and tree vitality class (TVC). The correlations between tree traits were statistically tested with a significant result. In the group of biologically active areas of greenery, we propose to increase the proportion of trees, to establish more natural lawns and xerophyte flower beds. In the category of inactive areas, we propose the reconstruction of parking lots to grass paved surfaces.
The field surveys of the area of Pliska – the first Bulgarian capital – are part of the “Development of the Archaeological Map of Bulgaria” project. At the same time, they are a continuation of the ...long-term development for completion of the Pliska archaeological map, which began in the distant 1899. The creation of the archaeological map of Pliska has a long history and numerous authors. The main goal has always been the registration of visible sites within the Great earthen rampart – the Outer city of Pliska, as well as in the near vicinity of the town. So far intensive field surveys in the Pliska area were conducted in 2010–2012. In 2017, over a period of 25 days, 4 km2 were covered in the eastern, northern and western parts of the Outer city, which has a total area of 23 km2. Seventy six sites - settlements, buildings, building complexes, churches and a necropolis were registered. The common criteria for collecting and classifying information from the survey area set the basis for building an objective picture of the settlement structure of the Outer City of Pliska.