Progress in schooling using competence-based teaching for students is a priority in setting up a quality-centered educational process. Thus, using ICT tools as teaching–learning techniques represents an important objective in reaching scholastic performance and the capacity to offer students various experiences in teaching. Starting with an analysis of research on integrating ICT tools in the educational environment, this study is aimed at presenting teaching opportunities for all students, seeing education through the lens of those instruments specific to a secondary school level, referencing the subject of geography. The applied research design includes mixed methods applied to a total of 674 students, based on results received before and after a written evaluation, to determine the level of knowledge of the students. The present study evaluates the learning environment in which a successful and practical integration of ICT tools is anticipated in the teaching and learning process, from the perspective of the comparative measurement of the impact on the tests, resulting from the formative assessment. The conducted experiment and the Google Forms questionnaires suggest, through the degree of involvement of all students, how technology can facilitate the teaching–learning process. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control group, and that information and communication technologies (ICT) represent an important tool for improving performance and developing participatory skills, having the ability to provide students with positive results.

Computer modeling of sporadic and isolated patches of mountain permafrost distribution is difficult to implement without overestimating it. The main challenge is to determine the very areas where the criteria for permafrost maintenance are met. This paper aims to modeling the permafrost distribution in the Southern Carpathians (SC), a typical marginal periglacial mountain range. For this purpose, a collection of 883 bottom temperature of late winter snow cover (BTS) points was used as a proxy for permafrost presence or absence in order to train several machine learning models. The performances of each model were evaluated with AUC with varying between 0.99 for Maxent and 0.74 for K‐nearest neighbors and most models (five) exhibiting values between 0.82 and 0.86. Other tests such as confusion matrices, sensitivity analyses, data shuffling, and data size reduction tests indicated that Maxent, AdaBoost, and support vector machine offered the best results while logistic regression, neural network, and gradient boosting exhibited rather poor permafrost distributions. The final ensemble median model indicated a total permafrost area of 19.2 km ² occupying 1%–9% of the alpine area of the studied massifs. NDVI proved crucial for permafrost prediction because it allows delimiting the debris surfaces where permafrost is probable.

This paper aims to present how education for geoheritage and geodiversity should take place both in the school curriculum and in extracurricular activities at all levels of Romanian education (middle school, high school and university). The research method consisted in applying two questionnaires (10 questions, most with answers to choose from) both to pre-university teachers (especially those in geography) and students/graduates (especially from geography faculties in the country). The obtained results demonstrate the existence of two different visions: for middle and high school education, education on geoheritage and geodiversity takes place sometimes formally (based on curriculum hours according to the school’s decision) but predominantly informally (based on practical field applications), with most schools educationally limited in terms of environment/sustainable development; in contrast, university education on these subjects has a formal character (based on dedicated courses or field practice modules). The results, although encouraging for the moment, show that there is a need to intensify awareness and education on geoheritage and geodiversity at all levels, especially in higher education, by introducing specific courses/content at all universities in the country.

The present paper aims at inventorying the geomophosites in Bucharest as well as introducing geotouristic itineraries that take into account the long-time developed high value cultural heritage of the area. The process included several stages: studying Bucharest’s relief and cultural-historical elements with tourist value from existing bibliography, cartographic methods (aerial photos and different editions of topographic maps), as well as the information gathered from field investigations; identifying and inventorying geomorphosites, assessing the population’s opinion about geoheritage (geomorphosites) and its capitalization in tourism activities, 100 questionnaires were applied; creating geotouristic itineraries and later promoting them. The most valuable and representative geomorphosites identified are: on Colentina Valley (the Plumbuita, Ostrov, Dobroeşti and Pantelimon hills) (aren’t located in the study area), on Dâmboviței Valley (Cotroceni, Șerban Vodă, Mitropoliei, Spirii, Filaret and Arsenal hills, Țăcăliei, Procopoaiei, University terraces, Dâmbovița Meadow). The authors suggest two geotouristic itineraries that emphasize the relationship between the scientific, cultural, and historic elements as well as the human-nature report within the urban area.

The present study evaluates selected morphometric characteristics of 39 direct tributaries of the Buzău River (area of 4112 km²) to prioritize development actions in these sub-watersheds, which are distributed in three geographical regions within the full Buzău River watershed: the Carpathian, Subcarpathian, and plains regions. By combining a variable number of morphometric parameters, using various mathematical models, we can evaluate the state of balance or imbalance in a watershed and identify sub-watersheds vulnerable to natural processes. Prioritization was achieved using composite (Cp) values by comparing two scenarios. In the first scenario, 11 derived morphometric parameters were used, and in the second scenario, another 7 parameters were added. The obtained values were grouped into five classes (very high, high, medium, low, and very low). Due to the heterogeneity of relief units among geographical regions, there are classification differences for sub-watersheds among those regions. Watersheds classed as very high priority for intervention actions are located in the Carpathian (SW1, SW2, SW15, SW16) and Subcarpathian areas (SW24, SW30), which are characterized by high relief energy and pronounced slope instability, which leads to an increase in the risk of flooding and land degradation. For comparison, all sub-watersheds in the plains region, are classified as very low or low priority. Since the arithmetic mean is sensitive to extreme values, its use in the calculation of composite (Cp) values causes the values to be “eclipsed” and the sub-watersheds to be placed in different prioritization classes (SW18 and SW34), depending on the analyzed scenario, due to the large number of parameters and classified sub-watersheds.

By now, medical tourism has grown as a formidable multinational industry in its own right. For at least a decade, people from all around the world have been travelling to other countries to obtain medical, dental and surgical care while, at the same time, touring, vacationing and experiencing the attractions of the countries that they are visiting. With countries like India, Mexico, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand and the Philippines actively promoting it, its future is sure to be bright. The present paper summarises the salient features of the medical tourism business with a specific examination of its current practice in India. The domestic healthcare industry in India is trying all out to grab its pie from the evolving global demand for affordable healthcare. This silent revolution is worth capturing since it is widely anticipated that India will soon emerge as a major medical tourism hub.