The share of wind power in energy consumption is continuously increasing at the national level as well as global. Many national strategies plan an increase in the installed capacity of wind farms in the future. Accordingly, this paper provides an assessment of spatial suitability for wind farm siting and estimation of wind power potential for the territory of Serbia. The unsuitable areas (75.91% of the territory) are extracted based on sociopolitical, physical, conservation, and pseudo-economic constraints (22 factors). The available land (24.09%) was evaluated applying the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in the geographical information system (GIS) environment using several criteria (wind speed, elevation, slope, proximity to roads and power lines, distance from urban areas, land cover). After correction with the suitability factor, the estimated technical generation power potential is 97.57 TWh, i.e. 82.93 TWh with 15% included losses. The most prospective areas for the development of wind projects are the north (Bačka region), northeast (Banat region, along the lower Danube river valley), and east of Serbia (mountains region and Negotinska Krajina region).

The aim of this paper, in the context of the contemporary socio-economic changes in Serbia, is to consider changes in the regional development policy, and therefore in the approach to underdeveloped areas. A special attention is paid to regional inequality as a developmental problem since it directly influences the integrative processes, violating them, and therefore leads to side effects (economic, social, demographic, ecological, spatial, etc.). In Serbia, traditionally undeveloped areas (rural, hilly-mountainous and border/peripheral) have formed during a longer historical period, contrary to the new types of areas - municipalities (“devastated areas”) that are connected to the transition period (“transition poverty”). Both appeared by cause and effect reaction to natural, socio-economic, social, demographic, cultural-civilizational and political factors.

The long-term exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) is the leading global health risk factor. The spatio-temporal variability of annual values of the total PM2.5 concentrations in Serbia is analyzed using the high-resolution (0.01° × 0.01°) gridded data set V4.EU.02 for the period 2001-2016. Population counts and density data were used to calculate the population exposure while the urban land cover data were used to estimate the relations between the size of urban area and the concentration of PM2.5. The mean annual values vary in the range 13.93 μg/m3-28.91 μg/m3. The regional differences exist, but the highest values were obtained for urban environments (> 22.5 μg/m3). Negative trend of annual PM2.5 is present in most of the parts of the Serbian territory, especially in the eastern parts reaching -0.37 μg/m3 per year (p ≤ .05). More than 99% of the territory of Serbia has the mean annual values under the national safe limit established by regulation (25 μm/m3), but comparing to the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline (10 μm/m3), all the territory is above the safe level. In line with the trend of urbanization, there is a clear upward trend in the number of population exposed to the higher concentrations of PM2.5. The share of the population exposed to values higher than 25 μg/m3 increased from 6.65% in 2005 to 11.40% in 2015, while comparing to WHO standard, the total population in Serbia is exposed to the values higher than the safe one. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47007: Geography of Serbia]

Geographical studies and environment protection research

Environmental issues are in focus of many scientific disciplines. An increasing number of academic papers emphasize the significance of geography in the study of environmental problems, which many authors believe has been overlooked. As an analytical framework for the study of the relations between nature (environment) and society (human being), new scientific concepts such as coupled human and natural systems, social-ecological systems, a sociobiophysical systems, human-natural systems, and human-environmental systems, that have attracted scientific attention, are developed in recent decades. These concepts are structured by the appreciation of the interdependence of nature and society. Study of interactions between natural and social systems, which is one of the epistemological principles of geography, is recognized as essential in explaining of two coupled systems dynamics, i.e., understanding of the complex processes between them (feedback mechanisms). Furthermore, existing environmental studies are based on interdisciplinary approach. Precisely, the integrative and interdisciplinary nature of geography distinguishes it as a scientific discipline from others disciplines. All of the above leads to the clarification of the objective of this paper, based on a literature review: to re-emphasize the importance of geography, i.e., to reaffirm geographical (holistic) thinking in the study of the environment.