Individual chapters of this publication are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons A... more Individual chapters of this publication are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License which permits commercial use, distribution and reproduction of the individual chapters, provided the original author(s) and source publication are appropriately acknowledged. If so indicated, certain images may not be included under the Creative Commons license. In such cases users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. More details and guidelines concerning content reuse and adaptation can be found at http://www.intechopen.com/copyright-policy.html. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book.
Changes in the contemporary world materialized in particular through population growth and mobili... more Changes in the contemporary world materialized in particular through population growth and mobility, urbanization, and economic expansion also result in an increased exposure of people and assets to extreme events and impose, implicitly, adequate management of induced risks. The occurrence of natural and anthropogenic risk phenomena, known as hazards, puts a heavy tribute on disaster-sensitive human communities regardless of their level of development. The magnitude of the disasters and their increasing frequency and severity imply the need for their approach by the entire world community and for global action. Knowledge of risks becomes a sine qua condition in carrying out impact studies, risk prevention plans, spatial planning plans, and, in general, a condition for effective management of natural resources or sustainable development projects.
One of the climatic hazards experienced in recent times is the drought that affects the society a... more One of the climatic hazards experienced in recent times is the drought that affects the society and the ecosystems. This study is intended to identify the statistically significant trends in the minimum flow characteristics and hydrological drought episodes, during five years, of the Trebes-Negel representative river basin, located in the Moldavian Sub Carpathians, in Romania. It is an important hydrological objective used for research purposes, considered as a reference point for all small basins with an identical natural environment. Data analysis revealed that drought is recorded at two of the 6 hydrometric stations analyzed (Podis and Magura) in 2015, starting in August and ending with October.
Global NEST International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology
In the summer of 2018, the general unstable weather throughout the central and eastern parts of R... more In the summer of 2018, the general unstable weather throughout the central and eastern parts of Romania has led to significant rainfall, sometimes exceeding 60 mm/day, and consequently to a massive runoff on the slopes that rapidly increased the flow on tributaries and the main course of the river Trebes from the Moldavian Subcarpathians. The majority of the hydrometric basin stations recorded exceeded caution levels, and the hydrometric station Bacau registered the maximum historical level (H= 348 cm). Analysis and data processing were performed using programs and hydraulic calculations for different probabilities that demonstrated this.
Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The European Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ENERB) is the results of several ... more The European Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ENERB) is the results of several experimental projects concerning the hydrological forecasting and flood mitigation effort which have been implemented within states member of European Union. In Romania, the hydrometric activity for ENERB it is currently composed of 14 representative basins (RB) of which the Trebeş-Negel (184 km2) was selected as RB for Eastern Carpathian and Subcarpathian transition zone. Located in one of the most affected territories by hydrological hazards, the Trebeş-Negel RB reacted as a small-scale flood sensor for the entire region. Using the well-documented discharge and pluviometric database collected at five gauge stations within the study area, we develop the first comparative analysis of historical flood events that occurred in the Trebeş-Negel RB post-1990. Five exceptional floods were selected: flood events from July 2 to July 8, 1991; flood events from June 16 to June 22, 1992; flood even...
<p>Access to comprehensive and updated statistical and spatial databases represents... more <p>Access to comprehensive and updated statistical and spatial databases represents a prerequisite of sound risk, hazard, vulnerability and resilience analyses, which have been advancing in terms of complexity and efficiency for the last 50 years, alongside the development of GIS techniques. Without adequate quantitative and qualitative datasets, research is sensitive to inaccurate and imprecise results, failing to meet the requirements for which it was designed and having zero input to the scientific progress.</p><p>Most developing countries - including Romania, face the problem of incomplete, inaccurate or outdated data in many fields of research, including geology-related fields and statistics about the building stock and transport infrastructure.<strong> </strong>These types of data are fundamental for vulnerability assessments of urban spaces to seismic or landslide hazards. This paper aims to provide a GIS-based methodology for acquiring datasets of the geological surface deposits and of the building stock at the scale of urban settlements, focusing on Iași City in the NE of Romania, respectively on the Țicău area of this city.</p><p>The mapping of geological surface deposits relies on automatic image analysis and landforms extraction algorithms that identify and delineate geological deposits based on slope and curvature, using High-resolution DEMs, as well as on cluster analysis. Slope deposits are delineated via watershed segmentation performed by Vision with Generic Algorithms (ViGRA), whereas the Schmidt-Hewitt classification is used to delineate floodplain and ridge deposits. The building stock is extracted from LiDAR point clouds with densities of 4 to 6 points per square meter using various approaches: neural network and deep learning for classification, and bounding rectangles for building boundary extraction. While LiDAR data is not available, high resolution imagery provided by the Copernicus programme can be used in conjunction with classification and edge detection algorithms to delineate building objects. The results are promising and show how the already available tools can be used to fill in the gaps of the “no-data problem” and overcome such a challenging issue. </p><p>The obtained spatial data, namely surface deposits and building stock, become a major asset for the further vulnerability assessments that integrate geotechnical and physical aspects. This may help identify what local scale elements contribute to disaster resilience or, on the contrary, what fuels vulnerability.</p>
The Romanian Carpathians between settlement extension and the challenges of adaptation to moderni... more The Romanian Carpathians between settlement extension and the challenges of adaptation to modernity: The way in which the Romanian Carpathians got populated has aroused much interest, especially from the perspective of the relation between habitat morphology and the development of the systems or of of Transcarpathian settlements flows population correlated with pastoral activities. The aim of this study is to hihglight the secular evolution trends of population, starting from the hypothesis of the existance of some stong specific features of the Carpathian eastern, southern and western areas. The use of some cluster analyses and correlation analyses between the numerical evolution of the population and altitudine, or urbanization degree (closely related to the exploitation of some resources) allowed tha validation of the hypothesis, differentiating the Western Carpathians earlier and more densely populated in the past, both from the Eastern Carpathians, with a rather axial, recently...
SGEM International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference EXPO Proceedings, 2018
The paper examines the exposure of mountain creeks towards illegal waste disposal practices relat... more The paper examines the exposure of mountain creeks towards illegal waste disposal practices related to the lack of waste collection services in rural areas of Romania prior to EU accession and the low waste collection efficiency following the closure of rural wild dumps in 2009-2010. The paper estimates the amounts of household waste uncollected and disposed in selected small Carpathian rivers in the NorthEast development region. The expansion of built-up areas along the water courses leads to waste dumping practices across mountain villages in the context of poor waste management facilities. Particular morphology of villages and hydrological characteristics of the creeks may influence the magnitude of such bad practices. The paper points out the role of flash floods in cleaning upstream catchments from debris, thus, polluting the downstream rivers and human settlements. An efficient waste collection system in mountain areas has a crucial role to play in mitigating and ultimately preventing the waste dumping practices in water bodies.
The paper examines the environmental threats associated with the burning of household waste in op... more The paper examines the environmental threats associated with the burning of household waste in open piles across rural communities with a focus on Neamt County (Romania) as a case study of uncontrolled waste disposal practice. This option derived from the lack of efficient municipal waste collection schemes, and on the other hand, it is a traditional disposal route for agricultural wastes besides open dumping on the surroundings. This study estimates the potential amounts of household waste uncollected by formal waste management services to be burnt by rural communities related to regional waste management features and how such bad practice interacts with geographical conditions. The paper performs a quantitative analysis of waste indicators and makes estimations on consequent environmental impact focusing on inventorying air pollutants. The spatial analysis provides an appropriate cartographic representation of the analyzed phenomenon. The conclusions converge towards two main idea...
Deal with the dual economic and social crisis in the 1980s, many of the Third World farming commu... more Deal with the dual economic and social crisis in the 1980s, many of the Third World farming communities have been able to develop agro-pastoral systems and forestry in order to stamp rural poverty. The case study of Batoufam situated in the western highlands of Cameroon is an edifying illustration. Studies based on surveys and remote sensing data show a dynamic that leads to a gallery forest snacking, isolated groves and alpine meadows in favor of the habitat, communication channels and farms. Despite the increased rate of afforestation in the soils of the range of 20 to 30 percent, the future of these residual plant formations remains concerned because of population growth and anthropogenic pressures on the lands. Keywords : Plant formations, isolated groves, western highlands, Cameroon
Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteu... more Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteurs de collines basses de Roumanie. Par l’application de la methode de regression logistique, on se propose de saisir les relations entre les facteurs responsables de l’occurence des glissements de terrain et leur distribution spatiale. Le traitement automatique des donnees par SIG prend en compte la pente, la nature geologique du terrain, l’exposition des versants, la distance par rapport au reseau de drainage et les precipitations annuelles. On obtient ainsi deux cartes de susceptibilite aux glissements. La validite du modele de prediction a ete verifie a l’aide de la courbe ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic), respectivement pour l’aire AUC situee sous la courbe (Area Under the Curve), en mettant en evidence un degre eleve de prediction.Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteurs de collines basses de Roumanie. Par l’applicati...
Production and consumption pose a number of burdens on our ecological systems. The risk of causin... more Production and consumption pose a number of burdens on our ecological systems. The risk of causing damage to human health by environmental contamination is called, in general, environmental risk. Climate changes and infection to new pandemic influenza are believed also to be caused by the global human activities affecting global environment and ecological systems; thus, they often make part of environmental risks in the broad sense. This chapter explains each of these risks and unveils our unique methods in counter them. Keywords Chemical substance • Climate change • Environmental risk • Global warming • Infection • Pandemic 8.1 Change in Biological System and Risk of Infection Infections spread with the presence of (1) source (e.g., virus), (2) path of infection, and (3) susceptible host (organisms with weak immunity). History tells us that climate changes and changes in biological systems also place large effects on spread of infections. 8.1.1 Accidents with Infrastructures Changes in nature and ecosystems have posed a number of threats to humankind. A typical example was the plague infection in medieval Europe. Global warming in recent years is causing concerns of a tropical epidemic dengue fever in Japan. This
The representation of terrain propensity to generate landslides, meaning the mapping of landslide... more The representation of terrain propensity to generate landslides, meaning the mapping of landslide susceptibility, represents a first step in the assessment of the risk induced by these geomorphological hazards. Results of the numerous studies differ according to the available input data, the applied methodology, the level of detail or the scale of analysis. The main goal of the present study is to provide a new landslide susceptibility map for the national territory of Romania. The application of the European Landslide Susceptibility (ELSUS) mapping methodology, based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), using more accurate and higher spatial resolution input data, led to the achievement of a landslide susceptibility map within individual climate-physiographic zones across the country. The landslide susceptibility is computed by combining the information regarding landslide frequency with a Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) model based on three predictors (slope angle, lithology and land cover). The continuous landslide susceptibility model was validated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, which indicated a better performance in the plateau, hilly and plain areas (AUC ¼ 0.750) compared to the mountain area. Also, an independent sample validation was performed for testing the consistency of the landslide susceptibility classes. The classified susceptibility map shows patterns that are in agreement with terrain reality.
Individual chapters of this publication are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons A... more Individual chapters of this publication are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License which permits commercial use, distribution and reproduction of the individual chapters, provided the original author(s) and source publication are appropriately acknowledged. If so indicated, certain images may not be included under the Creative Commons license. In such cases users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. More details and guidelines concerning content reuse and adaptation can be found at http://www.intechopen.com/copyright-policy.html. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book.
Changes in the contemporary world materialized in particular through population growth and mobili... more Changes in the contemporary world materialized in particular through population growth and mobility, urbanization, and economic expansion also result in an increased exposure of people and assets to extreme events and impose, implicitly, adequate management of induced risks. The occurrence of natural and anthropogenic risk phenomena, known as hazards, puts a heavy tribute on disaster-sensitive human communities regardless of their level of development. The magnitude of the disasters and their increasing frequency and severity imply the need for their approach by the entire world community and for global action. Knowledge of risks becomes a sine qua condition in carrying out impact studies, risk prevention plans, spatial planning plans, and, in general, a condition for effective management of natural resources or sustainable development projects.
One of the climatic hazards experienced in recent times is the drought that affects the society a... more One of the climatic hazards experienced in recent times is the drought that affects the society and the ecosystems. This study is intended to identify the statistically significant trends in the minimum flow characteristics and hydrological drought episodes, during five years, of the Trebes-Negel representative river basin, located in the Moldavian Sub Carpathians, in Romania. It is an important hydrological objective used for research purposes, considered as a reference point for all small basins with an identical natural environment. Data analysis revealed that drought is recorded at two of the 6 hydrometric stations analyzed (Podis and Magura) in 2015, starting in August and ending with October.
Global NEST International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology
In the summer of 2018, the general unstable weather throughout the central and eastern parts of R... more In the summer of 2018, the general unstable weather throughout the central and eastern parts of Romania has led to significant rainfall, sometimes exceeding 60 mm/day, and consequently to a massive runoff on the slopes that rapidly increased the flow on tributaries and the main course of the river Trebes from the Moldavian Subcarpathians. The majority of the hydrometric basin stations recorded exceeded caution levels, and the hydrometric station Bacau registered the maximum historical level (H= 348 cm). Analysis and data processing were performed using programs and hydraulic calculations for different probabilities that demonstrated this.
Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The European Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ENERB) is the results of several ... more The European Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ENERB) is the results of several experimental projects concerning the hydrological forecasting and flood mitigation effort which have been implemented within states member of European Union. In Romania, the hydrometric activity for ENERB it is currently composed of 14 representative basins (RB) of which the Trebeş-Negel (184 km2) was selected as RB for Eastern Carpathian and Subcarpathian transition zone. Located in one of the most affected territories by hydrological hazards, the Trebeş-Negel RB reacted as a small-scale flood sensor for the entire region. Using the well-documented discharge and pluviometric database collected at five gauge stations within the study area, we develop the first comparative analysis of historical flood events that occurred in the Trebeş-Negel RB post-1990. Five exceptional floods were selected: flood events from July 2 to July 8, 1991; flood events from June 16 to June 22, 1992; flood even...
<p>Access to comprehensive and updated statistical and spatial databases represents... more <p>Access to comprehensive and updated statistical and spatial databases represents a prerequisite of sound risk, hazard, vulnerability and resilience analyses, which have been advancing in terms of complexity and efficiency for the last 50 years, alongside the development of GIS techniques. Without adequate quantitative and qualitative datasets, research is sensitive to inaccurate and imprecise results, failing to meet the requirements for which it was designed and having zero input to the scientific progress.</p><p>Most developing countries - including Romania, face the problem of incomplete, inaccurate or outdated data in many fields of research, including geology-related fields and statistics about the building stock and transport infrastructure.<strong> </strong>These types of data are fundamental for vulnerability assessments of urban spaces to seismic or landslide hazards. This paper aims to provide a GIS-based methodology for acquiring datasets of the geological surface deposits and of the building stock at the scale of urban settlements, focusing on Iași City in the NE of Romania, respectively on the Țicău area of this city.</p><p>The mapping of geological surface deposits relies on automatic image analysis and landforms extraction algorithms that identify and delineate geological deposits based on slope and curvature, using High-resolution DEMs, as well as on cluster analysis. Slope deposits are delineated via watershed segmentation performed by Vision with Generic Algorithms (ViGRA), whereas the Schmidt-Hewitt classification is used to delineate floodplain and ridge deposits. The building stock is extracted from LiDAR point clouds with densities of 4 to 6 points per square meter using various approaches: neural network and deep learning for classification, and bounding rectangles for building boundary extraction. While LiDAR data is not available, high resolution imagery provided by the Copernicus programme can be used in conjunction with classification and edge detection algorithms to delineate building objects. The results are promising and show how the already available tools can be used to fill in the gaps of the “no-data problem” and overcome such a challenging issue. </p><p>The obtained spatial data, namely surface deposits and building stock, become a major asset for the further vulnerability assessments that integrate geotechnical and physical aspects. This may help identify what local scale elements contribute to disaster resilience or, on the contrary, what fuels vulnerability.</p>
The Romanian Carpathians between settlement extension and the challenges of adaptation to moderni... more The Romanian Carpathians between settlement extension and the challenges of adaptation to modernity: The way in which the Romanian Carpathians got populated has aroused much interest, especially from the perspective of the relation between habitat morphology and the development of the systems or of of Transcarpathian settlements flows population correlated with pastoral activities. The aim of this study is to hihglight the secular evolution trends of population, starting from the hypothesis of the existance of some stong specific features of the Carpathian eastern, southern and western areas. The use of some cluster analyses and correlation analyses between the numerical evolution of the population and altitudine, or urbanization degree (closely related to the exploitation of some resources) allowed tha validation of the hypothesis, differentiating the Western Carpathians earlier and more densely populated in the past, both from the Eastern Carpathians, with a rather axial, recently...
SGEM International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference EXPO Proceedings, 2018
The paper examines the exposure of mountain creeks towards illegal waste disposal practices relat... more The paper examines the exposure of mountain creeks towards illegal waste disposal practices related to the lack of waste collection services in rural areas of Romania prior to EU accession and the low waste collection efficiency following the closure of rural wild dumps in 2009-2010. The paper estimates the amounts of household waste uncollected and disposed in selected small Carpathian rivers in the NorthEast development region. The expansion of built-up areas along the water courses leads to waste dumping practices across mountain villages in the context of poor waste management facilities. Particular morphology of villages and hydrological characteristics of the creeks may influence the magnitude of such bad practices. The paper points out the role of flash floods in cleaning upstream catchments from debris, thus, polluting the downstream rivers and human settlements. An efficient waste collection system in mountain areas has a crucial role to play in mitigating and ultimately preventing the waste dumping practices in water bodies.
The paper examines the environmental threats associated with the burning of household waste in op... more The paper examines the environmental threats associated with the burning of household waste in open piles across rural communities with a focus on Neamt County (Romania) as a case study of uncontrolled waste disposal practice. This option derived from the lack of efficient municipal waste collection schemes, and on the other hand, it is a traditional disposal route for agricultural wastes besides open dumping on the surroundings. This study estimates the potential amounts of household waste uncollected by formal waste management services to be burnt by rural communities related to regional waste management features and how such bad practice interacts with geographical conditions. The paper performs a quantitative analysis of waste indicators and makes estimations on consequent environmental impact focusing on inventorying air pollutants. The spatial analysis provides an appropriate cartographic representation of the analyzed phenomenon. The conclusions converge towards two main idea...
Deal with the dual economic and social crisis in the 1980s, many of the Third World farming commu... more Deal with the dual economic and social crisis in the 1980s, many of the Third World farming communities have been able to develop agro-pastoral systems and forestry in order to stamp rural poverty. The case study of Batoufam situated in the western highlands of Cameroon is an edifying illustration. Studies based on surveys and remote sensing data show a dynamic that leads to a gallery forest snacking, isolated groves and alpine meadows in favor of the habitat, communication channels and farms. Despite the increased rate of afforestation in the soils of the range of 20 to 30 percent, the future of these residual plant formations remains concerned because of population growth and anthropogenic pressures on the lands. Keywords : Plant formations, isolated groves, western highlands, Cameroon
Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteu... more Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteurs de collines basses de Roumanie. Par l’application de la methode de regression logistique, on se propose de saisir les relations entre les facteurs responsables de l’occurence des glissements de terrain et leur distribution spatiale. Le traitement automatique des donnees par SIG prend en compte la pente, la nature geologique du terrain, l’exposition des versants, la distance par rapport au reseau de drainage et les precipitations annuelles. On obtient ainsi deux cartes de susceptibilite aux glissements. La validite du modele de prediction a ete verifie a l’aide de la courbe ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic), respectivement pour l’aire AUC situee sous la courbe (Area Under the Curve), en mettant en evidence un degre eleve de prediction.Cet article propose l’evaluation de la susceptibilite aux glissements de terrain dans deux secteurs de collines basses de Roumanie. Par l’applicati...
Production and consumption pose a number of burdens on our ecological systems. The risk of causin... more Production and consumption pose a number of burdens on our ecological systems. The risk of causing damage to human health by environmental contamination is called, in general, environmental risk. Climate changes and infection to new pandemic influenza are believed also to be caused by the global human activities affecting global environment and ecological systems; thus, they often make part of environmental risks in the broad sense. This chapter explains each of these risks and unveils our unique methods in counter them. Keywords Chemical substance • Climate change • Environmental risk • Global warming • Infection • Pandemic 8.1 Change in Biological System and Risk of Infection Infections spread with the presence of (1) source (e.g., virus), (2) path of infection, and (3) susceptible host (organisms with weak immunity). History tells us that climate changes and changes in biological systems also place large effects on spread of infections. 8.1.1 Accidents with Infrastructures Changes in nature and ecosystems have posed a number of threats to humankind. A typical example was the plague infection in medieval Europe. Global warming in recent years is causing concerns of a tropical epidemic dengue fever in Japan. This
The representation of terrain propensity to generate landslides, meaning the mapping of landslide... more The representation of terrain propensity to generate landslides, meaning the mapping of landslide susceptibility, represents a first step in the assessment of the risk induced by these geomorphological hazards. Results of the numerous studies differ according to the available input data, the applied methodology, the level of detail or the scale of analysis. The main goal of the present study is to provide a new landslide susceptibility map for the national territory of Romania. The application of the European Landslide Susceptibility (ELSUS) mapping methodology, based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), using more accurate and higher spatial resolution input data, led to the achievement of a landslide susceptibility map within individual climate-physiographic zones across the country. The landslide susceptibility is computed by combining the information regarding landslide frequency with a Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) model based on three predictors (slope angle, lithology and land cover). The continuous landslide susceptibility model was validated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, which indicated a better performance in the plateau, hilly and plain areas (AUC ¼ 0.750) compared to the mountain area. Also, an independent sample validation was performed for testing the consistency of the landslide susceptibility classes. The classified susceptibility map shows patterns that are in agreement with terrain reality.
Environmental risks are a multi- and interdisciplinary topic with a great interest in
current soc... more Environmental risks are a multi- and interdisciplinary topic with a great interest in current society. This book examines the issues of natural hazards (e.g., typhoons, landslides, wildfires), anthropogenic activities (construction of artificial dams, the operation of nuclear power plants), and their potential risks to the environment and/ or quality of life at various scales, from local to regional and even at a global level. Th book intends to discuss concepts, methods, and techniques to address environmental risks and vulnerabilities, revealing the complex interactions between nature and human communities and activities. Policies and practices for disaster risk management should be based on the best state-of-the-art methods and techniques, integration between natural and/or social approaches, interdisciplinary research, and multilevel cooperation.
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Papers by Adrian GROZAVU
current society. This book examines the issues of natural hazards (e.g., typhoons,
landslides, wildfires), anthropogenic activities (construction of artificial dams, the
operation of nuclear power plants), and their potential risks to the environment and/
or quality of life at various scales, from local to regional and even at a global level. Th
book intends to discuss concepts, methods, and techniques to address environmental
risks and vulnerabilities, revealing the complex interactions between nature and human
communities and activities. Policies and practices for disaster risk management should
be based on the best state-of-the-art methods and techniques, integration between
natural and/or social approaches, interdisciplinary research, and multilevel cooperation.