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Various

Volume XXIII |

Less Politicised – (Not) More persistent? Longitudinal study of street name change in Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract: The paper investigates whether specific categories of street names (in particular, politically relevant vs. politically neutral) have more probability to be renamed in historical perspective. Focusing on the case of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a city with a rich history of street renaming due to numerous transitions of political power, and based on a longitudinal dataset (1880-2023) of street renaming in the city, we determine the odds of a certain category of street names to be renamed in a certain historical period employing multiple binomial logistic regressions as a research method. The results generally confirmed a theoretically grounded hypothesis that politicised street names are more likely of being renamed that politically neutral ones. At the same time, in between the tumultuous phases of the power transitions, ideologically neutral names become primary targets of renaming just because of their political neutrality, since the commemoration of new heroes needs additional street names. In this way, the probability of a specific semantic category of a street name to be changed depends on the stage of political transition cycle.

Volume XXIII |

Perceived capitalisation of Wi-Fi as a free service at locations of accommodation establishments from Maramureș Land using Booking.com score data and mobile signal coverage data

Abstract: Travelers nowadays expect to have a proper, constant, and free internet connection at their disposal almost everywhere, with the Wi-Fi service offered as a standard in tourist lodgings. Such is the importance of the service, that the issue of free internet access has become a crucial booking factor to be considered in the pre-reservation stage. The main working hypothesis argues that online booking platforms offer insights regarding the capitalization of internet connectivity in accommodation establishments as a free service. Focusing on a rural tourism destination, the Land of Maramureș, northern Romania as a case study, the paper proposes an empirical methodological framework designed in a GIS environment that concentrates on two key variables – the mobile aggregated signal coverage data in the study area as an independent variable, sourced from the map of mobile signal coverage in Romanian settlements developed by ANCOM (the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications) and the Wi-Fi secondary scores as the dependent variable, sourced from Booking.com score data to test the above working hypothesis. The testing of the working hypothesis was performed using spatial processing and analysis methods such Inverse Distance Weighted Interpolation (IDW) and Regression Analysis.

Volume XXII |

A multi-temporal Landsat data analysis for land-use/land-cover change in the Northwest mountains region of Vietnam using remote sensing techniques

Abstract: Land-use change is one of the challenges that exacerbate environmental problems. Understanding the scope of land-use and land-cover change, past and present drivers and consequences is crucial for properly managing land resources. This study applies the supervised classification maximum likelihood algorithm in ArcGIS 10.8 software to detect changes in land use and cover in Hoa Binh city, Hoa Binh province, Vietnam using multimedia satellite data obtained from Landsat 7-ETM+, Landsat 5-TM and Landsat 8-OLI for the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 respectively. In addition, for each satellite scene we also applied spectral indices (NDVI-Normalized Differential Vegetation Index and NDWI-Normalized Differential Water Index) to classify and evaluate the change of LULC. The study area, located in the Northwest mountainous region of Vietnam, is classified into five land-use/cover classes: Agriculture, Forest, Water, Urban or built-up land and Bare soil or rock. The results reveal significant changes in the study area between 2000 and 2020. Accounting for the largest proportion of total area, the forest area has decreased from 243.20 km2 in 2000 to 217.40 km2 in 2020. Conversely, the urban/built-up land area has increased continuously for the last 20 years, from 9.31 km2 in 2000 to 13.27 km2 in 2010 and 51.80 km2 in 2020. Changes in land use and cover have severe environmental impacts, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, deterioration of water availability and quality, and reduced crop yields. Therefore, appropriate measures must be taken to limit drastic land-use changes and harmonize environmental conservation and human livelihoods.

Volume XXI |

Trust in local media and information they share during the Covid-19 pandemic: Belgrade example

Abstract: The analysis of the relevant literature, especially earlier empirical research of serious pandemics (not including the forces of nature and the processes they create), refers to the assumption that man is (directly or indirectly) guilty of them. Given that the media transmits information related to the intensity of the spread of the pandemic, the death rate of the sick, etc., a survey of citizens’ trust in the local media and the information they convey was conducted in order to find out how much the media contribute to the intensity of the spread of the negative effects of the Covid 19 pandemic. Four assumptions were defined as questions to which respondents’ answers were requested: frequency of information through different types of media; assessment of the extent to which different types of media offer the possibility of objective information; the existence of free, independent and impartial media in Serbia, and finding the truth in the media. The research is of a quantitative type, conducted on a sample of 600 respondents in the city of Belgrade. For the collection and processing of data used the desk method, using interviews and via electronic questionnaires, in which the questions in the first part related to the socio-demographic variables of the respondents, while in the second part the group of dependent variables was operationalized through the statements, which were evaluated on a Likert scale. More sub-questions are offered within the four main questions. Descriptive statistical analysis (percentages, arithmetic mean), T-test, One-factor analysis of variance, Standard deviation, Multiple regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05, and all obtained data were processed in the SPSS program, version 23.

Volume XX |

Does the online education ensure the effectiveness of teaching and evaluation of Geography?

Abstract: Online education developed greatly during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Although there were online learning and teaching resources before 2020, they were not sufficiently tested or used. In modern geography, students must develop their skills, knowledge, be motivated and involved in geographic inquiry. Our objectives are related to the research question of this study, namely how students perceive this new form of evaluation, online evaluation, and whether they have certain preferences related to the tools used in online assessment (Google Forms and Wordwall). Data on students’ perceptions regarding these online assessment tools were collected through an online questionnaire on a sample of 85 fifth graders. The analysis methods were word cloud analysis and multivariate statistical analysis. The results obtained showed that students are open to online assessment through new methods. Moreover, this type of assessment offers them a simpler alternative to learn, with them better understanding or easily remembering the taught lesson. The appearance of the two user-friendly interface platforms or the easy to use mode is an important variable perceived by students, as they can induce in students the joy of participating in an online competition. There are also negative aspects reported by them, especially related to concerns regarding the internet connection or to time given being too short. The usefulness of these tools is not to be neglected at all, given that the target group has been continuing online education for more than a year and the teaching-learning process must adapt to the current context.