Observing the situation in the power industry it is easy to see that there are very deep changes in it. They rely primarily on moving away from conventional energy to renewable energy. This is particularly the case for energy in the European Union. Europe strives to be a forerunner in renewable technologies and a leader in the fight against global warming. The mining industry is being abolished and coal-fired power stations are being displaced by renewable energy sources. This situation is not only a result of EU directives but also of grassroots social initiatives inspired by environmental groups. The new lignite openings are being blocked, due to the lack of public acceptance, and the construction of conventional power plants. They do not help economic arguments for the development of energy based on coal, lignite, fuel that is significantly cheaper than the other, or to provide potential investors with the creation of new jobs. Also, coal investments are suspended in other regions of the world. CoalSwarm coal research shows that 2016 saw a dramatic fall in the amount of coal investment in the world. Even in China and India, where most of the coal industry has developed in recent years, about 100 investments have been suspended. The situation in the US is unclear. Although Barack Obama signed the Paris Agreement, current United States President Donal Trump has spoken out about this agreement and in numerous speeches and is eager to return to the dominant role of coal in the American economy. Poland still maintains the carbon structure of the power industry, but the Minister of Energy has announced that the new block at the Ostrołęka power plant will be the last coal-fired power plant to be built in Poland. This statement allows us to believe that there may be a return to Poland’s energy policy in the nearest future, and the long-awaited document, Poland’s energy policy until 2050, will determine the direction of change for the coming years.

The article presents the problem of micro-apartments. The issue is presented in a cross-sectional view, covering both the historical overview and current trends. The problem has been discussed against the background of demographic factors that justify the trend of minimizing living space. In addition to spatial issues, the paper presents the social and psychological issues related to small-scale inhabitation, as well as legal frames concerning minimal size of the flats.

The article presents current state of the structure of hard coal enrichment plants in Poland, taking the capacity, the range of grain enrichment and the type of equipment used into account. This data were presented in a tabular format for each Polish Coal Company operating on the Polish market. The article was also present simplified: flow sheet of the steam and coking coal enrichment system. Based on the presented data, the planned needs and trends were described in terms of increasing production efficiency, minimizing water consumption and safety of work. A list of research and development works which must be undertaken were also presented as well as factors determining the technological development of the processing plants.

Fruit tree orchards were present in some public parks from the very beginning of their existence in the 19th century. Apart from the utilitarian role, in the 20th and 21st centuries, they also gained different ones: ornamental — on account of high aesthetic qualities of fruit trees in the flowering and fruit-bearing seasons, environmental and ecological — related to supporting biodiversity, cultural — in the context of memory of old forms of using rural and allotment gardens, social — as a space for leisure, and even therapeutic — as an element of hortitherapy. The growing popularity of orchards indicates a change in the trends in contemporary public parks development.

The paper presents the trends of air temperature of the Antarctic. In its elaboration 21 stations were taken into consideration carrying out temperature measurements in the years 1958–2000, and 34 stations in the years 1981–2000. After checking the homogeneity of the series by the Alexandersson’s (1986) test we found that at 16 stations the homogeneity has been broken. On the basis of the corrected measurement series we have determined the trends in air temperature. In the period 1958–2000 statistically significant (on 0.95 significance level) temperature increases occurred on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (for example Faraday 0.67°C/10 years) and at the Belgrano and McMurdo stations. The greatest temperature rise was noted on the Antarctic Peninsula during the autumn-winter period. On the South Pole a negative trend in air temperature (–0.21°C) occurred, especially in the summer season. During recent years (1981-2000) significant changes took place in the air temperature tendencies in the Antarctic. In many regions of the Antarctic cooling began and on the cost of East Antarctica the temperature decreased by –0.82°C/10 years (Casey). In the interior of the continent also lower and lower temperatures occurred (Amundsen-Scott –0.42°C/10 years, Dome C –0.71°C/10 years). The coast of the Weddell Sea is getting colder (Halley –1.13°C/10 years, Larsen Ice –0.89°C/10 years). An increase in temperature was observed in the interior of West Antarctica (Byrd 0.37°C/10 years). The warming rate of the climate became weaker on the Antarctic Peninsula (Faraday 0.56°C/10 years). The largest temperature changes occurred in the autumn-winter season when in the Antarctic Peninsula region the temperature increased, while in the interior and at the coast of East Antarctica temperatures fell considerably.

This study illustrates the benefits of statistical techniques to analyze spatial and temporal variations in water quality. In this scope water quality differentiation caused by anthropogenic and natural factors in the Tahtali and Balçova reservoirs in western Turkey was investigated using discriminant analysis-DA, Mann Whitney U techniques. Effectiveness of pollution prevention measures was analyzed by Mann Kendall and Sen’s Slope estimator methods. The water quality variables were divided into three groups as physical-inorganic, organic and inorganic pollution parameters for the study. Results showed that water quality between reservoirs was differentiated for “physical-inorganic” and “organic pollution” parameters. Degree of influence of water quality by urbanization was higher in the Tahtali reservoir and in general, no trend detection at pollution indicators explained by effective management practices at both sites.

The occurrence of a hydraulic connection between piezometers is identified based on similar changes in water levels. Some piezometers react to changing upper or lower water levels, some may also react to atmospheric precipitation. If the reaction to variable upper water levels is significant, then leakage of seepage control devices is identified and the dam is subjected to repair works. The aim of this research paper is to present and analyse the dynamics of variability of water lev-els in open piezometers of the Chańcza dam, located at the 36 km of the Czarna Staszowska River in the town of Korytnica in Świętokrzyskie province (Poland). Before the analysis of the piezometric data was commenced, the Grubbs statistical test was used to identify and reject the outliers. The scope of the research includes the data captured between January 14, 2014 and January 13, 2017. A hypothesis was formulated that the change in the trend occurred after the spring of 2015 when the water level in the reservoir was reduced by approx. 1.5 m. Two trend lines were adapted for the water levels of each pie-zometer using the least squares method – the first one for the period from January 2014 to May 2015, and the second one from June 2015 to January 2017. In this way, two slopes of the linear function were obtained together with an estimation of their errors. These slopes were compared using a statistical parallelism test.

While assessing the effects of climate change at global or regional scales, local factors responsible for climate change are generalized, which results in the averaging of effects. However, climate change assessment is required at a micro-scale to determine the severity of climate change. To ascertain the impact of spatial scales on climate change assessments, trends and shifts in annual and seasonal (monsoon and non-monsoon), rainfall and temperature (minimum, average and maximum) were determined at three different spatial resolutions in India (Ajmer city, Ajmer District and Rajasthan State). The Mann–Kendall (MK), MK test with pre-whitening of series (MK–PW), and Modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) test, along with other statistical techniques were used for the trend analysis. The Pettitt–Mann–Whitney (PMW) test was applied to detect the temporal shift in climatic parameters. The Sen’s slope and % change in rainfall and temperature were also estimated over the study period (35 years). The annual and seasonal average temperature indicates significant warming trends, when assessed at a fine spatial resolution (Ajmer city) compared to a coarser spatial resolution (Ajmer District and Rajasthan State resolutions). Increasing trend was observed in minimum, mean and maximum temperature at all spatial scales; however, trends were more pronounced at a finer spatial resolution (Ajmer city). The PMW test indicates only the significant shift in non-monsoon season rainfall, which shows an increase in rainfall after 1995 in Ajmer city. The Kurtosis and coefficient of variation also revealed significant climate change, when assessed at a finer spatial resolution (Ajmer city) compared to a coarser resolution. This shows the contribution of land use/land cover change and several other local anthropogenic activities on climate change. The results of this study can be useful for the identification of optimum climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies based on the severity of climate change at different spatial scales.

The variability of the mean annual air temperature and precipitation totals in three periods: 1848–2010, 1951–2010 and 1981–2010 was investigated in the large Warta River basin, being the area with lowest rainfall in Poland. For the purposes of research, nine meteorological stations with the longest measurement series were selected. Air temperature increase in this river basin was similar than in neighbouring countries. In the last 30 years this trend kept increasing. The precipitation in the whole studied period was slightly increasing in the northern part of the Warta River basin, but decreasing in the southern part. The mean annual precipitation totals in the catchment area did not change visible. In the period 1981–2010, the precipitation totals show a small increase in the winter and spring and a decrease in summer. A negative influence of this climate change was not visible in the Warta River discharge. The main objectives of this study were the collection long-term records of air temperature and precipitation in the Warta River basin, and the statistical analysis of climate variability.