And the winners are…

The problem of saltwater and flash floods devastates the world’s food security. Statistics indicate that agricultural crop yields are affected by saltwater intrusion up to 20% of the land area, with projections reaching 50% by 2050. Flash flood problems have affected the settlement of people in agricultural and community areas. The Intelligent Systems to Forecast and Manage Saltwater Intrusion and Flash Floods for Agriculture, Water Transportation, and Community was developed to address these problems with adequate early warnings and water management. The accuracy of the innovation to forecast saltwater intrusion and flash floods one day and one week earlier, with 70% and 90%, respectively. A smart innovation guaranteeing sustainable agricultural production, global food security and sustainable cities and communities.

LipoCleaning introduces the issue of water pollution in the textile industry, which is one of the industrial sectors that utilize and pollute the most considerable amounts of water. We intend to treat water before using it for dyeing processes, by adding something natural, accessible economically and, most importantly, that doesn’t end up polluting in turn, which would mean going against our main objective: recycling water. In order to meet our requirements we decided to optimize the process by adding soy lecithin which works as a vehicle for the dye. At the end of the process, we were able to, thanks to the separation of lecithin from the dyebath, obtain clean water that can then be re-inserted into the industrial process.

The agricultural sector uses 70% of water withdrawals worldwide and uses nutrients that are leached from the soils into lakes and reservoirs. Vertical farming has great potential to remedy some of these issues. Vertical farming, where crops are grown vertically indoors, uses more than 600% energy per kg of crops produced compared to traditional greenhouses. By reducing the amount of light exposed to the lettuce plant rocket, a reduction of this energy consumption can be achieved. By exposing rocket to 7 hours of light per day an energy saving of approximately 10% per kg of crops is achieved (compared to the average vertical farm). This saving makes vertical farming a more desirable supplement for traditional agriculture, thus reducing water use.

Today, in any field of science, we can observe interdisciplinary directions, which are born from the fusion of related disciplines. By combining scientific fields and at the same time comparing the methods of different fields, we can get answers to new questions that go beyond a single subject. Understanding the niche model of ecology gives a new dimension to the complex study of the composition of living communities. The habitat of each population is determined by biotic and abiotic factors. The examination of biotic variables is the task of ecology, while abiotic variables cannot be examined with ecological methods, as the scales often used for their evaluation are too robust for detailed analyses. The measurements carried out by hydrologists and hydraulic engineers can provide a much more accurate description of these abiotic variables, so by combining the two, we can discover new relationships. In this study, we assigned the data of the 20 most common fish species in the Hungarian section of the Danube River from 2004 to 2022 to the data of hydrological datasets and hydrodynamic simulation models, and looked for patterns among them using Machine Learning (ML). Among the nine abiotic factors used as independent variables in the analysis, the average depth velocity, water depth and bed material composition were the most decisive variables, which aligns with the results of previous research. In addition, with our Random Forest model, we were able to predict the number of individuals of the 20 most common fish species in the given conditions in the entire Hungarian section of the Danube. These estimates refer to optimal habitat for fish species according to abiotic variables. The model gives accurate values only in a narrow range, the so-called hydromorphological optimum, where our variables determine the abundance of fish. The results of the studies showed that in most cases biotic factors are more dominant than abiotic variables. In addition to the ML analysis, we showed the possibility of using the Danube fish faunistic database, which covers a large area and time, to investigate the relationships of the population (for example, the relationship between invasive and native species) using classical statistical methods. The results found here are in many cases consistent with the Random Forest model, but give reason to extend the model with additional independent variables in order to better understand the ecology of the Danube fish species.

Research project “Portable device for water purification in emergencies” is dedicated to the issue of ensuring access to safe drinking water in emergency situations. In the conditions of war, the quality of drinking water becomes extremely important. Completely or partially destroyed water infrastructure facilities, soil and water resources contaminated with hazardous substances due to numerous rocket attacks and damaged industrial facilities – all this deprives people of access to safe drinking water. Young researchers has developed a portable water treatment device that, unlike mobile complex surface or groundwater treatment systems, does not require an uninterrupted power supply. The use of such a device with a “carbon block” type filter element in extreme conditions allows to ensure the basic needs of the people in safe drinking water.

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The presence of microplastics in freshwater is a pressing environmental issue, and effective detection methods are crucial for addressing this problem. While techniques like spectrophotometry and chelating agents have been used to detect microplastics, the use of sound as a detection method remains unexplored. This study employed a novel approach by using river water samples from different locations in Pamplona and using a speaker, tuner, and laboratory instruments to develop a simple and practical procedure for detecting microplastics in the water. Rigorous controls were implemented to ensure accurate measurement of plastic and minimize interference from external factors.

This project aims to investigate the potential use of thermally treated seagrass P. Oceanica to recover phosphate from wastewater and the production of a fertilizer substitute. Posidonia Oceanica residues were thermally treated at 550o C for 15 minutes and were tested as an adsorbent of phosphate for water collected from Finikaria dam. Results shows that thermally treated seagrass could be applied as adsorbents for Phosphate from synthetic and waster from dam (high in phosphorous), with 98% and 97% adsorption efficiency, respectively. Finally, by using thermally treated P. Oceanica, which was exposed to phosphate, as a potential fertilizer to lens it seems to positively affect their growth.