Regional Formation and Development Studies

The research focuses on evaluation of the Blue Flag programme implementation in Latvia since the year 1998, when the programme’s operations started. It includes analysis and an overview of both the national and local level impacts and the results of the programme implementation. With regard to national level, approach and experience, the overview focuses on effectiveness and the role of the Blue Flag programme as a supporting instrument for successful implementation of environmental legislation. This programme is also analysed as a communication instrument in promoting environmental policies within 500 km long of coastline areas, which in Latvia are announced the national interest territories aiming at both particular protection and also development, especially, as tourism destinations. On the municipal level, our approach and overview present analysis of the Blue Flag criteria and their implementation experience in different municipalities. Moreover, we study the overall impact of the programme on environmental performance of the municipal sector regarding coastal protection issues. The Blue Flag survey also reviews selected municipal case studies: Liepaja, Ventspils, and Saulkrasti. After reviewing the overall programme’s performance in Latvia, the study concludes with an elaborated set of multi-level suggestions on potential improvements that would strengthen the programme’s further implementation and facilitate better and wider use of its potential not only for particular designated and size limited coastal destinations as the Blue Flag beaches and marinas. The programme’s potential could also be used for voluntary and facilitated coastal governance and coastal communication within the whole municipality and eventually further afield, turning from spreading of coastal information and almost established education towards coastal participation and the whole scale pro-environmental behaviour.

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) appears as a specific space in which ports, maritime transport and the entire shipping cluster are crucially important. The BSR is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world, and maritime transport has contributed to its prosperity. After the collapse of the USSR, the Baltic Sea recovered its role as a contact and transit area. The opening up of the eastern shore to the market economy has brought about the reactivation of its maritime system, which over the years never stopped being a major element in the production of regional integration. Discourses on Baltic unity are often based on the importance of maritimity and maritime trade, but there is also a significant regional diversity in the shipping industry. Nowadays, the emergence of new directions in specialisation, and of new decision makers in ports, allows for new expectations and issues for Baltic ports. The author shows how, in this special Baltic context, ports and maritime stakeholders interact, participating in regional development and integration, but also by pursuing differentiated trajectories.

Physical and chemical parameters were measured in a mostly freshwater estuarine lagoon in the SE Baltic. Present paper demonstrates an attempt to trace the sources and analyse the seasonal and spatial patterns of distribution of POC, DIC and DOC in the Curonian lagoon mostly by the isotopic content in different forms of carbon. Samples were collected in 2012-2014 in 9 stations in the Curonian lagoon including riverine and marine input/output stations. Riverine inputs and summarizing outflow to the Baltic sea locations (Nemunas river delta and Klaipeda channel stations were sampled monthly, while POC, DIC and DOC samples in other stations were collected on a seasonal basis. The observed results allow easily differentiate between estuarine and riverine POM samples, while the differences in DOC δ13C content between sampling stations were found to be not statistically reliable. The high biological productivity of the Nemunas river along with the minor contribution of the Baltic Sea inflows to the overall hydrodynamics of the lagoon explain similarity of content between riverine and estuarine material in the spring and autumn. However, the δ13C content of DIC and DOC could serve as indicator of external inputs only in connection with seasonal water residence variations.

The article presents aspects of the cultural function of Nordic Bronze Age hanging vessels, on the basis of their distribution and production in the Baltic Sea region. Depositions with hanging vessels and related objects show for some regions a similar understanding of the right use and ritual knowledge.

The article presents the latest data on ships sunk in Lithuanian territorial waters of the Baltic Sea obtained during archaeological research conducted by the Underwater Archaeology Group of Klaipėda University. The article contains detailed descriptions of the ways these ships were wrecked as found in historical sources from the 14th to the early 20th century, the localisation of newly found remains of wooden ships, data of their study and possibilities for dating them.