Search Results (127)

This study investigates the cross-border consequences of large-scale military attacks on Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure and their implications for European energy resilience. Unlike prior research focused primarily on national-level disruption, this paper conceptualizes wartime infrastructure destruction as a source of systemic spillover risk within interconnected electricity systems. We develop an analytical framework integrating three dimensions: shock probability, structural vulnerability, and recovery capacity. Using evidence from 2022–2026 and comparative assessment of selected European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) countries, we identify substantial asymmetries in exposure and resilience. Moldova appears highly vulnerable due to structural dependence and limited flexibility, whereas Poland demonstrates stronger resilience supported by diversification and institutional capacity. The findings show that shocks originating in Ukraine propagate through electricity trade flows, balancing constraints, and price volatility. The results highlight that large-scale attacks on the energy system threaten not only immediate regional security but also the long-term energy sustainability of the interconnected European network. The paper contributes to the literature by linking war-induced infrastructure damage with sustainable energy governance and by proposing resilience tools such as digital twins and blockchain coordination. The results are relevant for policymakers, transmission operators, and crisis management institutions across Europe. Full article

Post-war reconstruction in Aleppo requires more than replacing damaged buildings; it demands an understanding of the city’s historically layered urban fabrics, their differing socio-spatial logics, and their unequal capacities for recovery. Following severe conflict-related destruction during the Syrian civil war, particularly between 2012 and 2016, and the additional impact of the February 2023 earthquake, Aleppo’s recovery is further complicated by the heritage significance of its Ancient City, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986 and included on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2013. This study examines how urban morphology can guide reconstruction through a comparative analysis of four neighborhoods representing major phases of Aleppo’s development: Jdaideh, Azizieh, Mohafaza, and Jabal Badro. Using a qualitative historical–morphological approach, the research analyzes figure–ground relations, street-network structure, degrees of transition between public, semi-public, semi-private, and private spaces, and landmark–node systems to identify the spatial characteristics, temporal persistence, and planning meaning of each district. The findings show that Aleppo is not a homogeneous urban system but a city composed of distinct fabrics with different strengths, vulnerabilities, and reconstruction needs. The comparison further demonstrates that density alone is not an adequate indicator of urban quality or resilience. The study concludes that reconstruction should be based on fabric-specific strategies, including preservation-sensitive rehabilitation, reinforcement of public nodes, balanced connectivity, governance-aware phasing, and incremental upgrading. Urban morphology is therefore proposed as a practical, but not exhaustive, framework for context-sensitive recovery in conflict-affected and historically layered cities. Full article

Post-war Aleppo is often framed through destruction, legal constraints, and the technical demands of reconstruction. This article challenges that assumption by re-reading Aleppo’s pre-2011 municipal vision as an analytical resource for post-war recovery. The study adopts a qualitative interpretive methodology based on municipal archival material, including the City Council work programme, strategic planning presentations, project documents, and materials related to the City Development Strategy, Madinatuna initiative, the old city, Bab Antakiya, and major public-space and service initiatives. The analysis followed three steps: identifying repeated municipal priorities and planning concepts; organizing them into thematic axes; and interpreting flagship projects as spatial expressions of a broader municipal vision. To assess post-war relevance, the archive is also read against evidence of damage, displacement, urban functionality, and heritage loss. The results show that Aleppo’s pre-2011 municipal vision can be reconstructed through six interrelated axes: strategic urban development and managed growth; the old city as a living urban fabric; urban repair in the city centre; mobility and accessibility; culture and social development; and development partnerships and international cooperation. The findings reveal that these axes formed a partially integrated municipal urbanism rather than isolated projects, while flagship interventions such as Bab Antakiya, the Green Path, the river corridor, and the Citadel surroundings materialized this logic. The study also finds that this vision remained institutionally vulnerable because of political centralization and limited municipal autonomy. It concludes that post-war recovery should build on critical continuity rather than reconstruction from scratch. Full article

This paper assesses the role of green hydrogen and green ammonia in the low-carbon reconstruction of Ukraine’s energy sector. The country, severely affected by war, has more than 70% of its energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed, which calls for novel solutions for not only reconstructing but also rethinking Ukraine’s energy sector shaped by the Soviet-era planning. In this context, decentralized and renewable energy solutions appear to be one of the best options to achieve this goal. This study combines four novel and mutually reinforcing methods: a Scopus-based literature review of highly cited green hydrogen publications, natural language processing (NLP) and bibliometric network analysis of Ukraine-related hydrogen research, a SWOT assessment, and a geospatial hydrogen production cost model (GEOH2). The novelty of this research lies in this integrated Ukraine-specific framework, which links research trends, wartime reconstruction constraints, hub-level policy choices, and financing risk-sensitive cost modeling. Therefore, the quantitative part of GEOH2 estimates the levelized cost of green hydrogen, while ammonia is treated as a downstream screening-level conversion and export pathway rather than as a full plant-level ammonia model. Our results show that Ukrainian green hydrogen research is concentrated on renewable-energy strategy, wind and solar electrolysis, water and desalination constraints, gas grid blending, underground storage, ammonia derivatives, and decentralized energy systems. The GEOH2 results indicate that southern Ukraine has strong physical potential for competitive green hydrogen production under de-risked financing, while war risk financing can make even resource-rich areas economically unattractive. Odesa and Dnipro emerge as important export-oriented and industrial hubs, whereas Zakarpattia remains strategically relevant as a safer western corridor linked to European markets. Our findings demonstrate that Ukraine’s hydrogen and ammonia development needs to follow a phased pathway: domestic renewable build-out and grid repair, pilot electrolysis projects and screening-level ammonia conversion pathways, targeted de-risking and insurance mechanisms, and only then broader export corridor development. This pathway can support decarbonization, energy security, industrial modernization, and Ukraine’s long-term integration into European clean energy value chains. Full article

High-resolution, commercially acquired satellite imagery has been shown to be a powerful tool for documentation and analysis of damage to archaeological sites, particularly in conflict zones where ground-based observations are impractical or dangerous. Using this approach, previous investigations have reported widespread looting and other forms of damage to archaeological sites in Syria during the early years of the civil war (2011–2016). Relying on an expanding suite of satellite imagery resources, this paper presents a renewed analysis of looting and archaeological site damage in Syria over the past decade. The results reveal: (1) severe damage to many sites in northern Syria from a novel form of mechanized looting, (2) intensified impacts from the establishment of military facilities or refugee camps on many prominent sites, and (3) rampant incidents of small-scale looting across all areas of the country. These results highlight the importance of ongoing imagery-based heritage monitoring efforts and will support emerging mitigation, stabilization, and damage assessment efforts in Syria going forward. Full article

This essay examines the visual culture of what might be termed “the ecology of silver” between 1492 and 1710 in relation to colonialism on both sides of the Atlantic, with particular attention to both its shiny allure and the blind spots that that shininess produces. It focuses on three inter-related areas: depictions of Potosí, the great silver mountain in viceregal Peru; silver’s shine in European elite material culture; and the deployment of silver in celebrating the Spanish monarchy in viceregal Sicily, part of its empire within Europe. Current scholarship on early modern silver bifurcates between historical, political, and anthropological studies of silver’s extraction in the Americas and colonialism on one hand and a celebratory art historical scholarship focused on high-end European silver goods on the other. Scholars have energetically examined its extraction, the global trade in bullion, the rise of capitalism that it fed, and the wars that it fomented and paid for, but they stop short of inquiring into the ends to which silver was deployed within Europe and Asia beyond the naming of the principal ports. Meanwhile, studies of silver in Europe are overwhelmingly tightly drawn and connoisseurial, often with no reference to where the silver came from, let alone the circumstances of its extraction, transport, or even its effects. This split is due partly to a prevalent notion that silver’s value is inherent, objective, and caused by “rarity”; and it is partly due to art history’s unswerving identification with the rich and powerful. Such approaches overlook silver’s remarkable material and alchemical qualities and ignore its capacity to turn grubby profit into charismatic sparkle, which simultaneously drove the ecological and environmental damage and exonerated its profiteers. Early modern silver linked environmental destruction, colonialism, genocide, and coloniality to high culture, making it a particularly relevant topic for art historical analysis in this context. But more than that silver entwined them in complex, convulsive, and transformative ways, turning imperialism, violence and exploitation into beauty, shimmer and cultural sophistication. Hence, this essay insists on the centrality of imperial issues in the Old World as in the New, underscoring colonial dynamics within metropolitan culture while critically examining the work of seduction of art. The paradoxical quality of shine is the lens through which is seen the relation between violent coloniality and the allure and ecology of early modern silver. Full article

Post-war reconstruction requires effective decision-support tools capable of integrating technical, economic, and organizational criteria under conditions of high uncertainty. The evaluation and prioritization of damaged buildings for recovery interventions are critical challenges for reconstruction project management. This study proposes a hybrid decision-support framework for assessing the strategic feasibility of building recovery using a novel Strategic Revitalization Index (SRI). The proposed methodology integrates a hierarchical fuzzy inference system, simulation techniques, and an artificial neural network surrogate model. The fuzzy model aggregates four key evaluation dimensions: technical condition of the building, economic feasibility of recovery actions, project implementation capability, and environmental and social impact. To analyze the model’s behavior and generate training data, a synthetic dataset was created using Latin Hypercube Sampling, covering a wide range of possible reconstruction conditions. The generated dataset was subsequently used to train an artificial neural network capable of approximating the nonlinear mapping implemented by the fuzzy decision model. The obtained results demonstrate high predictive performance of the surrogate model, with R² = 0.976, RMSE = 0.0266, MAE = 0.0133, and MAPE = 4.95%. Scenario analysis further illustrates how different recovery strategies influence SRI values and enables comparison of alternative reconstruction approaches. The proposed framework provides a flexible analytical tool for supporting strategic decision-making in post-war reconstruction projects. By combining fuzzy logic, simulation techniques, and machine learning, the model enables systematic prioritization of recovery strategies and may support large-scale reconstruction planning in post-conflict environments. Full article

In her fiction, Joan Didion crafted female protagonists who embodied the strange stirrings documented by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique, as common among mid-century White, educated women. Didion’s protagonists are all daughters, wives, and mothers who come to realize their lives are built on empty compromises. However, in her late 20th-century novels, their awareness leads to actual changes: the Didion Women who confront the void in Democracy and The Last Thing He Wanted find their lives impacted by the machinations of U.S. Cold War policies. These novels specifically trace the impact of American imperialism on wives and daughters at home—those that the policies claimed to protect. These protagonists, and their witnesses, refuse to be passive casualties. Their narration by an embedded professional female journalist adds weight to the journeys of these overlooked women. Through her protagonists of privilege, Didion unflinchingly documents the physical and psychological damages of patriarchy—both personal and political—presenting female models of awareness and resistance. This essay will examine Didion’s Democracy and The Last Thing He Wanted as the capstones of her woman-centered fiction, presenting detailed portraits of matrons who deliberately disentangle themselves from history. Full article

Man-made hazards pose serious threats to the safety and preservation of heritage structures. With armed conflict becoming increasingly prominent, it is urgent to enhance our understanding of how these structures respond under extreme conditions to drive conservation strategies. The Citadel of Aleppo in Syria, placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013 due to the civil war, tragically exemplifies the vulnerability of cultural heritage in times of conflict. In such a framework, this study focuses on the Minaret of the Ayyubid Great Mosque of the Citadel of Aleppo as a representative masonry tower to investigate the effects of man-made threats. Based on a 3D finite element model built in the Abaqus/Explicit environment, blast scenarios associated with aviation bombs and human-borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were simulated. The Conventional Weapons Effects (CONWEP) model was used to assess the structural response to blast pressures, also as a function of charge size, standoff distance, and modelling parameters (mesh size, strain rate). This study’s outcomes provide insights into the potential damage caused by aviation bombs and IED attacks, advancing the understanding of the vulnerability of tower-like masonry structures to such hazards while also informing future conservation strategies. Full article

Service continuity in power systems represents one of the key factors in designing the network architecture, in selecting the protection devices and in programming the maintenance operations. Standard strategies have to face a new issue represented by the possibility that intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) may occur. IEMI is defined as the “Intentional malicious generation of electromagnetic energy introducing power, noise or signals into electric and electronic systems, thus disrupting, confusing or damaging these systems”, and may affect the functionality of either power or telecommunications systems. Such hostile interferences may have different purposes: in the context of a war, for terroristic aims, or common criminal objective, e.g., requests for ransom. The focus of this work is on power substations, particularly on MV-LV installations, which often have limited surveillance and are located in proximity to easily accessible areas. The main issues are presented, and guidelines are provided for designing new substations or improving the immunity of installed apparatus, such as electronic protection devices, measurement instruments, and other tools equipping smart and traditional power grids. The challenges are put in evidence, and perspectives are provided with special reference to the possible evolution of interfering technologies. Full article

Background/Objectives: War-related mandibular injuries result in extensive soft-tissue damage, severe comminution, and bone loss, and are associated with high rates of infection and delayed healing. No universally accepted management protocol exists for these injuries. External fixation is commonly used in this context, particularly when internal fixation is unavailable or contraindicated. This study aimed to analyze injury patterns, treatment outcomes, and complications of war-related mandibular fractures treated with external fixation as a primary and definitive stabilization method in a resource-limited setting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of all patients who sustained war-related mandibular fractures and were treated with external fixation between January 2017 and December 2024 at the Hôpital Provincial Général de Référence de Bukavu. Demographic data, injury characteristics, treatment details, outcomes, and complications were collected. Factors associated with delayed union and fracture-related infection were evaluated using univariate analysis. Results: Ninety-one patients with severe mandibular war injuries were included. High-velocity gunshot wounds accounted for 94.5% of injuries. Clinical evidence of wound infection at admission was present in 29.7% of patients. The mean delay between injury and external fixation was 9.2 ± 6.6 days. Successful bone healing without secondary bone procedures was achieved in 71 patients (78.0%), with a mean healing time of 7.6 ± 3.0 weeks. Delayed bone grafting was required in 20 patients (22.0%), performed at a mean of 77.3 ± 30.5 days after initial fixation. The overall complication rate was 36.3%, with fracture-site infection being the most frequent complication (30.8%). Bone loss at presentation, clinical infection at admission, and the need for bone grafting were significantly associated with fracture-related infection (p < 0.05). Conclusions: War-related mandibular fractures in this series were characterized by severe comminution, bone loss, infection, and delayed presentation. Despite these challenges, external fixation provided acceptable fracture healing and functional outcomes. Small orthopedic external fixators represent a pragmatic and effective treatment option for complex mandibular war injuries in resource-limited settings. Full article

This study is dedicated to analysing Ukraine’s transition to utilising renewable energy sources within the broader context of European integration, the decarbonization process, and the challenges significantly intensified by the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of managing Ukraine’s energy transition compared with selected European Union countries and to identify governance-related determinants of transition performance. The energy transition process is viewed as a cornerstone for ensuring national resilience, food security, and strategic post-war recovery planning. Despite significant growth rates in installed capacity, stimulated primarily by the implementation of green tariffs and foreign investments, Ukraine faces a range of systemic barriers. These include regulatory uncertainty, war-related infrastructure damage, and institutional fragility. To comprehensively assess managerial effectiveness, a comparative approach is employed, integrating data from the Energy Transition Index, the Worldwide Governance Indicators, and the Bertelsmann Transformation Index for the period 2015–2023. Within the scope of this research, a comparative analysis is conducted of Ukraine with Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, countries that share a post-socialist legacy and experience in European integration. The obtained results demonstrate that, although Ukraine exhibits a relatively high growth index for renewable energy development, at 54.56%, it significantly lags behind its regional partners in the parameters of quality of state governance, policy implementation consistency, and strategic coordination. It is concluded that managerial effectiveness, defined as the complex interplay between institutional capacity, policy stability, and implementation efficiency, is a decisive factor for the success of the energy transition. The research recommendations encompass enhancing regulatory transparency, strengthening strategic planning, and intensifying the attraction of international investments. Full article

In recent years, awareness of environmental issues has grown significantly. This awareness is evident in the increase in academic research on this topic, social initiatives that focus on environmental issues, and programs promoting environmental literacy. At the same time, there is growing recognition of the accumulating environmental damage caused by individuals’ choices and habits and the threat this poses to ecosystems and sustainability. Numerous studies have explored various facets of environmental literacy to promote pro-environmental behavior, which is essential for tackling the environmental challenges of the 21st century. Over the past few decades, research in the social sciences has investigated the influence of war on crime and delinquency rates. Additionally, studies have measured the impacts of war, terrorism, and stress on mental health and social relationships. Ecological research has also examined the relationship between war and environmental degradation, highlighting the impact on ecosystems, infrastructure destruction, and the long-term environmental consequences. To the best of our knowledge, however, no research has examined how stress and war influence individuals’ sense of environmental responsibility. The aim of this qualitative research was to examine the influence of stress and war on both environmentally engaged individuals and those indifferent to the environment, focusing on their sense of environmental responsibility and its practical expressions. Twenty-four participants were categorized into two groups: environmentally engaged and environmentally indifferent. The findings indicate that the commitment of environmentally engaged individuals to environmental protection decreased during periods of stress and war. This decline can be attributed to more immediate concerns for survival. The participants reported that this change was temporary; as calm returned, their level of commitment reverted to its previous state. Among the environmentally indifferent, no change occurred in their level of commitment to environmental protection, which was consistently low before, during, and after situations of stress and war. Additional findings indicate that the social environment plays a crucial role in fostering environmental responsibility and protection. A supportive social environment has a positive influence on individuals, while indifference or opposition can harm their sense of environmental responsibility. Our research findings also suggest that both environmentally oriented and environmentally indifferent individuals primarily focus on recycling and waste separation when they refer to pro-environmental behavior. Full article

Two folding screens by futurist artist Giacomo Balla (1871–1958) in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum (the Netherlands) were investigated: Paravento con linea di velocità (1916–1917) and Paravento (1916/1917–1958). The screens are painted on both sides, the first on four canvases, stretched onto two wooden strainers and framed with painted wooden strips, and the second on wooden panels set into four painted stiles. In the past, damages on Paravento con linea di velocità were restored by conservators, while Paravento was probably first reworked by the artist himself and later restored by conservators. Yellowed varnish and discolored retouches on both screens led to a wish for treatment. The aim of this research was to gain insight into the painting techniques, layer buildup, pigments, binders, and varnishes of the two artworks. This information supported the decision making for treatment, and it broadens the knowledge on the materials used by Balla. Up to now, only a few published studies deal with the technical examination of paintings by this artist. Both folding screens were subjected to technical photography (UV, IR photography, and X-ray) and were examined with portable point X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, samples were taken. Cross-sections were studied with optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) imaging, and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Loose samples were examined with SEM-EDX, FTIR and micro-Raman spectroscopy, and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). For Paravento con linea di velocità, all pigments and fillers of the painted canvases are compatible with the dating of the screen (1916–1917), but they differ from those on the frame. Here, rutile, in combination with various pigments, among which are blue copper phthalocyanine (PB15) and other synthetic organic pigments, was found. This indicates that the frame has been painted later, likely after the Second World War. The composition of the binders differs as well. Drying oil and pine resin have been used on the canvases, explaining the smooth and glossy appearance and solvent-sensitivity of the paint. On the frame, oil with some alkyd resin was identified. The provenance of the screen before 1972 is not clear, nor when the frame was made and painted and by whom. The results for Paravento indicate that the palettes of the two sides—painted in different styles—are comparable. Mainly inorganic pigments were found, except for the dark red areas, where toluidine red (PR3) is present. pXRF showed high amounts of zinc; cross-sections revealed that zinc white is present in the lower layers. These pigments are compatible with the dating of the screen (1916–1917). In many of the upper paint layers though, except for some green, dark red, and black areas, rutile has been identified. This indicates that these layers were applied later, likely after the Second World War. Since this folding screen was used by the artist and his family until his death in 1958, it seems likely that Balla himself reworked the screen. Full article

In war and explosion scenarios, buildings often suffer varying degrees of damage characterized by complex, irregular, and fragmented spatial patterns, posing significant challenges for remote sensing–based change detection. Additionally, the scarcity of high-quality datasets limits the development and generalization of deep learning approaches. To overcome these issues, we propose CMSNet, an end-to-end framework that integrates the structural priors of the Segment Anything Model (SAM) with the efficient temporal modeling and fine-grained representation capabilities of CNN–Mamba. Specifically, CMSNet adopts CNN–Mamba as the backbone to extract multi-scale semantic features from bi-temporal images, while SAM-derived visual priors guide the network to focus on building boundaries and structural variations. A Pre-trained Visual Prior-Guided Feature Fusion Module (PVPF-FM) is introduced to align and fuse these priors with change features, enhancing robustness against local damage, non-rigid deformations, and complex background interference. Furthermore, we construct a new RWSBD (Real-world War Scene Building Damage) dataset based on Gaza war scenes, comprising 42,732 annotated building damage instances across diverse scales, offering a strong benchmark for real-world scenarios. Extensive experiments on RWSBD and three public datasets (CWBD, WHU-CD, and LEVIR-CD+) demonstrate that CMSNet consistently outperforms eight state-of-the-art methods in both quantitative metrics (F1, IoU, Precision, Recall) and qualitative evaluations, especially in fine-grained boundary preservation, small-scale change detection, and complex scene adaptability. Overall, this work introduces a novel detection framework that combines foundation model priors with efficient change modeling, along with a new large-scale war damage dataset, contributing valuable advances to both research and practical applications in remote sensing change detection. Additionally, the strong generalization ability and efficient architecture of CMSNet highlight its potential for scalable deployment and practical use in large-area post-disaster assessment. Full article