Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Waste Management and Disposal
5
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Challenges of applying circular economy principles in urban planning practice in Pécs (Hungary) V. Varjú, Ágnes Óvári Planning Practice and Research, 2026 This paper examines how development plans and other activities present the challenges of the circular transition in the city-region of Pécs, Hungary, an Eastern-Central European city. The analytical framework of performance management is used as inspiration to assess the performance of the circular economy in the region. Creating a more circular economy is an aspiration for the city although there is no specific plan for its delivery at the time of writing. The findings show that despite a long-term commitment to circular economy, barriers in the legal framework, autonomy of local government and a distorted construction and waste management market impede progress.
Assessment of local climate strategies in Hungarian cities Ágnes Óvári, András Donát Kovács, Jenő Zsolt Farkas Urban Climate, 2023 Climate change is a critical challenge for cities, so urban communities are increasingly responsible for climate protection. Hungarian cities started thinking and acting to reduce their GHG emission and carbon footprint in the late 2000s. Thanks to the increasing focus on environmental issues and the European Green Deal, this process received a new impulse after 2018. In our research, we analyzed and compared the local climate strategies (LCSs) of 14 cities by scoring method to explore their goals and planned actions. In addition, we assessed the commitment of local governments and conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with city officials and experts to further highlight the challenges of climate protection. Findings reveal that the mandated climate planning process and the dependence on EU funds negatively impact the quality of the LCSs, with features and practices such as reverse mainstreaming and minimal room for maneuvering to make efficient climate actions at the local level. The common features of LCSs are the high degree of uniformity, the lack of local innovation, and in many cases, the lack of accurate detail that makes it doubtful that they can adequately fulfill their intended role. Instead, they create the possibility of drawing financial resources from the EU.
Efforts and Barriers Shifting a City Region Towards Circular Transition – Lessons from a Living Lab from Pécs, Hungary Viktor Varjú, Ágnes Óvári, Cecília Mezei, Andrea Suvák, Csaba Vér Future Cities and Environment, 2022 A Circular Economy is usually seen as achieving ‘zero waste’ and closing the material flow loops. However, multiple governance, economic, legal, socio-spatial, cultural, and behavioural barriers may easily hamper the transition. This study summarises the lessons learned from the waste flow analysis and living lab (LL) of a case study from the H2020 REPAiR project. It shows how the results of a waste flow analysis created for an urban area can help decision-makers to co-create new place-based eco-innovative solutions and hence shift the city towards circularity. At the same time, during the living lab process, it became clear that the decision support method alone is not enough to co-create or co-design new innovations, in addition the regulatory environment and the peculiarities of governance may also present multiple obstacles. The centralised governance in Hungary and the centralisation tendency in waste management and secondary resource use hamper efficient local resource management. The work in the LL showed that a centralised governance structure hinders not only the co-creation of new solutions but also the transfer of good practices from other peri-urban areas. This is important because a society that is generally less innovative and less developed at the beginning of sustainability transition is innovating for the first time via the transfer of eco-innovative solutions. Our paper shows that the governance structure of a given spatial unit (i.e. a city region) may be a significant factor in the successful or unsuccessful adoption of good practices and for the circular transition, as may system adaptability, the level of local technological development, the level of integration of actors, strategies, interests, and policy interventions.
On the mode of action of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine in plants Rolf Altenburger, Werner Brack, William R. Greco, Matthias Grote, Klaus Jung, Agnes Ovari, Janet Riedl, Katrin Schwab, Eberhard Küster Environmental Science and Technology, 2006 N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine, a sediment contaminant previously identified as a major toxicant of site-specific importance was investigated for its mode of toxic action. From short-term bioassays with daphnids, fish eggs, bacteria, and algae it appears that this compound has specific phytotoxic properties at concentrations below 100 microg/L, which cannot be explained assuming an unspecific narcosis type of action in plants. Also, hydroxy-, nitro-, and methylderivatives show clear excess toxicity as compared to baseline toxic effects. Of several plant-specific growth and development processes investigated, only photosynthesis could be demonstrated to be affected at short exposure times and low concentrations. Disturbance of primary photosynthetic reactions such as oxygen evolution and fluorescence quenching, however, becomes only apparent after 2-3 h of exposure, which is in sharp contrast to known specific inhibitors targeting processes such as electron transport or ATP production. This, and concentration-time-effect modeling lead to the suggestion that N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine acts intracellular as a reactive compound in cell membranes producing irreversible, and thus cumulative, damage over time in algae. The effects may become first apparent in membrane-rich compartments such as the algal chloroplast.
