The habitants of Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, are unfortunately exposed to high levels of particulate matter (PM), despite a lot of efforts made by the government and the municipality in recent decades. A high resolution model using the Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System (ADMS)-Urban was carried out for one year (2014) with elevated levels of PM concentration for the Sofia region measured during the winter. Four main emission sources (point industrial, domestic heating, roads, and unorganized transport) were taken into account for this study. This works intends to evaluate the impacts of different sources on the air pollution and quality of life in Sofia city. Although this type of modeling only accounts for the local sources, and has some deficiency, it can be a very useful tool for estimating the contribution of each source type to the concentration field, and it allows simulating different scenarios for future emission reduction that can help authorities with decision making.

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This study analyses the possibility for seismic early warning (EW) in the Balkan Peninsula. A number of characteristics of seismic record were evaluated for EW utility. Some tests checked the possibility to locate events reliably by Golitsyn’s method, using one seismic station (SS). The distance and relevant travel time from some crustal faults to the nearest SS and big towns were appraised. EW procedures for most of the seismic zones in the Balkan Peninsula are not reliable, excepting the Vrancea zone, because of the small density of the SS, crustal depth of the earthquakes and fault crowdedness of the region.