Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the main air quality pollutants of concern in many urban and industrial areas worldwide, and particularly in the European region, where in 2017 almost 20 countries exceeded the NO2 annual limit values imposed by the European Commission Directive 2008/50/EC (EEA, 2019). NO2 pollution monitoring and regulation is a necessary task to help decision makers to search for a sustainable solution for environmental quality and population health status improvement. In this study, we propose a comparative analysis of the tropospheric NO2 column spatial configuration over Europe between similar periods in 2019 and 2020, based on the ESA Copernicus Sentinel-5P products. The results highlight the NO2 pollution dynamics over the abrupt transition from a normal condition situation to the COVID-19 outbreak context, characterized by a short-time decrease of traffic intensities and industrial activities, revealing remarkable tropospheric NO2 column number density decreases even of 85% in some of the European big cities. The validation approach of the satellite-derived data, based on a cross-correlation analysis with independent data from ground-based observations, provided encouraging values of the correlation coefficients (R2), ranging between 0.5 and 0.75 in different locations. The remarkable decrease of NO2 pollution over Europe during the COVID-19 lockdown is highlighted by S-5P products and confirmed by the Industrial Production Index and air traffic volumes.

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The paper proposes a new type of geomorphic map, a selective fusion of geomorphic data with land engineering and transport infrastructure features at the detailed scale of 1:5,000. The map focuses on the interaction between landforms, morphodynamics and transport infrastructure, having as interface the land engineering works. The "geomorphotechnical map" as it was named was developed in a digital format as a GIS project for the Prahova River Defile (Curvature Carpathians, Romania), a sector along the main transcarpathian route which links Bucharest with Brasov and Transylvania. Geomorphic data was collected through detailed field mapping, during summer and autumn periods, together with GPS surveying. The technical infrastructure elements were located also using orthophotos from different time periods. The map reflects the main favourable geomorphic conditions (and limitations) for the improvement of a difficult sector along the Bucharest-Brasov main railway; this has national and European importance (a sector of the 4 th Pan European Corridor). Since 2008 this railway (double and electrified since 1969) is the subject of complex and costly improvement works supported by European Financed Projects.

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