Abstract: Growing demand for gas has rekindled a debate on gas security of supply due to supply interruptions, increasing gas prices, cross-border bottlenecks and a growing reliance on imports over longer distances. Security of supply is defined mostly as an infrastructure package to satisfy N-1 criteria. In case of Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania all the gas infrastructure is built to supply natural gas only from one single supplier, Russia. In 2012 almost 100% of natural gas to the Eastern Baltic Region was supplied by Gazprom. Under such circumstances infrastructure N-1 criteria does not guarantee security of supply. In the Eastern Baltic Region, the assessment of risk of gas supply disruption has been worked out by applying the method of risk scenarios. There are various risks to be tackled in Eastern Baltic States in terms of improving security of supply, such as single supplier risk, physical infrastructure risk, regulatory gap, fair price and competition. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the energy security of the Eastern Baltic Region within the framework of the European Union’s policies and to make recommendations on how to better guarantee the energy security of the region.
Abstract: Transportation authorities need to provide the services
and facilities that are critical to every country-s well-being and
development. Management of the road network is becoming
increasingly challenging as demands increase and resources are
limited. Public sector institutions are integrating performance
information into budgeting, managing and reporting via
implementing performance measurement systems. In the face of
growing challenges, performance measurement of road networks is
attracting growing interest in many countries. The large scale of
public investments makes the maintenance and development of road
networks an area where such systems are an important assessment
tool. Transportation agencies have been using performance
measurement and modeling as part of pavement and bridge
management systems. Recently the focus has been on extending the
process to applications in road construction and maintenance
systems, operations and safety programs, and administrative
structures and procedures. To eliminate failure and dysfunctional
consequences the importance of obtaining objective data and
implementing evaluation instrument where necessary is presented in
this paper
Abstract: Transport and logistics are the lifeblood of societies.
There is a strong correlation between overall growth in economic
activity and growth of transport. The movement of people and goods
has the potential for creating wealth and prosperity, therefore the
state of transportation infrastructure and especially the condition of
road networks is often a governmental priority. The design, building
and maintenance of national roads constitute a substantial share of
government budgets. Taking into account the magnitude and
importance of these investments, the expedience, efficiency and
sustainability of these projects are of great public interest. This paper
provides an overview of supply chain management principles applied
to road construction. In addition, road construction performance
measurement systems and ICT solutions are discussed. Road
construction in Estonia is analyzed. The authors propose the
development of a national performance measurement system for road
construction.