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Guest editorial address

This special issue of the Hungarian Geographical Bulletin is devoted to the 
international conference on “Changing world, changing society, changing 
knowledge acquisition, the role of renewable energies in regional develop-
ment”, held in Eger in the central building of the Eszterházy Károly College, 
10–12 October 2013. The conference was organised within the framework of 
the TÁMOP-4.2.2.A-11/1/KONV-2012-0016 project. 

The project title is as follows: “Complex analysis of the potential applica-
bility of renewable natural resources in the mirror of climate change, in order to 
develop a sustainable model region, under German Hungarian Cooperation”.

The special issue contains seven selected papers refl ecting the broad 
spectrum of the conference where altogether 55 papers were presented on the 
following topics:

1. Global and regional environmental challenges; 
2. Renewable energies and regional planning;
3. Regional studies;
4. Challenges of earth sciences in public and higher education.
This is the second conference on “Changing world, changing society, 

changing knowledge acquisition” at the Eszterházy Károly College organised 
by the Department of Geography. The fi rst conference took place in 2009 when 
the Department of Geography celebrated its sixtieth anniversary.

During the last decade the Department of Geography has widened 
its research and education activities. As a result of this, the Agria Innoregion 
Knowledge Centre was established in 2011. The Department of Geography 
organised several conferences recently. In 2010 the annual meeting of the 
Hungarian Meteorological Society was held in Eger. In 2012 the Department of 
Geography and the Hungarian Geological Society set up the IGCP 572 Closing 
Conference. The XI. HUNGEO Conference, the meeting of Hungarian earth 
scientists took place also in the city in 2012.

After the opening of the conference by the rector of the college, 
Professor Kálmán Liptai and by Zsolt V. Németh, Minister of State for Rural 
Development, seven papers were presented at the plenary session. Ilona 
Pajtók-Tari, vice rector of the College gave a talk on the Eger model-region 
focusing on sustainability, followed by the keynote speech of  Gabriele Gorzka 
(Universität Kassel) about the role of the East–West co-operation in technology 
transfer. Professor Ulf Hahne (Kassel University) gave an interesting paper 
about the resilience of regions and about solving spatial problems for the 
post-fossil society. Professor Jürgen Aring (Dortmund Technical University) 
focused on the Eger region introducing the concept and action plan for the 
development of the Eger region. 



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Three panel presentations are included in this issue. Judit Bartholy 
et al. gave an overview on the expected characteristics of climate change in 
Hungary. Maria Szabó, M. and Ádám Kiss reported on the eff ects of renew-
able energies on the landscape and on regional development. Methodical 
aspects, i.e. the application of GIS technology were dealt with in the paper of 
János Unger et al. The papers published in this issue are grouped according 
to the topics of the last three keynote speeches. The fi rst day was fi nished by 
a fantastic concert and a gala dinner. 

Three sessions were organised in the morning of the second day. The 
fi rst session focused on global and environmental challenges, the second, 
parallel session on renewable energies and regional planning and the third, 
parallel session on the challenges of earth sciences in public and higher educa-
tion. Aft er lunch the papers were given in three parallel sessions (global and 
regional environmental challenges, renewable energies and regional develop-
ment, regional studies).

A half-day scientifi c excursion was organised on the third day of the 
conference to the Bükkalja Region, in the vicinity of Eger. Interesting natural 
features like a fossil tundra soil profi le, thermal springs and a thermal spa as 
well as travertine terraces, beehive stones (rhyolite cones, formed by selective 
erosion) and cliff  dwellings were shown during the excursion.

Ádám KERTÉSZ