Herbologia, Vol. 15, No.

2, 2015

DOI: 10.5644/Herb.l5.2.02

CADASTRE OF RAGW EED’S SITES

IN THE SARAJEVO CANTON

Mirzeta Memisevic Hodzic, Adnana Mejric, Ahmet Sejdic,

Samir Omerovic
JP “Bosanskohercegovacke sume”, Marsala Tita 7, 71000 Sarajevo
mirzeta.memisevic.hodzic@bhsume.com.ba, adnana.vukovic@hotmail.com, ahmet.
sejdic@bhsume.com.ba, samir.omerovic@bhsume.com.ba

Abstract
During 2015 experts of PE “Bosanskohercegovacke sume” created
the digital cadastre of ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) sites in the
Canton Sarajevo for the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and
Environmental Protection of the Canton Sarajevo. The term “digital ca­
dastre” means geospatial databases with associated cartography (thematic
maps of areas affected by this plant species).
Maps show the location of ragweed and accompanying table con­
tains coordinates of areas, municipalities, cadastral municipality, number
of parcel, ownership, type of bedrock, soil type, soil damage, presence
of asphalt, altitude, exposition, inclination, micro-relief shape, presence
of erosion, vegetation form, land, presence of grass, presence of weeds,
human activities on site, needs for repairing, needs for cleaning, planting
(ground flora, trees and/or bushes), and list of other plant species (ruderal
or other) on each individual location.
A total of 105 locations with presence of ragweed were found, the
most in the municipalities of Hadzici and Ilijas, along the railway line and
main roads.
Because of its presence in the vicinity of settlements and roads, most
convenient and most recommended measure to combat ragweed in the
Canton Sarajevo is mowing. Mowing must be performed before insemi­
nation. Recommended period for mowing is May, June, and possibly the
beginning of July. Already in mid-July, ragweed is at some localities in
full bloom. Mowing in this case is not recommended, because it would
increase the spread of pollen. Pulling out can be performed in April and
May, while plants are still small (up to 20 cm high).
Keywords: ragweed, digital cadastre, Canton Sarajevo

Copyright © 2015 by the Academy of Sciences and Arts o f Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 Memisevic Hodzic et al.

Introduction
Ragweed belongs to the family Asteraceae {Compositae). It origi­
nates from the USA. Vojnikovic (2009) classifies ragweed as species for
the blacklist of flora of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the list of invasive spe­
cies that can cause damage in the area of biodiversity, health and economy;
expansion of these species should be prevented), and it is also on the list
of invasive species of flora of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of
the Federation B&H.
It grows on bare-land sites, such as railways, roads, banks of streams
and rivers, neglected gardens and badly cultivated fields. It can be found
in many vegetable crops, potatoes, com, sunflower, sugar beet, soybeans,
and many other crops.
Today, ragweed is known as one of the most dangerous allergenic
plants whose pollen causes sneezing, watery secretion, congestion and
itching of nose, itching and watery eyes, and often itching in the throat
and ears. Thirty years ago ragweed was not identify as dangerous allergen
in our region. Tucakov (1984) states that in some parts of the world (the
USA), up to 90% of pollen allergic rhinitis was caused by plants of Com­
positae family, particularly Ambrosia genus (A. trifida L., A. artemisiifolia
L. etc), less by genus Artemisia (A. tridentata Nutt.), while in our country
the most common cause of pollen sneezing were grasses during flowering
(Gramineae). Saric (1991) states that ragweed pollen causes allergies in
people and livestock.
Allergic reactions to ragweed may appear already at the concentra­
tion of 20-30 pollen grains per m3of air (www.vasezdravlje.com). Accord­
ing to the Report on Seasonal and Spatial Variations of Pollen Allergens in
Sarajevo Area in 2014, the concentration of ragweed pollen goes beyond
limits in August, September and October (Table 1).

Table 1: Ragweed’s pollen concentration on measuring stations

in Sarajevo
Pollen grains/m 3 o f air/m onth
M easuring station
7 8 9 10
Pofalici 16 193 66 30
Stari G rad 6 80 57 19

The report also states that established values were significantly low­
er than values recorded in previous years, especially in 2011, when weekly
value reached 320 grains/m3.

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 Digital cadastre of ragweed’s sites in the Sarajevo Canton

Soljan and Muratovic (2002, 2014) researched distribution of rag­

weed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and determined its presence in the north­
ern, western, north-eastern and central Bosnia, as well as its expansion in
Herzegovina in the Neretva River valley.
In the research carried out by Soljan and Muratovic (2000) in the
city of Sarajevo, six locations with the presence of ragweed were found in
ruderal habitats and undeveloped park areas.
During the research of flora of Hutovo Blato, Maslo (2014a) deter­
mined presence of ragweed along riverbanks of the Krupa River, channels,
and wet gravel pits.
During the research of urban flora of Mostar, Maslo (2014b) found
ragweed in four of five investigated areas (Old Town with surrounding city
quarter (mahalle); New part of the city; Railway station with surrounding;
Areas near the Neretva River). Ragweed was not present only in suburban
areas.
According to Saric et al. (2011), Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. spread
from the Posavina Region (in the north) to the south, in the last few dec­
ades. This species spread quickly because of enormous abundance of its
seeds. Another reason for rapid expansion of ragweed was the war in Bos­
nia and Herzegovina (1992-95). During the war, weeds were not controlled
and they disseminated and expanded freely (Saric et al., 1999 in Saric et
al.lQU).

Methods
Creating digital cadastre of ragweed included preparatory work,
field research, data entry and processing and mapping of recorded points
and surfaces.
As a part of preparatory work, surfaces on which the appearance
of ragweed was expected were selected. The points for recording have
been defined. Based on the available data, these surfaces represent poten­
tial habitat for ragweed (damaged, abandoned land, proximity to garbage
dumps, bands along the roads, etc.). The surfaces were determined by con­
sultation of all sources of geo-information data, especially ortho images.
295 points/surfaces were defined, which were then digitized and working
maps for field recording were made. Information about ragweed sites were
collected from relevant municipal departments and the Cantonal Public
Enterprise “Rad” and these sites were associated with the previously de­
fined points.

19
 Memisevic Hodzic et al.

Four graphs were made for recording data in accordance with the
project requirements. Graph 1 includes general location information (name
of locality, municipality, cadastral district, coordinates, parcel number,
ownership, type of substrate, type of soil, soil damage, rockiness, altitude,
exposure, inclination, micro-relief shape, type and intensity of erosion,
vegetation shape, presence of grass, presence of weeds, visible activity
on the surface, needs for repairing, cleaning, planting and renewal). Forms
2, 3 and 4 are modified forms for recordings conducted by the method of
Braun-Blanquet for species of ground flora, trees and shrubs. Form for
ground flora contains Latin and folk name of a plant, cover label, unity and
origin (natural or artificial). Form for tree species contains Latin and folk
name, number of plants on recorded surface, age of plants, damage and
health status, and finally the form for species of shrubs contains Latin and
common name, cover, unity, origin and damage.
Field recording on determined surfaces, extended to new areas iden­
tified during field work, was carried out from April to September 2015.
All data recorded in the field have been entered in excel. Areas where
ragweed was found have been plotted in GIS project, and they have been
associated with all data recorded in the field, as well as with the recom­
mended way to combat ragweed for each location. GIS project was devel­
oped in Maplnfo program. Raster cadastral maps of different proportions
(1: 1000, 1: 2500 and 1: 5000) were used. Data on ownership were taken
from the website of the Federal Administration for Geodetic and Property
Affairs (http://www.katastar.ba/).

Results and discussion

During field recording, ragweed was found at 105 points in the Can­
ton Sarajevo. The coordinates of points with presence of ragweed, organ­
ized by the municipalities, are shown in Table 2, and their spatial distribu­
tion is shown in Figure 1.

20
 Digital cadastre of ragweed’s sites in the Sarajevo Canton

Figure 1: Spatial distribution of points with the presence of ragweed

Table 2: Coordinates of points containing ragweed by municipalities

East N orth East N orth
M unicipality No M unicipality No
long. lat. long. lat.
CEN TA R - - - 18. 43.846832 18.238615
1. 43.789789 18.148583 19. 43.798475 18.103948
2. 43.825137 18.208129 20. 43.826980 18.213630
3. 43.838922 18.217156 21. 43.821883 18.205518
4. 43.839998 18.217726 22. 43.824646 18.210078
5. 43.802835 18.203589 H A D ZIC I 23. 43.803478 18.110189
6. 43.813047 18.191063 24. 43.800686 18.103111
7. 43.823755 18.204868 25. 43.790524 18.136190
8. 43.845446 18.228469 26. 43.789012 18.145627
H A D ZIC I 9. 43.748924 18.043149 27. 43.785158 18.173232
10. 43.782831 18.072701 28. 43.793621 18.107969
11. 43.800735 18.104091 1. 43.866290 18.275146
12. 43.801922 18.107279 2. 43.867148 18.277330
13. 43.846757 18.240601 3. 43.863216 18.271618
14. 43.846753 18.237327 ILID ZA 4. 43.868449 18.280260
15. 43.772911 18.058372 5. 43.842239 18.314243
16. 43.790071 18.118570 6. 43.846315 18.318819
17. 43.789763 18.136549 7. 43.834401 18.295956

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 Memisevic Hodzic et al.

East North East North

Municipality No Municipality No
long. lat. long. lat.
8. 43.832831 18.281045 NOVI GRAD 1. 43.869238 18.311999
9. 43.758560 18.342668 2. 43.875430 18.288091
10. 43.867991 18.207857 3. 43.878412 18.314685
11. 43.838339 18.307037 4. 43.886572 18.325227
12. 43.837308 18.305172 5. 43.851046 18.326897
13. 43.839563 18.310027 6. 43.830313 18.332609
14. 43.844186 18.316655 7. 43.851081 18.345660
ILIDZA
15. 43.837572 18.259674 8. 43.851031 18.338163
16. 43.835551 18.265559 9. 43.851238 18.350336
17. 43.843040 18.252405 10. 43.851715 18.355394
18. 43.833644 18.270994 11. 43.852163 18.360550
19. 43.835358 18.265702 12. 43.851746 18.319733
20. 43.839505 18.256980 13. 43.863232 18.313514
21. 43.838719 18.258498 1. 43.857913 18.386936
1. 44.082557 18.532840 2. 43.857818 18.383421
NOVO
2. 43.972575 18.251009 3. 43.856612 18.379565
SARAJEVO
3. 43.944205 18.258844 4. 43.853813 18.366386
4. 43.942524 18.262382 5. 43.858190 18.384359
5. 43.941039 18.258448 STARI 1. 43.855206 18.457875
6. 43.939925 18.280809 GRAD 2. 43.851559 18.464042
7. 43.971510 18.251948 TRNOVO 1. 43.678313 18.445813
8. 43.963904 18.263254 1. 43.900602 18.326466
2. 43.908763 18.324314
9. 43.994352 18.220771
3. 43.919630 18.316609
10. 43.976288 18.241539
4. 43.929887 18.330599
11. 43.939872 18.289724 5. 43.911674 18.323091
ILIJAS
12. 44.048426 18.466756 6. 43.920015 18.309721
13. 43.959421 18.264288 VOGOSbA 7. 43.918578 18.305993
8. 43.904308 18.340424
14. 43.964980 18.273659
9. 43.915066 18.319355
15. 43.946181 18.265427
10. 43.920620 18.315246
16. 43.951128 18.263361 11. 43.929397 18.329607
17. 43.986769 18.232463 12. 43.949342 18.344815
18. 43.982915 18.394293 13. 43.963414 18.361657
19. 43.976123 18.381243
20. 43.984783 18.413280
21. 43.992441 18.425013
22. 44.020311 18.437767

For access to each specific data point, longitude and latitude given
in Table 2 can be easily copied into Google Maps and they can be found
without the database created in this study.

22
 Digital cadastre of ragweed’s sites in the Sarajevo Canton

For an overview of the database of recorded data, regarding to habi­

tat of ragweed in Canton Sarajevo, and supporting information (digital
cadastre of ragweed’s sites), any GIS viewer may be used (digital cadastre
is owned by the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Environ­
mental Protection of Canton Sarajevo). The most common file extensions
for using the information data are .shp, .tab and .kml. For transformation
of file extension, different transformers that are integral tools of geoin­
formation program could be used. For overview, free viewers can also be
used, such as Google Earth Viewer for KML file extension. The instal­
lation of Google Earth Viewer is free (https://www.google.com/earth/).
Benefit of this viewer is that, in addition to information from database,
it contains other information such as names of settlements, infrastructure
(roads), administrative division etc. Click on a point/area with ragweed
and the accompanying database containing information specified in sec­
tion Methods opens. This allows easy access to position of the surface
and its main features, and easy selection of ways of intervention for the
removal of ragweed.
Data can also be viewed in Maplnfo Viewer for .tab file extension,
where it is also possible to perform variety of data analysis, as well as
upgrading data. Thus, one can analyse presence of ragweed depending
on various factors, such as types of substrates, purpose of use, damage
and soil types, vegetation types, exposure, degree of erosion, microrelief
shape, etc.
The largest number of points of ragweed appearing in this research
was on damaged land. As regards the type of substrate, significant part of
appearance of ragweed occurs on alluvium and tertiary flysch series, with
very different soil types.
Ragweed mostly appears on southern exposure.
In contrast to results of research conducted by Maslo (2014b) in the
city of Mostar, ragweed in Canton Sarajevo was not found in populated
areas (except in certain cases) or along banks of rivers but it is found along
roads (with badly maintained embankments) and railway line.
In this study, previous sites of ragweed specified by Soljan and
Muratovic (2000) were not confirmed. This may be because of better
maintenance of public green spaces in 2015, compared to the period 1991
to 1999, when the above mentioned authors conducted their research. This
could also be another confirmation of the well-known properties of rag­
weed that disappears from the already known sites (the above mentioned

23
 Memisevic Hodzic et al.

authors cited example of Branko Bujic Street where they found a great
number of individuals in 1996, and in 1999 not a single one.)
In the area of Canton Sarajevo there are only two measuring sta­
tions that collect data for reports on presence of pollen - locality Pofalici
(municipality Novo Sarajevo) and Stari Grad (municipality Old Town).
Data from these stations for 2015 and previous years shows that pollen
of ragweed is intensively present in July, August, September and Octo­
ber. Our experience also confirms this data for other municipalities with
more intensely blossoming of ragweed in July - municipalities of Ilijas and
Hadzici.
Therefore, it could be concluded that the risk of allergic reactions to
ragweed pollen in Canton Sarajevo threatens in July, August, September
and October.

Conclusions
In the area of Canton Sarajevo 105 points/locations with presence of
ragweed were found.
Ragweed was found on embankments along all main roads passing
through the Canton Sarajevo. The reason for presence of ragweed in these
areas is usually reduced maintenance of embankments along roads. All
vital power and strength of ragweed can be seen on and along main roads.
One can see how ragweed grows from sand of embankments, from gaps
in asphalt, etc.
Ragweed was not found on highway embankments, probably due to
constant work and maintenance on sections of highway, which passes near
or through settlements.
This species is also present in and along railway line through the
entire area of the Canton. It sprouts from half-rotten thresholds and from
sand and rock detritus between them.
In a lesser degree, ragweed was found in agricultural crops, mostly
com and wheat.
This species is most frequent in municipalities of Ilijas, Hadzici and
Vogosca, because roads of mentioned categories pass through them, and
there are bigger non-maintained surfaces complexes.
Other municipalities: Stari Grad, Novi Grad, Centar, Novo Sarajevo
have denser population, higher number of private parcels maintained by
owners, better maintenance of public green surfaces, and smaller number
of agricultural areas which may be contaminated with seeds of ragweed.

24
 Digital cadastre of ragweed’s sites in the Sarajevo Canton

Figure 2: Ragweed on railway line

Photo Mirzeta Memisevic Hodzic

From several previous reports on movement of pollen on measuring

stations in Pofalici and Stari Grad, and observed dynamics of ragweed
flowering during this research, it can be concluded that the risk of allergic
reactions to ragweed pollen in the Canton Sarajevo threatens in July, Au­
gust, September and October.
Measures to combat ragweed can be preventive, mechanical (mow­
ing and pulling out) and chemical. Because of its presence in the vicinity of
settlements and roads, most convenient and most recommended measure
to combat ragweed in Canton Sarajevo is mowing. Recommended period
for mowing is May/June and early July, necessary before insemination.
Already in mid-July, ragweed on some sites is in full bloom and mowing
is not recommended (it would promote spreading of pollen). Pulling out
can be performed in April and May, while the plants are still small (up to
20 cm high).

References
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