Department of environmental geography

The INODIN project focuses on developing the application potential of research organizations (ÚTAM, CTU, ÚGN, BUT, CeTTAV) by establishing and deepening cooperation with entities from the application sphere (EXCON, STATOTEST, DIAMO, SKANSKA). The topic of the four-year project is the diagnostics, monitoring and modeling of engineering infrastructure, which is indispensable to our civilization and has a major impact on the living and social environment.

The project investigates manifold urban renewal impacts on routine urban mobility. Urban renewal is viewed as the complete regeneration of a dilapidated area serving a different purpose in the past. The project objective is to analyse the uneven consequences of socio-spatial transformation on regular commuting patterns, accessibility of basic urban functions, and individual daily mobility. The project is theoretically framed by research on urban mobilities and spatial planning narratives of polyfunctional urban redevelopment aimed at mitigating excessive mobility. Using a multi-scalar approach, the project combines quantitative and qualitative methods of social geographic research. Exploring the shifts in mobility strategies and practices of the community affected by the project of urban renewal provides evidence-based results revealing the contexts of unjust mobilities and establishes an argumentative framework for reconceptualization of access-focused spatial planning concepts which are applied largely via flagship redevelopment projects of under-used premises.

Changes in energy use in the residential sector represent a significant segment of the low-carbon transition. Achieving a step-change in energy efficiency behaviours of households requires enhanced knowledge of behavioural drivers, and translation of this knowledge into effective intervention programs. The proposed project will strive to study, analyse and interpret time-space patterns and predictors of energy behaviour of Czech households. We will explore factors affecting the adoption of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency innovations, temporal activity patterns and rhythms of energy demanding practices, the adaptive strategies to satisfy energy needs (adaptation of lifestyles to new socio-technical systems), resilience strategies in relation to energy poverty risks, and the level of energy literacy. Conceptual bases of behavioural geography, including time-geography and spatial analysis will be used, particularly the time-space context of human behaviour, and the concepts of spatial innovation diffusion, social acceptance of energy innovations and accessibility.

Project goals:

• Target and explore the previously known caves in the area of interest. Carry out an inventory of all known caves and mapping of important caves as well.
• Carry out an evaluation of the number of visitors and documentation of the human influence on the cave environment and carry out year-round temperature measurements in selected caves.
• Conduct a paleontological survey and search for natural archives with Quaternary fossils in caves and analyze them afterwards.
• Conduct a survey of the locations selected using the lidar terrain map with the aim of discovering new caves and including them in the inventory.
• Create a comprehensive database of caves and supplement the JESO database and summarize the research results in scientific publications.

The goal of the project is to provide information on the widest possible spectrum of basic factors of selected sections of the Morava and Dyje streams. The confluence of the Morava and Dyje rivers, designed as a specially protected area, was chosen as a key site. Given the ongoing negotiations and certain controversies, the project would like to provide the basis for an objective and comprehensive assessment of the situation and finding the optimal legislative status. The focus will be on geo- and biodiversity, hydromorphology, connectivity and migration permeability or botanical aspects. At the same time, procedures for suitable and effective revitalization or renaturalization procedures will be proposed. In addition, attention will be paid to Litovelské Pomoraví and Pálava PLAs.

The industrial revolution has brought many changes to, until that time, undisturbed natural and cultural landscape. Changes in the industrial period meant a significant interference in the landscape and its successive conversion and function changes. Sugar production and sugar industry respectively, connected with sugar beet growing, represent one of the most significant landscape interferences. The development of this branch in the Czech lands dated to the 1830s and was enabled by good climatic and soil conditions, as well as after the initiation of the branch in the previous era of the Napoleonic wars. An impressive boom of this industry followed and lasted interrupted for almost 150 years. Up to 271 sugar mills operated in the time of maxima in the Czech lands, which were accompanied by both the relevant infrastructure and fields with a characteristic terrain location, dimensions, position in relation to the sugar factory and spatial structure. In the interwar period, the territory of the Czech Republic was a key exporter of sugar in the world, which, however, still bears traces of unknown to the public. However, contemporary post-industrial period brings gradual downturn of this branch, which is amplified by dilapidation of unused industrial grounds changed into brownfields. In the context of failing sugar industry in the Czech Republic we propose a project, which main goal is identification of rural landscapes changed by the sugar industry in the period of industrial revolution in the second half of the 19th century.

The overall objective of ECS is to widen and strengthen the European Citizen Science community through capacity building and awareness raising activities such as the creation of a European Citizen Science Academy and the establishment of a network of 28 ECS Ambassadors.

SHiFT proposes the creation of a transdisciplinary Hub to address existing challenges in advancing timely societal transformations in the face of climate change. It includes the delivery of a plan of action-focused missions, initiatives, and digital content creation. The Hub comprises a core group of SSH transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners and their extended networks with a focus on unfolding the benefits of engaging with transformation in practice ideas across different social, political, economic, environmental, and technological contexts. Recognising from the onset that these categories have blurred demarcations in practice and exploring the nexus between these and their impact on different systems and regimes.

NEXUSNET is an international network of researchers collaborating with universities, research institutions, policymakers and the business sector to better understand how the water-energy-food Nexus fosters policy coherence and biophysical interactions in the domains of water, energy and food, supporting the transition towards a circular and low-carbon economy in Europe.

The aim of the project is land owners (including municipalities) energising and rising their responsibility for land management in order to enhance landscape resilience in the context of climate change. The project sumarises the soil state of the art, identifies the key motivations of land owners (incl. municipalities) to responsible ownership of land, finds the solutions for the presumed and real obstacles for more responsible land management conversion, clusters the land owners, communicates with them in order to support their position in the tenure agreement negotiation process with the farmers, develops the informational web portal with the citizen science involvement and effortless plot of land and crop tracing.

In urban theory and practice, the concepts of compact and polycentric city are promoted in order to mitigate negative effects of the urban sprawl and to reach sustainable development. Although both spatial planning concepts employ urban morphology and space of flows as fundamental operational categories when describing multi-layered urban processes, they stem from different theoretical perspectives. Unclear meanings and ambiguous definitions of these concepts are related to their scale-dependency and to different analytics of spatiotemporal urban configurations. Inconsistent conceptualizations are reflected in planning imaginations and urban planning practice as the combined application of both spatial visions is accompanied by incomprehension, blurred terminology and procedural complications. By using qualitative and mainly quantitative methods, the aim is to analyse the multiple relationships between both concepts. The resulting interpretative framework would shed light on essential principles of compact and polycentric city concepts and the possibilities of their integration.

With growing pressure on land, conflicting values and rationalizations may result in land use conflicts and globally pose fundamental dilemmas for decision-makers. Taking the socio-geographical stance, we focus on local land use conflicts - the situations where strategies and policies meet varying perspectives at a local level. Using the Czech case study, we aim at different priorities (brownfield regeneration, energy landscapes, flood management and rural development) that are frequently encountered in similar territorial settings and create local land use conflicts. First, we will conduct a country-wide quantitative analyses of the extent and dynamics of conflicting land use transitions. Second, we will apply the process-tracing based on documentary data, semi-structured questionnaires with stakeholders and face-to-face questionnaires in local communities to explore rationalizations leading to land use decisions in case studies. Finally, we aim to establish a typology of local land use conflicts and suggest the regionally-based guiding principles for their adaptive management.

The aim of the project is to prepare collection of landscape paintings and old photographs from various parts of Moravia and the adjacent part of Bohemia with their exact topographic locations, from which were created. Based on photographic documentation of present state of scenes and vegetation survey and with the help of old maps and historical floristic data there will be interpreted landscape and vegetation changes of studied sites. As the outputs will be prepared three formats of traveling exhibitions and audio-visual production, which will be provided to the public by information boards and QR codes in the field and also by project websites of participating institutions and individual application guarantors.

The aim of the project is to understand the complexity of geographical and social patterns that are responsible for different ways of the development of agricultural properties in the post-communist rural space. The project is devoted to the problem of abandoning of agricultural properties that occurred after 1989, which represent the largest share of abandoned properties in the country. Systematic and deepening of knowledge on trajectories of (un-)usage of agricultural properties is currently on the edge of attention of researchers. However, the project offers important research potential in deepening of knowledge about changes of rural structures in the post-socialist space.

The project is focused on the evaluation of geodiversity functions and potential within urban areas from the tourist, recreation and education point of view with a special regard to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. The complex analysis and assessment will be accompanied by proposals of specific activities designed for rational and sustainable use of particular geodiversity sites. These proposals will include geo-paths as an alternative tool for promoting natural and cultural heritage within towns and cities, workshops focused on the role of geodiversity within urban areas, audio-visual materials about geodiversity and geo-heritage, etc.

The aim of this project is to develop theoretical understanding of the nature and dynamics of the renewable energy development, by analyzing existing social-economic, spatial and landscape patterns and regional differences of the development in four European countries (Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary), identifying enablers and barriers which hinder a more effective utilization of the realizable potential of specific renewable energy resources, and studying how these barriers and enablers evolve over time. At the same time in order to achieve a space-based study we will study interactions among all different kind of renewables existing in different study areas to analyze institutional contexts and acceptability of energy transition in order to provide indications for efficient energy policies.

The project dealt with the recycling of unused space in the post-socialist context. The Actor-network theory allowing the perception of action, in our case the perception of recycling spaces as a network mobilization, has been selected as the basic framework of the project. For the purpose of this project, space is understood as the network space operating in categories of the network topology, i.e. the space that is a product of actor-network’s activities. The main aim of this project was to fill the gap presented within the approaches to the study of the issue of recycling spaces which proceeds rather spontaneously and without strict defined rules and prescript procedures in the post-socialist space.

The main aim of this Action was to bundle capacities across Europe to investigate and extend the impact of the scientific, educational, policy, and civic outcomes of Citizen Science with the stakeholders from all sectors concerned (e.g., policy makers, social innovators, citizens, cultural organizations, researchers, charities and non-governmental organizations), in order to gauge the potential of citizen science as enabler of social innovation and socio-ecological transition. So far 34 member countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding, and members of 38 countries registered at the webpage and take part of this Citizen Science Action, contributing to workshops, host young scientists, or cooperate on scientific publications.

This project fulfilled the following objectives: The inventory of pre-industrial areas within the historical borders of Moravia was completed on the comparison of adequate historical maps with the latest cartographic products; The identified areas were classified in three size categories, each in three quality categories respecting registers in successful regions of Western Europe; The completed text, maps, images and tabular documentation of each registered entity included proposed measures designed to the future care and management; The documentation was made available to affected municipalities and public in electronic form by the Czech Ministry of Culture; The regionally touring adaptable museum exhibition was prepared; Methodological and regional knowledge were transformed into an electronic didactic learning, educational materials for schools and the public use.

Within this project, we have developed theoretical understanding of the diverse nature and social-spatial dynamics of renewable energy developments, analysed spatial patterns and identified and classified social barriers that impede effective utilization of realizable potential of underused renewable energy resources. The research was focused on three key sectors in terms of relevance for the likely future development: wind energy, solar energy, and production of biomass and biogas. Analytical results were synthesised through the theoretical lens of institutional change and adaptive governance, which helped better understand the given processes and to develop adaptive strategies that enable stakeholders and communities involved to mitigate social conflicts during the renewable energy development.

This extensive international project was based on the identification of research gaps and innovation needs in spatial planning, provided by surveying more than 500 stakeholders from across Europe in a unique critical bottom-up approach, to ensure that research needs reflect the demands of end-users. Based on this, The Europeans’ Strategic Research Agenda for Integrated Spatial Planning, Land Use and Soil-Sediment-Water Management was developed, being designed to attract research funding by public and private parties and to ensure that knowledge is widely applied by public sector bodies, SMEs and large enterprises, wishing to innovate and contribute to a greener, more socially cohesive, smarter and competitive Europe. The European Commission is using the project results as support documents for the identification of research needs.

The project investigated the inter-relationships between renewable energy production and landscape quality, and the role of public participation for the acceptance of renewable energy systems. Nearly 200 researchers from 34 countries participated on the project activities. The action provided tool-kits to achieve a better understanding of how landscape protection & management as well as renewable energy deployment can be reconciled to contribute socio-environmentally to the sustainable transformation of energy systems and contributed to the consolidation and extension of knowledge from a pan-European perspective using a modular methodological framework. This project prepared enhancement tools science based for decision-making, and developed guidelines for public participation in planning renewable energy systems.