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Comparative Study of Variants Evaluating Noise in Urban Environment
Pomališová, Michaela ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Řiháček, Tomáš (referee)
Noise currently represents a problem in society, which disturbs mainly inhabitants in populated areas. It decreases their quality of life and endangers their health. The sensitivity to noise is individual, yet it is possible to measure noise by various means and evaluate its intensity and impact on human beings. Noise as a part of the environment, is becoming on the basis of resident complaints a discussed matter on the town and city level. Their management of noise necessarily involves monitoring and taking subsequent precautions. This work deals with comparing objective and subjective methods in noise evaluation in urban environments and its impact on the quality of life and the health of the residents. It uses a method of the multicriterial evaluation of variant also known as the multicriterial analysis. It compares four approaches to evaluate noise; two objective involving measuring, one subjective using a survey method and one hybrid. The winning method represents the subjective evaluation, which has fulfilled given criteria and acquired a significance of 75 %. All variants included in the analysis are suitable for noise evaluation in outdoor environments on a local level. The outcome of this work is to recommend towns and cities in the Czech Republic to use the winning compromising variant,...
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Human impacts on ecosystems: appropriation of primary production and biodiversity in the Czech republic
Vačkář, David ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Nátr, Lubomír (referee) ; Miko, Ladislav (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to explore relationship between selected indicators of human pressures and biological diversity in the Czech Republic. I assessed human impacts on ecosystems by calculating the fraction of aboveground net primary production appropriated by humans (aHANPP) in a cultural landscape of the Czech Republic. The human appropriation of aboveground net primary production reached 21.5 Tg C in aggregate or 56% of the potential natural productivity in 2006. I found the aHANPP to be a suitable indicator of human impacts on ecosystems as it detect trends and enables spatial mapping of human impacts. Furthermore, I tested hypothesis about a positive spatial relationship between human pressure indicators and biodiversity at species and ecosystem/landscape levels. I found a positive spatial coincidence (rs=0.361) of people (measured by human population density and extent of urban areas) and species richness (measured by richness of 10 taxonomic groups of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants). Although aHANPP was not related to species richness, diversity at the landscape level (measured by Shannon landscape diversity index) was significantly negatively related to the intensity of land and ecosystem use (indicated by aHANPP). The hump-shaped relationship is reflecting an intermediate disturbance...
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Soil water regime of reclaimed and unreclaimed post mining heaps
Cejpek, Jiří ; Frouz, Jan (advisor) ; Moldan, Bedřich (referee) ; Tesař, Miroslav (referee)
This PhD thesis compares the water regime of reclaimed and unreclaimed spoil heaps after brown coal mining, with special regard to the development of hydrological properties of soils, which are determinant for the movement and retention of water in the soil. The basic influence on the supply of soil water has the technology of pouring the spoil heaps and aging, which co-regulates the development of vegetation. During the development of soil's spoil heaps increases field water capacity and water retention, but also increases the wilting point. These changes are related to the accumulation of organic matter in the soil and the degradation of claystones to particle size of physical clay. The development of the ability of the spoil heaps soils to bind water is greater in reclaimed areas, where the upper organomineral horizon develops more rapidly, but there is also a wilting point and water consumption. On unreclaimed area, the soil substrate develops more slowly. Overall, the differences in water regime between reclaimed and unreclaimed areas are small.
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The Development of a Housing Sustainability Assessment Tool
Adamec, Jakub ; Janoušková, Svatava (advisor) ; Veselý, Martin (referee) ; Moldan, Bedřich (referee)
Sustainable development is a principal concept for housing, urban infrastructure, energetics, transportation, or business. Fragmentation of concept definition is a result of abusive term overuse by the entire society. In 2015 UNECE established a clear sustainable housing definition through The Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing and its 34 Rationales. The UN encourages its member states to measure progress in sustainable development through existing or newly developed indicators. Existing commercial housing evaluation tools are insufficient for the Geneva UN Charter concept. Initially, the tools measured the so-called greenness of buildings overlooking anthropocentric and social qualities of housing underlined in the UN Geneva Charter. Commercial certification tools heavily reliant on profits often utilize incorrect concepts of sustainability. That results in false sustainability. This work aspires to introduce a transparent housing sustainability assessment tool for the Czech Republic. Firstly, were identified unique phenomena outlining the concept of housing sustainability. To identified phenomena were consequently nominated and assigned appropriate indicators. While in a different situation is housing interpreted as a human environment, building, home, investment, or fundamental human...
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Contribution of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union to the Climate Change Mitigation
Nekvasil, Michal ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Hák, Tomáš (referee) ; Karásek, Jiří (referee)
The main purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the extent to which the Cohesion Policy of the European Union contributes to its climate change mitigation effort. While climate change mitigation and the EU Cohesion Policy have both been theoretically thoroughly studied, it has not been the case of their mutual relation. The objective of this paper is to fill, at least partly, this gap. A specific feature of this research is an analysis of the contribution of the Cohesion Policy to climate change mitigation over a period of 20 years, including a comparison of the three last programming periods (2000-2006, 2007-2013 and 2014-2020). Moreover, the contribution of the Cohesion Policy to climate change mitigation in the EU-28 is compared to the contribution in the Czech Republic. The results of this research suggest that while the beginning of the new millennium saw the Cohesion Policy neglecting the issue of climate change mitigation, the current programming period (2014-2020) placed it among its key priorities. This conclusion is supported by a comprehensive set of data on five selected indicators. Furthermore, this paper displays its results against the perspective of the overall climate change mitigation objectives of the European Union.
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Czech forestry subsides coherence with environmental policy objectives
Kotecký, Vojtěch ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Müller, Karel (referee) ; Fanta, Josef (referee)
1 Vojtěch Kotecký Czech forestry subsides coherence with environmental policy objectives Abstract: Public bodies in the Czech Republic spend on average about CZK 1.2 billion (€ 44 million) a year on subsidy schemes in forestry. Subsidies are an important instrument of public policy; they also have major environmental consequences and may influence ability of forests to contribute towards ecosystem services. Consistency of forestry subsidies with the government's environmental policy goals in the Czech Republic is investigated in this thesis. Almost half of Czech subsidy budget is appropriated to schemes that have got an element of conflict with environmental policy goals incorporated in their design; thus, a range of environmentally harmful subsidies is potentially identified here. However, a number of schemes - and, in 27% of subsidy expenditure, even the same schemes, also contribute towards the same policy objectives. Farmland afforestation payments, contributing to the government's goal of forest expansion but shown in a statistical analysis to be focused primarily on regions with high forest cover, and involving a surplus of Norway spruce with a deficit of both European beech and silver fir, are an illustration of complex nature of forestry subsidies.
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Effect of selected biophysical factors on organisms and their anthropogenic modifications
Bujalský, Luděk ; Frouz, Jan (advisor) ; Šarapatka, Bořivoj (referee) ; Moldan, Bedřich (referee)
Univerzita Karlova, Přírodovědecká fakulta Ústav pro životní prostředí Charles University, Faculty of Science Institute for Environmental Studies Doktorský studijní program: Environmentální vědy Doctoral study programme: Environmental Sciences Autoreferát disertační práce Summary of Doctoral thesis Vliv vybraných biofyzikálních faktorů na organismy a jejich antropogenní modifikace Effects of selected biophysical factors on organisms and their anthropogenic changes Mgr. Luděk Bujalský Školitel: Prof. Mgr. Ing. Jan Frouz, CSc. Supervisor: Prof. Mgr. Ing. Jan Frouz, CSc. Praha, 2019 Abstract The PhD thesis is composed of four articles dealing with biophysical factors affecting the environment of organisms occurring in anthropogenically affected ecosystems. In spite of the apparent diversity of research areas, the basic unifying idea of this work is a concept that leads from individual factors to synthesis, or more precisely, deductions leading to an understanding of local ecosystem processes, but also trying to emphasize, recently a little overlooked in basic science, the concept of a holistic point of view of the functioning of natural phenomena accentuating the importance of the basic view of the world as "interconnected networks". In particular, this viewis a demonstration of a situation where anthropogenic...
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Soil water regime of reclaimed and unreclaimed post mining heaps
Cejpek, Jiří ; Frouz, Jan (advisor) ; Moldan, Bedřich (referee) ; Tesař, Miroslav (referee)
This PhD thesis compares the water regime of reclaimed and unreclaimed spoil heaps after brown coal mining, with special regard to the development of hydrological properties of soils, which are determinant for the movement and retention of water in the soil. The basic influence on the supply of soil water has the technology of pouring the spoil heaps and aging, which co-regulates the development of vegetation. During the development of soil's spoil heaps increases field water capacity and water retention, but also increases the wilting point. These changes are related to the accumulation of organic matter in the soil and the degradation of claystones to particle size of physical clay. The development of the ability of the spoil heaps soils to bind water is greater in reclaimed areas, where the upper organomineral horizon develops more rapidly, but there is also a wilting point and water consumption. On unreclaimed area, the soil substrate develops more slowly. Overall, the differences in water regime between reclaimed and unreclaimed areas are small.
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Contribution of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union to the Climate Change Mitigation
Nekvasil, Michal ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Hák, Tomáš (referee) ; Karásek, Jiří (referee)
The main purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the extent to which the Cohesion Policy of the European Union contributes to its climate change mitigation effort. While climate change mitigation and the EU Cohesion Policy have both been theoretically thoroughly studied, it has not been the case of their mutual relation. The objective of this paper is to fill, at least partly, this gap. A specific feature of this research is an analysis of the contribution of the Cohesion Policy to climate change mitigation over a period of 20 years, including a comparison of the three last programming periods (2000-2006, 2007-2013 and 2014-2020). Moreover, the contribution of the Cohesion Policy to climate change mitigation in the EU-28 is compared to the contribution in the Czech Republic. The results of this research suggest that while the beginning of the new millennium saw the Cohesion Policy neglecting the issue of climate change mitigation, the current programming period (2014-2020) placed it among its key priorities. This conclusion is supported by a comprehensive set of data on five selected indicators. Furthermore, this paper displays its results against the perspective of the overall climate change mitigation objectives of the European Union.
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Obstacles and opportunities for implementation of sustainable development principles in transport in the Czech Republic
Tym, Antonín ; Moldan, Bedřich (advisor) ; Nekola, Martin (referee) ; Pospíšil, Karel (referee)
The main topic of the thesis is actors and their role in the policy change process in the transport policy of the Czech Republic. It is argued that current transport system is not sustainable and the main goal of every transport policy should be sustainable transport. There exist, however, many barriers in achieving more sustainable transport system. Institutional barriers including formal organisations as well as norms and rules and actors seem to be one of the most significant. These actors can influence and change policy. One of the theories explaining how actors can change policy is the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). The ACF suggests that actors form their policy proposals and solutions according to their belief system and create advocacy coalitions in order to pursue their goals and interests. A policy changes when a dominant coalition has been replaced by so far minor coalition representing policy alternatives or when a dominant coalition members change their attitudes towards, or a perception of, a given policy problem (e.g. local transport). Therefore, the main aim of the thesis is to find out how selected actors perceive problems of the transport policy in the Czech Republic and to identify potential advocacy coalitions through analysis of their attitudes. One of the objectives is...
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