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Environmental and ecological determinants of urban bird community structure
Ferenc, Michal ; Sedláček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Lososová, Zdeňka (referee) ; Tryjanowski, Piotr (referee)
The urban environment has attracted much scientific attention as it stands at the core of environmental changes caused by the growing human population. The responses of bird communities to urbanization have been especially frequently studied. Despite the intensive research, there are several unresolved questions resonating in the field of urban ecology of birds: i) Are cities ordinary components of the original environment with the same macroecological bird diversity patterns as can be observed in the surrounding environment or do they have some specific impacts on native avifaunas? ii) Which traits are characteristic for species being able to persist in cities and for those avoiding urban areas? iii) How does the impact of the most important factors influencing urban bird communities - area, habitat heterogeneity and spatial position - change with spatial scale? Towards answering these questions, data on breeding bird communities were extracted from 41 European urban bird atlases, avifaunas of regions in which cities are embedded were retrieved from the EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds. Finer scale bird community data were obtained from the atlas of Prague and by point counts conducted in Prague. Data on bird traits were collated from published resources and additional environmental and...
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"The Living Landscape" Project - Czech Perspective
VEBER, Tomáš
This thesis deals with the phenomenon of ecological recovery of ecotone backyard, a specific phenomenon in rural areas of the Czech Republic, focusing on the one hand synchronously, partly diachronic. Theoretically, based on the scientific literature discusses the topic first as a phenomenon in itself, then focuses on the description of the possibilities that may be related to the maintenance or revitalization of the ecotone recover or regain, both in the dimension of eco-environmentalist, and in the dimension of socio-ethnographic.
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Discussion of research priorities of socio-economic determinants of obesity
Voglová, Daniela ; Háva, Petr (advisor) ; Kružík, Lubomír (referee)
This work follows the studies focused on obesity, its global extent and its serious health and economic impact. At the same time, the work examines the unsuccessful fight of public policies which try to reverse growing prevalence of obesity. Nevertheless, the main goal of the thesis is a discussion about priorities of new orientation in the research on the causes of the obesity epidemic and effectiveness of precautions that were taken in many countries and international organizations with the main aim to stop the obesity and its consequences. The discussion leads to the more detailed description of the problems connected with obesity, for instance, environmental aspects, housing culture in relation to physical activities, lifestyle in relation to advertisement/marketing, psychological and socio- psychological aspects, combating stress, etc. My intention was to find out utility of contemporary research on obesity for setting of policy fighting against obesity. At the same time, I wanted to find out other possible directions in the research into this field and discover how the discussion about priorities of the research in the experimental community proceeds. Two international dimensions of paradigmatic approaches separated to the certain degree can be considered as relevant with regard to the global...
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Impact of urbanization on streams habitat quality
Stádníková, Monika ; Matoušková, Milada (advisor) ; Králová, Magdalena (referee)
Increased impervious cover associated with urbanization alters the natural cycling of water. Changes in the shape and size of urban streams, followed by decreased water quality, are the most visible effects of increased imperviousness. Greater frequency and severity of flooding, channel erosion and destruction of aquatic habitat commonly follow watershed urbanization. Alterations in the aquatic environment associated with these hydrological changes greatly compromise the normal functioning of waterways.
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Impact of urban sprawl on the environment and analysis of soil sealing along the D5 highway
Keprta, Antonín ; Chuman, Tomáš (advisor) ; Šefrna, Luděk (referee)
Sub/urbanization is one of the major factors affecting the environment. Moving population and economic activities to suburb isn't always an idyllic process, but often brings many difficulties. Impacts on the natural environment are often enormous. Degradation of air quality and water quality, soil sealing and soil degradation etc. are just some of the impacts of urban sprawl on the environment. Among others include homogenization of biota, landscape fragmentation, introduction of alien species, or light and noise pollution. Pressure on the agricultural land is made by large appropriation of land and through impervious surfaces. The study evaluates the appropriation of land along the D5 highway with areas of commercial sub/urbanization. Traffic routes through the perfect time availability are the places with the greatest concentration of commercial areas today. The study showed that new commercial areas are built on the most fertile soils. Therefore the question is whether the protection of soils in the Czech Republic is sufficient. Unfinished and often missing plans of territory make often the situation even worse. Keywords: sub/urbanization, urban sprawl, pollution, soil sealing, soil protection
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Strangers at home: In Search of Indigenous Identity at the Suburbs of a Glocal Mexican City
Heřmanová, Marie ; Haluzík, Radovan (advisor) ; Ezzeddine, Petra (referee)
of diploma thesis Title: Strangers at home - In Search of Indigenous Identity at the Suburbs of a Glocal Mexican City Student: Marie Heřmanová Tutor: Mgr. Radovan Haluzík The presented thesis is based on a fieldwork realized during five months in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas in south of Mexico and deals with different strategies through which are young Tzotziles and Tzeltales living in the new suburbs of the old colonial city constructing their identity. Main axes of the thesis are first the relationship of these young people to the native communities of their parents and second to the rich and turistic city centre. As a main ethnographic method I use participant observation and also the material culture studies ( the tesis focus mostly on identification through visage and consequently on the consitution of identity through styles and modes of dressing).
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Assessment of Policy Changes of the Impacts of Urbanization, Economic Growth and Decentralization of Water Services with Regard to Water Quality in Mexico
Lara Cervantes, René Fernando ; Šauer, Petr (advisor) ; Dvořák, Antonín (referee) ; Hájek, Miroslav (referee)
The thesis studies the case of water quality in Mexico as a crucial factor to prevent water scarcity. This is an important issue for Mexico since more than half of its territory is arid or semi-arid; moreover, the most productive regions are located in areas with significant water resources stress. In this regard, the current situation of water scarcity is studied from the changes in water management derived from the evolution of institutions in the country. The institutional changes were analyzed mostly in the transition from a centralized water supply and sanitation services with strong state intervention to the decentralization of such services that were transferred to municipalities. Decentralization was addressed by analyzing the performance of water supply and sanitation services in urban areas that are expected to continue growing in the near future. The literature shows that the decentralization process has been partial and has not improved as expected the performance of water supply and sanitation services, moreover, due to political reasons, limited human and financial resources it introduced more challenges to the accomplishment of sustainable water management. More importantly, the federal government is still the main agent for the development of the water sector in Mexico. The next part of the analysis consist of a quantitative and qualitative evaluation regarding water quality for the three most productive Hydrological-Administrative Regions (HARs) of Mexico in the period of 2003-2013. The HARs chosen are the HAR VI Río Bravo, HAR VIII Lerma Santiago Pacific and HAR XIII Waters of the Valley of Mexico which are very similar in terms GDP share and water stress degree. Through OLS regression models for each HAR the impacts of demographic, economic, water supply and sanitation services aspects were tested to known their effects on water quality. In order to improve the discussion of the results, additional to the comparison with the results of the literature review, three experts were asked to answer a questionnaire about the regressions outcome. The discussion showed different impacts of the independent variables in the dependent variable of each HAR, sometimes leading to unexpected results. The main conclusions of the thesis relate to the improvement of decentralization of water and sanitation services, to the need to improve data for future analyses and pay more attention to water quality issues. In this regard, decentralization requires to consider contextual differences in order to seize its advantages to improve the performances of water supply and sanitation services, moreover, at the operative level water management decisions must be taken without political interests involved. The statistical analyses stressed the need to develop more reliable data about water management issues to improve the understanding of factors that could potentially affect water quality. In this regard, the creation of useful statistical indicators to assess the evolution towards sustainability in water management. The considerations for future research must consider more seriously water quality issues. This topic has been often ignored, however, it is crucial for water scarcity abatement.
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Urbanization in China: Sustainability of Chinese Cities
Králíková, Petra ; Stuchlíková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Neumann, Pavel (referee)
The aim of the master thesis is to characterize development trends of Chinese urbanization since the establishment of People´s Republic of China until today, approaches to these trends and evaluate their sustainability. Thesis includes four main parts. The first part introduces main urbanization theories: Stages of Urban Development, Differential Urbanization, and Environmental Kuznets Curve. The second part characterizes the development of Chinese urbanization, defines two main determinants of the future development and tries to cover different potential future scenarios. The third part deals with Chinese urban policies, such as five-year-plans, Urbanization plan and reforms. After that, the sustainability issue is evaluated. Last part of the thesis deals with urbanization trends and policies in Chongqing municipality.
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Transformation of suburban villages
Ferenc, Jonáš ; Kyselka, Mojmír (referee) ; Šilhánková, Vladimíra (referee) ; Balabánová, Pavla (referee) ; Koutný, Jan (advisor)
The thesis discusses suburban villages (and, indirectly, also villages that are even further away from urban areas), their current character, and their changes over the course of history. Most Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian municipalities struggle with persistent issues, such as the decline of their primarily agrarian function (and the unattractiveness of this lifestyle for the younger generations), changes in demographic composition (the exodus of natives to cities, and their replacement by “weekenders“), the lower purchase power of rural areas (due to lower wages in agriculture and the lack of other job opportunities), insufficient traffic infrastructure, unclear property relations, the loss of their own identity due to the closeness of a core city, and uncontrolled suburbanisation which transforms both villages and their environment. The end effects of these issues are depopulation of rural areas, ageing of current inhabitants and unfavourable prospects for the future. On the other hand, the situation in neighbouring Bavaria seems to be the exact opposite. Bavaria hasn't experienced collectivisation, and a communist dictatorship hasn't cut the ties of local inhabitants towards their lands and properties which have been in their families for centuries. Many issues encountered in the Czech Republic are therefore unknown here, and villages that happen to be near urban areas tend to grow in a natural way while retaining their original rural and local identities. The superior infrastructure network enables better mobility of the populace, which allows the people to commute longer distances. However, they can still spend their time in their actual place of residence, and they often proudly consider themselves a part of the local social life and of the local community – not of the core city. Therefore the goal of the thesis is to compare Czech and Bavarian villages in terms of sustainable development, using specific examples, to analyse which elements are better in which system, and to compare whether it is possible to apply the principles of sustainability which are used in Bavaria to the sustainable development of Czech countryside.
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