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Our new international research projects on climate change adaptation measures
Our team started addressing two international projects in 2023 focusing on hybrid and nature-based measures to reduce damages caused by natural disasters. We concentrate on analyzing barriers to the implementation of these measures and their effectiveness. More about the projects: Horizon Europe LAND4CLIMATE and the Czech-Slovenian project GAČR Lead Agency.
Transport & Mobility group rules!
The IEEP Transport & Mobility group organizes one event after another to present its results on sustainable mobility planning and impacts of COVID-19 pandemict on city transport.
See e.g. certified Guidelines on how to evaluate sustainable mobility or the Model PLUMM aiming at supporting municipal and regional self-governments in planning mobility development.
News are presented on the group web-site Mobilita IEEP or on Facebook Doprava a Mobilita
4th Czechenvithesis.cz final ceremony is approaching
IEEP together with Vodafone, Czech Ministry of the Environment and other partners organizes 4th national competition CzechEnviThesis that seeks for the best bachelor or diploma thesis focused on socio-economic aspects of environmental protection. The final ceremony is held on 1st December 2022 in Usti nad Labem.
Follow the announcement of five finalists and other news on Facebooku.
Our book “Voda ve městě” was successfully crowdfunded!
Our great book Voda ve městě (Water in the City) for municipalities and other investors aiming at sustainable stormwater harvesting was successfully crowdfunded. This is a great opportunity for us to re-pring the enlarged version and organize excursions and debates about this featured topic.
Our Executive Director is back from the Fubright research stay in the USA
Lenka Slavíková successfully finished her Fulbright scholarship. She shared her experiences in the short blog contribution titled Grapes must be crushed to make wine! Inspirative reading for all parents thinking about moving the big family abroad.
Improving society’s resilience to effects of crisis by increasing food self-sufficiency
Promotion of establishment of urban community gardens (CG) to mitigate economic and social impacts of crises.
Community gardens brings numerous benefits for their members not only in the form of crop production or promotion of social relations, as well as other city inhabitants. As a green element in the urban environment, they contribute to improving quality of life by providing ecosystem services, including rainwater runoff regulation, air quality regulation and microclimate cooling. In a broader context, they additionally perform educational, recreational and cultural functions, and are a place for safe meetings in the public space, a venue for cultural events, education for children, etc. From elected municipal representatives’ point of view, they meet goals of climate change adaptation strategies and may contribute to development of neglected or otherwise unused urban land. Promotion of urban CG is thus also beneficial for inhabitants not directly affected by impacts of crises.
The objective of this interdisciplinary project is to identify the potential for reducing negative impacts of crises by establishment of community gardens on municipal land leading to increasing food self-sufficiency of city inhabitants. A survey among community garden members, coordinators as well as city inhabitants and elected municipal representatives will identify benefits of community gardens during the COVID-19 crisis, barriers to establishment of urban CG and most appropriate plots of land, along with checking the demand among inhabitants for involvement in urban agriculture in community gardens. Eventually, we will identify the overall potential for CG establishment by municipalities in order to mitigate negative impacts of economic and social crises on inhabitants.
In this project, the IEEP research team follows up on its previous research dealing with benefits of community gardens and motivations of their members. The findings will be dissemination in collaboration with KOKOZA, o.p.s., and will be used to support establishment of specific urban community gardens in selected cities.
| Funding agency: | Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TL05000718) |
| Duration: | 05/2021 – 12/2023 |
| Contact person: | Jan Macháč, e-mail: machac@ieep.cz |
| Researchers: | Jan Macháč, Lenka Dubová, Marek Hekrle, Jan Vávra |
| In cooperation with: | KOKOZA, o.p.s. (project partner) |
| Project outcomes: | The main project outcome will be a Summary Research Report, presenting benefits of CG during crises, demand for urban CG among inhabitants, supply by municipalities and factors of CG sustainability, providing recommendations for elimination barriers to CG establishment, and presenting a procedure for identifying suitable sites for CG establishment in Czech cities. |
Rainwater management in households: economic incentives, barriers and motivations
Why Czech households do (not) use rainwater? What are the effective positive and negative incentives for more intensive rainwater management?
Changes in hydrological regime and their impacts, such as droughts and flashfloods, require changes in rainwater management. Households are important parts of the story. Retained rainwater can be replace part of the drinking water uses, such as garden irrigation, flushing toilets, etc. The project aims at capturing household preferences towards rainwater management – this is done through repeated representative surveys, so we can compare differences in preferences in time. Also, impacts of economic instruments of the public policy are evaluated in this area.
We cooperate with STEM and Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University Prague.
| Funding Agency: | TAČR, SMART-ITI |
| Duration: | 2017 – 2023 |
| Contact Person: | Lenka Slavíková, e-mail: slavikova@ieep.cz, lenka.slavikova@ujep.cz |
| Researchers: | Lenka Slavíková, Jan Macháč |
STRIMAII: Saxon-Czech Flood Risk Management II
Vulnerability to floods, nature-based measures and importance of small water bodies
A series of three studies and leaflets dedicated to different aspects of floods, solved by the project Saxon-Czech Flood Risk Management II, funded by the European Union via the European Regional Development Fund. For more information about STRIMA II, click zde.
Vulnerability
Globally, floods are among the most serious natural dangers, which is why we need to focus on reducing their impacts. However, that requires both detailed understanding of their different aspects and grasping their complex nature. Vulnerability belongs among the key terms in flood risk management. The degree of vulnerability is determined separately for the population and for different types of structures or activities, for example. Vulnerability is described in detail in the leaflet and the study.
Bibliographic reference: Raška, P. et al. (2018). Vulnerability to floods: Information material on flood vulnerability assessment for public administration and private entities (Zranitelnost povodněmi: Informační materiál k hodnocení zranitelnosti povodněmi pro veřejnou správu a soukromé subjekty). J. E. Purkyně University in Usti nad Labem
For download:
Information leaflet: What is flood vulnerability? Summary for public administratrion and private entities (English version)
Information leaflet: Wie ist Verletzbarkeit durch Hochwasser zu verstehen? (German version)
Nature-based flood protection measures
Nature-based flood protection measures are implemented in landscape, on watercourses or in human settlements and make use of green and blue infrastructure. In addition to these functions, they often provide many more benefits for ecosystems (such as soil protection from erosion). Measures implemented to protect from floods include polders, pools and baulks. Their function with regard to floods consists in capturing water in landscape, slowing down its progress and capturing torrential rains and resulting flood waves. The outcomes focus primarily on economic aspects (costs and benefits) and on ecosystem services provided.
Bibliographic reference: Macháč, J. et al. (2018). Classification and evaluation of nature-based flood protection measures in selected environmental public goods (Klasifikace a hodnocení přírodě blízkých protipovodňových opatření na vybraných veřejných statcích životního prostředí). J. E. Purkyně University in Usti nad Labem
For download:
Information leaflet: Nature-based flood protection solutions and their benefits (English version)
Information leaflet: Was versteht man unter naturnahen Hochwasserschutzmaßnahmen? (German version)
Small water bodies in landscape: their functions and barriers to their construction
Drought periods as well as torrential rains require a change in water source management. One possible strategy is to improve the ability to retain precipitation as close as possible to its place of impact, thus slowing water runoff from the catchment area. Solutions include establishment of small water bodies in landscape, specifically various types of pools, systems of pools and wetland ecosystems. The advantage is that some of them do not need to be permanently filled with water and they have no technical outflow controls, and they simultaneously perform a number of interconnected functions in the landscape. However, their implementation is associated with possible barriers, such as ownership relations in the area and insufficient funding sources. See the study and the leaflet for more information.
Bibliographic reference: Slavíková, L. et al. (2019). Small water bodies in landscape as a comprehensive tool for water retention in catchment areas: Institutional analysis results (Drobné vodní plochy v krajině jako komplexní nástroj k retenci vody v ploše povodí. Výsledky institucionální analýzy). J. E. Purkyně University in Usti nad Labem
For download:
Information leaflet: Small water bodies in landscape: their functions and barriers to their construction (English version)
Information leaflet: Kleinwasserflächen in der Landschaft: ihre Funktion und Hindernisse bei der Errichtung (German version)
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High-featured papers published in 2020
IEEP members has published papers in high featured research journals: