<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper deals with the evaluation of the effectiveness of the construction of high-speed rails/HSR in the Czech Republic with an emphasis on the perception of their potential impact on labour market integration. The introductory part analyses the position of the main Central European metropolises in the HSR network as a tool for transnational integration, where the leading position of German and Swiss metropolises was confirmed. The main goal of the paper is assessing the impact of HSR construction projects on the work attractiveness of Czech metropolitan regions using the model of marginal rate of labour mobility model determined by the ratio of income and cost increases (including variant scenarios of lost time costs as negative externality). Its application combines economic and geographic analysis and thus contributes to the integration of space and time into economic theory. The performed analyses demonstrate the most significant positive impacts of the construction of HSR on the work attractiveness of Prague, followed by Brno. Regarding the adequate effects of the operating speed, it is possible to evaluate them as secondary due to the small distances of the affected residential centres. Overall, we expect that the implementation of the discussed projects will not have a significant impact on the labour mobility of the population and it is therefore necessary to pay attention to their other benefits.</abstract>

Evaluation of the effectiveness of high-speed rail projects in the Czech Republic in terms integration potential

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">People in urban and peri-urban areas enjoy better physical access to health facilities compared to those living in rural area. However, healthier natural environment is commonly absent in urban and its adjoining peri-urban areas. Premising on the competitiveness of health determinants outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), this study has embarked upon comparing healthiness of different communities in a region as well as to ascertain the factor(s) regulating their healthiness related outcome. Relying on presurveyed 1397 household data spreading over an urban, two peri-urban, and eight rural localities in Mymensingh region, Bangladesh, the study has evaluated the communities’ healthiness in views of both the conventional perspective and using a set of health determinants. Illness and disease manifestation as well as socio-economic status of the households were analyzed statistically to get communities’ overall healthiness scenario. Later, comparison among the communities and contribution of different indicators were sought using a combined score index. In this study’s context, it has been found that urban is healthier than rural followed by peri-urban community. Here, rural areas lack education the most that should be improved; peri-urban areas need better income opportunity; and urban area requires better water-supply and waste management facilities to improve their respective health status in a community sense. There is not a commonly accepted health metrics for community’s comprehensive health assessment toward which this study sets a pathway. Besides, using the combined health index developed here, specific interventions required to improve community’s healthiness and minimize the gap among them can easily be identified.</abstract>

Comparing healthiness across urban, peri-urban, and rural communities in Mymensingh region of Bangladesh

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We aim to describe and explain current differences in the rate of corporate philanthropy (CP) at microregional level. Primary research question is to what extent are microregional patterns of CP affected by determinants at firm and industry-level (firm size, industrial structure, profitability) and to what extent are they shaped by regional contextual factors. Measurement of CP was based on anonymized firm-level data provided by the Ministry of Finance, aggregated at the level of municipalities with extended powers (microregions). We employed a regression model to test the effects of population density, economic performance, specialization, dependence of manufacturing, firm size, traditional values and social capital. Surprisingly, we found no significant effects of firm size and industrial structure on regional CP. Firm’s profitability was the most important predictor. We found also positive effects of population density and religiosity and negative relationship between CP and regional economic performance. Despite initial expectations higher rate of CP was not found in rural regions.</abstract>

Microregional patterns of corporate philanthropy: the role of economic structure and regional determinants

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Although private or community initiatives for biodiversity conservation (such as land trusts) have a strong tradition in many countries, rigorous evidence of recently evolved movements in post-socialist countries is missing. This study describes the evolution of Czech land trust movement and analyses their representatives’ motivation for engagement in biodiversity conservation. It also investigates the intensity of interaction among public and land trust conservation efforts. For this purpose, we identified localities in which the territory managed by Czech land trusts overlaps with small-scale public nature reserves managed by regional governments. We conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews with representatives of all NGOs and regional officials in-charge. Our qualitative analysis revealed that some regional biodiversity conservation officials see land trusts as partners, but others are rather indifferent to, or uninformed about, their activities. Additionally, land trust representatives see themselves as complementing the public effort: their main motivation for engagement is to facilitate biodiversity conservation in addition to the public provision.</abstract>

J. E. Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem

Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)

Public and community conservation of biodiversity—rivalry or cooperation?

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Socio-ecological hazards are processes that − depending on the vulnerability of societal systems − may have profound adverse impacts. For this reason, the current discourse in disaster risk reduction (DRR) has been experiencing a shift toward a vulnerability-led paradigm, raising new questions about how to address (i) the complexity of vulnerabilities to multiple hazards, (ii) their cultural, dynamic, and subjective character, and (iii) the effectiveness and legitimacy of vulnerability assessments as decision-support tools. In this paper, we present a review of 707 vulnerability studies (derived from the Clarivate WoS database; 1988−2018) with a particular focus on urban settings and spatially explicit assessments in order to evaluate current efforts to meet the aforementioned issues. The reviewed studies assessed vulnerabilities to 35 hazard types that were predominantly (n=603, 85%) analysed as single hazards (mostly seismic, flood, and groundwater contamination hazards, as well as climate change), whereas only 15% (n=104) of studies focused on multiple hazards (mostly atmospheric hazards). Within the spatially explicit vulnerability studies, almost 60% used data collected by the study itself (mostly seismic hazards), while statistical and combined data were both employed in 20% of cases (mostly floods, climate change, and social and political hazards). Statistical data were found to have only limited transferability, often being generalised to be applicable in small-scale studies, while reducing the role of cultural and contextual factors. Field research data provided high-resolution information, but their acquisition is time-consuming, and therefore fixed at a local scale and single temporal stage. Underlying hazard types and suitable data sources resulting in other differences found a preference towards the specific coverage and resolution of vulnerability maps that appeared in 44% of all reviewed studies. Altogether, the differences we found indicated a division of spatially explicit vulnerability research in two major directions: (i) geological and geomorphological studies focusing on physical vulnerability, using their own data surveys at a detailed scale and lacking links to other hazards, and (ii) other studies (mostly atmospheric hazards and socialpolitical hazards) focusing on social or combined vulnerabilities, using primarily statistical or combined data at a municipal, regional, and country scale with occasional efforts to integrate multiple hazards. Finally, although cartographic representations have become a frequent component of vulnerability studies, our review found only vague rationalisations for the presentation of maps, and a lack of guidelines for the interpretation of uncertainties and the use of maps as decision-support tools.</abstract>

Department of Geography, Faculty of Science

J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem

Department of Geoinformatics, Faculty of Environment

Review of current approaches to spatially explicit urban vulnerability assessments: hazard complexity, data sources, and cartographic representations

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">As satellite data of the Earth surface seems to be of vital importance for many applications, classification of land use and land cover has been found to vary dramatically in different approaches. In this paper, modified classification algorithm of remote sensing data is presented for processing medium and high spatial resolution satellite images like Landsat and Sentinel in Tashkent province of Uzbekistan. The results of NDVI (Normalized difference vegetation index) profile analysis via Spectral Correlation Mapper classification are shown for the period 1994-2017. It is implied, that combination of optical and radar data with application of Spectral Correlation Mapper classification improve the results of classification for a specific dataset by considering such factors as overall classification accuracy and time and labor involved.</abstract>

Multi-temporal monitoring of cotton growth through the vegetation profile classification for Tashkent province, Uzbekistan

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Sustainability is part of the scientific mainstream; in the following paper we connect it with the phenomenon of happiness, which is becoming a discussed concept not only among researchers but also amongst public. This is due to the fact that today’s society has become a consumer society. This knowledge has provoked criticism of the prevailing lifestyle. The unprecedented growth of prosperity in the second half of the last century and at the beginning of the 21st century was achieved at the cost of environmental devastation. This presented the urgent question of how to improve the quality of life or bring happiness to a growing number of people. At the same time, efforts to replace GDP as a general measure of development with quality of life began to grow. In connection with happiness, it is important that it is defined in two ways: hedonic or eudaimonic. The aim of the paper is to find out which form of happiness is sustainable on the basis of the analysis of relevant works. Happiness is understood as part of the subjective dimension of quality of life, it represents the highest level of well-being. The combination of sustainability and quality of life or happiness is not new, some authors consider quality of life as the fourth pillar of sustainability. A key criterion for assessing which happiness is sustainable and which is not is the following assumption: <italic>The happiness of us – contemporaries − cannot be achieved at the expense of future generations.</italic> The knowledge-which of the forms is sustainable - is the result of the analysis of both forms of happiness.</abstract>

Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra

Linking sustainability and happiness. What kind of happiness?

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 17 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 17 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 16 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 16 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 15 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 15 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 14 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 14 (2020): Issue 1 (June 2020)

Volume 13 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 13 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Volume 12 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 12 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 11 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 11 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 10 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 10 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 9 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 9 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 8 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 8 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

GeoScape

The journal was established in 2006 strictly following the Open-Access policy. Its editorial board makes its best to protect the journal’s status as a non-profit publication platform free of any APC (Article Processing Charge). It is also for this reason that the journal is published only in electronic form. Volumes preceding 2014 can be found at lsru.geography.ujep.cz/research.html  The journal focuses on landscape and territorial research in its broadest meaning. It addresses the territorial organization of society and environment from the perspective of various hierarchic levels, functional and developmental dimensions, and their mutual relations. The aim of the journal is to establish a common platform for the publication of research on ecological and environmental issues, social dimension of sustainability, economic geography and regional development, cross-border cooperation and political strategies influencing the landscape, spatial planning, regional development, and policies at different scales. The interdisciplinarity is strongly encouraged.  In all its content the journal accentuates the practical implications of the research for public administration, planning, and regional development. Therefore, ideally, the papers discuss the relevance of the methodical procedures and of the results for the respective fields.  Submission and peer-review process  The journal welcomes papers that suite one of the following categories: original papers, research reports and discussion papers (see author guidelines for details). The journal also publishes Special Issues or papers grouped around particular themes (Thematic papers). The publication of Special and Thematic Issues is subject to approval of the editorial board based on evaluation procedure of the submitted proposals. Papers prepared according to the Instructions for Authors should be submitted directly to the Managing Editor (pavel.raska[at]ujep.cz).  All manuscripts are subject to initial evaluation by editorial board (Editor-in-chief, Managing Editor, and potential handling Editor). After the positive initial evaluation, the manuscript proceeds to double-blind peer-review.  Why subscribe and read　  The journal addresses researchers in geographical and environmental fields, professionals as well as decision makers in social sciences and regional development, planning, public administration, and policy. It provides up-to-date research results together with discussion of its implications for the respective fields.　  Why submit    International audience  Open-access policy  Rapid peer-review process  Practical implications of research results   Rejection Rate　    30−40 %   Copyright and Open-Access Policy  All papers are published as gold Open-Access (the non-commercial use of the article governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license) without incurring any APC to the authors. The Open-Access Policy is detailed in an Open-Access Licence in the For Authors section.   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 