Aleš Ruda

Geocomputation and Spatial Modelling for Geographical Drought Risk Assessment: A Case Study of the Hustopeče Area, Czech Republic

The phenomenon of drought is serious in many landscapes with continental patterns of climate. In fact, drought risk is usually assessed in terms of prevailing issue (meteorological, hydrological, agronomical, etc.) and not in terms of complex landscape features. A procedure for detailed geographical drought risk modelling has been developed using recent meteorological data of dry period and prior precipitations, as well as a digital elevation model and geographic data layers of natural landscape features and land cover. The current version of the procedure starts with meteorological data (temperature and precipitation) processing followed by the use of soil and geological data and land cover, the national CORINE LC 2006 CZ database, for assessing the impact of the local natural features on drought risk. The methodology is based on GIS tools, geodata of the geological structure of the area (water holding capacity of the substrate, the horizontal and vertical water conductivity), soil cover (in agricultural and forested areas, soil types and kinds), landscape cover (land use), relief (digital elevation model and its derivatives), temperature and precipitation data from neighbouring representative meteorological and climate stations. The procedure uses regression equation for temperature and precipitation risk modelling, fuzzy standardization for estimation of different water retention within land cover categories and expert estimation for risk categories within rocks and soils. The final calculation is based on spatial decision-making techniques, especially the weighted sum method with a natural breaks reclassification algorithm. Combining geodata of soils, the geological environment and the active surface with their computed humidity conditions, it is possible to identify areas with a graded risk of geographic drought. The final results do not represent partial values, but identify five risk classes in the study area illustrating a possible level of geographical drought risk.

Cartographic visualization of outputs for spatial decision-making in regional development

Regional development is full of planning and decision making. Having precise results for spatial decision making (SDM) is more than necessary. On one site, there are many approaches how to process input data, on the other hand thematic cartography also operates with many visualizing methods and techniques. Loss of accuracy of the results is more than expected because there are two phases (data processing during SDM and cartographic visualization) where the accuracy might be distorted. In both phases processing recommendations must be obeyed. Selection of spatial decision making method must follow considered aims as well as visualization techniques and setting their parameters (especially during reclassification, interpolation or generalization). Paper deals with the proposal of elementary scheme of SDM and related visualization during two case studies (CS). First CS represents composite indicators proposal followed by weighted sum method using heuristics approaches with the aim to identify the tourism inf...

Delineation of post-industrial landscapes of the Upper Silesian corridor in the Basin of Ostrava

Abstract The post-industrial landscapes represent a legacy of the industrial revolution. There have been gradually formed numerous enterprises of various industry branches on the territory between Czech-Polish border in the North and Moravian-Silesian Beskydes Mts. (a part of Carpathians) in the South (the western border follows the foothills of Hercynian Bohemian Highlands). In the given study, there are demonstrated examples of the post-industrial landscape in the concerned area of Ostrava, which is a part of the so called Upper Silesian industrial corridor that is intensively linking industrialized region of Upper Silesia in Poland and the Czech Republic with other developed regions of Europe to southwest through the Moravian Gate to the Danube region. This paper demonstrates the procedure for defining the post-industrial landscapes in general, their classification and standardization using the available data sources and GIS technology. For the processing the data of the deployment of brownfields, contaminated sites, industrial constructions of architectural heritage, mining points and areas, human made landforms, industrial and landfill sites etc. were used. They document the genesis, the territorial shape and the geographic position of the post-industrial landscape in the study region. In the concerned area of Ostrava four “rural” post-industrial landscapes were identified and classified into three different genetic types. This paper also presents a methodology for identifying, mapping and classification of post-industrial landscapes on the basis of publicly available and state-managed databases.

GIS-Assisted Prediction and Risk Zonation of Wildlife Attacks in the Chitwan National Park in Nepal

Population growth forces the human community to expand into the natural habitats of wild animals. Their efforts to use natural sources often collide with wildlife attacks. These animals do not only protect their natural environment, but in the face of losing the potential food sources, they also penetrate in human settlements. The research was situated in the Chitwan National Park (CNP) in Nepal, and the aim of this study was to investigate possible geospatial connections between attacks of all kinds of animals on humans in the CNP and its surroundings between 2003 and 2013. The patterns of attacks were significantly uneven across the months, and 89% of attacks occurred outside the park. In total, 74% attacks occurred in the buffer zone forests and croplands within 1 km from the park. There was a strong positive correlation among the number of victims for all attacking animals with a maximum of one victim per 4 km2, except elephant and wild boar. The density of bear victims was higher where the tiger and rhino victims were lower, e.g., in the Madi valley. The data collected during this period did not show any signs of spatial autocorrelation. The calculated magnitude per unit area using the kernel density, together with purpose-defined land use groups, were used to determine five risk zones of wildlife attacks. In conclusion, it was found that the riskiest areas were locations near the forest that were covered by agricultural land and inhabited by humans. Our research results can support any local spatial decision-making processes for improving the co-existence of natural protection in the park and the safety of human communities living in its vicinity.

Spatial decision support using data geo-visualization: the example of the conflict between landscape protection and tourism development

ABSTRACT Urban areas and regions with significant natural features, scenery or cultural heritage have become the most popular sites for tourist destinations. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts to preserve the natural environment before uncontrolled tourist infrastructure spreads. But the real situation is not clear. As the scale of tourism grows, resources become more unsustainable. A destination with a damaged environment loses its attraction and this causes an increase in the building of new tourist destinations. But the solution is not in closing areas for visitors but in finding the right level of tourist load, because money coming from tourism may help to keep the landscape sustainable. This paper shows one way of how to assess and visualize conflicts between landscape protection and sustainable tourism development for decision-makers in municipalities. On the example of the Nízký Jeseník Highlands, composite indicators dealing with specific environmental value, tourism potential and tourism infrastructure load have been proposed. Using a linear regression between most correlated data sets specific areas of different conflicts with tourism were identified and proposed for further development.

The Use of Real and Fictitious Surfaces for Territorial Distribution Assessment of Given Geographic Phenomenon

Considering the usability of real or fictitious surfaces, we analyze their formation both in terms of purpose and input data. Relief is understood as a major distribution factor of processes in the landscape. This concept is related to both continuous (e.g. air temperature, rainfall) and a discrete (various forms of land use) phenomena. While at continuous phenomena simulated surfaces of terrain distributed phenomena respect the configuration of the relief directly, simulated surfaces reflect rather discrete phenomena. Although largely shaped by terrain they differ from the relief itself, not regarding their different nature. A paper discusses within physical and human geography the issue of raster surfaces making. In case of real surfaces, authors use for calculation known regression dependences of air temperature and precipitation on various relief parameters regarding deeper intention of drought risk assessment. This serves as an evidence of dependences of given parameters on digital elevation model which results in higher accuracy opposite to fictitious surfaces generated using spatial analyst or statistic. On the example of Focal Statistic tool (Neighborhood Statistic) and IDW interpolation method differences towards the real state (e.g. concentric shapes in IDW generated surfaces) and too smoothed and generalized areas (using different size of moving window) are described and discussed. When defining the areas of post-industrial landscape authors came to the conclusion that not very often recommended IDW interpolation does not make so big inaccuracies as compared with Focal Statistic tool.

Jihlava – Třebíč – Raabs Cycle Path: The Challenge of RegionDevelopment

Před několika desetiletimi sloužilo kolo pouze jako dopravni prostředek z jednoho mista na druhe. Na trhu se vsak zacala objevovat kola různých znacek a pro různe tereny, cimž se kolo pro cast populace stalo jejich zajmem. Po dlouha leta nebyl rozvoj cyklistiky přilis financně podporovan, až postupný narůst poctu aut ve městech vyvolal nezbytný rozvoj budovani potřebne infrastruktury. Cykloturismus je v Cesku zatim mlada forma udržitelneho cestovniho ruchu, ktera se stale vyviji a s ni se rozviji take budovani potřebneho zazemi. Postupně se tak objevila cela řada projektů financovaných převažně z fondů Evropske unie. Ne vždy vsak byly financni prostředky vynaloženy ucelně. Jednou z novějsich investic je take cyklostezka Jihlava – Třebic – Raabs, ktera v kraji Vysocina vyplňuje uzemi s nejnižsi hustotou cyklostezek v CR. Předkladaný přispěvek sleduje dvě roviny. Mapuje jak zajem turistů o cykloturistiku, tak hodnoti opravněne vynaloženi financnich prostředků ve vztahu k výstavbě a funkci zmiňovane cyklostezky.