David Vačkář

Assessing impact of land use and climate change on regulating ecosystem services in the Czech Republic

Abstract Ecosystem services, defined as benefits provided by ecosystem functioning to society, are essential to human well‐being. Due to global environmental change and related anthropogenic drivers, ecosystems are often degraded, which hinders the delivery of ecosystem services. This study aims to quantify the impacts of land use and climate change on two regulating ecosystem services—carbon sequestration and water purification in terms of nitrogen retention in the Czech Republic. While employing approaches of scenarios and modeling, we illustrate current and potential future status of these ecosystem services. Our results show that among the ecosystem change drivers, one of the dominant domestic land‐use change of (Business‐As‐Might‐Be‐Usual) scenario is change of arable land and grassland to forest area that increases by 4.5% in 2080 compared to 2000. The results of ecosystem service modeling based on scenario for the years 2050 and 2080 indicate that the highest yearly carbon sequestration rate occurred in 2000–2050, reaching 640 GgC·yr−1, 2000–2080 shows decline in this regulating service by 16%. Average nitrogen leaching to water streams reached 0.75 kgN·ha−1·yr−1 for in 2050 scenario and 0.80 kgN·ha−1·yr−1 for in 2080 scenario as a result of decreasing nitrogen load, which suggested a decrease in nitrogen pollution compared to 2000. Since ecosystem services have not been extensively mainstreamed into research and policies in eastern European countries, we aim to contribute to improvement of knowledge on current status and potential future pathways of the provision of regulating ecosystem services in the Czech Republic.

A spatial analysis of integrated risk: vulnerability of ecosystem services provisioning to different hazards in the Czech Republic

Ecosystem services are important to maintain the human well-being. However, their provisioning has been under the increasing pressure from both natural and socio-economic changes. This paper aims to assess the most significant hazards, such as water quality, nitrogen deposition, erosion, floods, invasive species, urbanisation and contaminated sites affecting delivery of ecosystem services in the Czech Republic. Using the multi-hazard assessment, the integrated risk index for ecosystem service provisioning was proposed. The spatial analysis based on this approach was then applied to the Czech Republic as a case study. The results showed that about 48% of the area falls into the very low risk category followed by 30%, 21%, and 1% for low, medium and high categories, respectively. Forest and wetland ecosystems were estimated to have the highest proportion of their total area among the highest risk values. Moreover, we found that the national parks appeared to have the highest proportion of medium- and high-risk classes among the natural areas. The approach presented in this study should aggregate the existing knowledge on ecosystem services and hazards and thus monitor the integrated risk. The results are intended to help with various planning and management decisions at both the national and regional levels and to bring more attention on the most problematic hot-spots.

The Diversity of Adaptation in a Multilevel Governance Setting

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of climate change adaptation across Europe, from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on key findings from case study-based research on local climate change impacts and adaptation solutions, including an analysis of participatory, economic, and sociopolitical approaches, methodologies, and tools. Structured in six sections, the chapter builds upon a set of analytical discussions regarding: the diversity of climate change impacts and adaptation solutions at the local level; the role of participatory methods and approaches; the results of economic evaluation methods and models applied to local case studies; a framework for identifying best practices and characterizing the key barriers and opportunities for implementing local strategies and plans; and a set of robust guidelines and evaluation criteria for climate change adaptation measures. Key findings highlight the intricacies of local-level adaptation utilizing robust examples from case studies across European regions, and provide a comprehensive analysis of local strategies and plans, from a multilevel, multiactor, and multiscale perspective. The chapter also discusses and presents a set of methodological approaches that can be applied to facilitate local-level adaptation while also providing an analytical framework for comparing and evaluating local climate change adaptation.

Economic value of ecosystem services in Protected Landscape Areas in the Czech Republic

Daněk J., Vačkář D., Krkoška Lorencová E. 2017: Value of ecosystem services in Protected Landscape Areas in the Czech Republic – Beskydy, 10 (1, 2): 99–112 This study aims to explore spatially explicit economic values of ecosystem services provided by ecosystems and habitats in 25 Protected Landscape Areas (PLAs) in the Czech Republic, with a more detailed overview of three selected PLAs (Beskids Mountains, Český les Mountains and Odra River Basin). In the methodology, combination of the Consolidated Layer of Ecosystems of the Czech Republic (CLES) and the EKOSERV database allowed us to utilize the ecosystem and economic valuation data in a specific geographic context using a GIS-based approach. The total value of ecosystem services in all 25 PLAs reached € 51 billion/year, with the surface area significantly influencing the total average value of a particular PLA. When transformed to value per unit area, the values varied from €1.2 to €6.5 million/km2/year. The results suggest a dominant role of forest ecosystems in the composition of the economic value provided by ecosystem services in the PLAs. Economic valuation of benefits provided by protected areas can help to realize the social importance of these sites and to support policy and decisionmaking processes.

Environmentální bezpečnost: Návrh koncepčního rámce pro aplikace v České republice

This article aims to provide an integrated overview of the environmental security concept. Moreover, the article frames interpretation of environmental security in the historical context and also provides information regarding current understanding of this concept in environmental security studies. Objective of this article is to propose a conceptual framework of environmental security that cover all relevant environmental security areas and provides comprehensive overview. Conceptual framework of environmental security in the proposed conception contains four main components: energy security, raw material security, ecological and biological security and dimension of traditional security. In addition, purpose of this article is to establish a conceptual framework that can be applied in decision-making processes and assist in design of appropriate strategies concerning environmental security issues.