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Flood maps are a crucial component of integrated flood risk management. While their key role is commonly acknowledged by experts and scholars, however, literature and findings on the practical utilization of flood maps (including the user’ experiences) within the processes of governance are scarce. Our study aims to contribute to closing this gap; by focusing on the Czech local government bodies, data collected through a questionnaire survey allowed us to examine (a) how, or whether at all, the officials employ flood maps in their agendas; (b) how do they experience and assess working with the maps; and (c) which data would they supplement the extant flood maps by. Our findings show that the praxis of local flood-related governance in the Czech Republic still largely neglects the up-to-date approaches and practices of flood risk management. The officials addressed mostly continue to rely on the earliest type of floodplain maps and purely technical aspects of floods, while largely omitting the newer flood danger and risk maps; thus, they are also missing the opportunities of applying multi-criteria assessment of the flood risk and more effective communication with the public. The paper concludes with a set of suggestions for relevant praxis and future research.

Historical maps are a valuable resource in landscape research. The information gathered from them facilitates the cognisance of landscapes and may assist current landscape planning. This study focuses on the historical occurrence and spatial extent of man-made ponds in the Czech Republic. Based on the 1st Military Survey maps (1764–1783) of the Habsburg Monarchy, we use Historical GIS to identify 7,676 man-made ponds in the historical landscape. Compared to the 2nd Military Survey maps (1836–1852), 56% of these man-made ponds had been drained. Such disappearances mostly affected large ponds in fertile agricultural areas, but also affected small reservoirs in less fertile areas at higher altitudes. As the current maps and spatial datasets (Water reservoirs, Landscape water regime, Farming areas) show, a number of these agricultural regions have been affected by climate changes and face water shortages. The historical map information of former ponds has the potential to contribute to their restoration in areas where water retention in the landscape needs to be increased.

Even though soil temperature in urban environment influences a range of processes, it has been studied rather sparsely in comparison with surface temperature or air temperature. Our research extends the soil temperature observation in Olomouc (Czechia) and uses semi-stationary measurement to describe detailed spatial variability of soil temperature in the area of a medium-sized Central European city. Differences in soil temperature 20 cm below grass-covered surface may exceed 3°C due to soil type, shadow cast by buildings and grass characteristics, which means that the representativeness of the data on soil temperature from a meteorological station within a city may be limited. Further research and a conceptual approach towards the study of soil temperature in urban landscape is needed.

Though the exploration of inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is very widespread in contemporary literature worldwide, the perception of IMC by municipal officials is rarely examined. We focused this paper on revealing the relationship between the perceptions of municipal public officials and the realized benefits of municipal cooperation. Our research combines primary data from a survey of municipalities engaged in a form of IMC and in-depth interviews of both municipal officials and managers who coordinate IMC. Our survey results show that agreement with the statement that IMC helps solve administrative capacity problems tends to vary with the size of the municipality. This study detected considerable obstacles to IMC use, with one set of respondents indicating that they had tried cooperation and found that it did not yield significant, positive financial or non-financial benefits for them. Our in-depth interviews revealed that strong political leadership and experienced managerial staff can contribute to the development of municipal cooperation. In summary, our research provides evidence supporting the notion that the perception of IMC by municipal officials could be an important precursor to actual IMC use and future development.

The concept of topophobia has been known in Geography for decades. Places which evoke fear in people’s minds can be found in almost every city. The perception of fear within an urban environment shows a certain spatio-temporal concentration and is often represented by fear of crime. The meaning of topophobic places, however, derived from the experience of fear of crime changes over time, and thus can alter the usual patterns of population behaviours in relation to time (in the time of the day and over longer periods) and space. A spatiotemporal understanding of these changes is therefore crucial for local decision-makers. Using data from the Czech Republic, this paper deals with the analysis of topophobic places, and is based on an empirical survey of the inhabitants of four cities, using the concept of mental mapping. In contrast to most similar geographical studies, the paper emphasises the temporal dimension of the fear of crime. The results have shown that over time there are significant differences in the meanings of topophobic places, and they have demonstrated the necessity of taking local specifics into account. The paper shows how the intensity of and the reasons for fears vary, depending on time and place. In general, the results provide support for the idea of place as a process and contain useful information for spatial planning and policy in urban areas.

A recent “shift” in flood risk management is associated with putting more emphasis on private mitigation and protection measures, and on shared responsibility. Based on case study research in the South Bohemian municipalities (Czech Republic) endangered by floods, this paper reports floods-related attitudes and actions of local inhabitants. A total of 305 respondents participated in a survey; responses and additional commentaries were examined through qualitative content analysis. Results show that though most of the local residents are aware of the constant threat, a minority of them take up any mitigation measures or have some strategy to handle a flood. Several cognitive biases and non-protective responses, the lack of interest and personal responsibility, perceived costs, as well as the prevailing low perceived importance of floods for the local quality of life, hamper improvements in general preparedness. From the viewpoint of Protection Motivation Theory, neither the locals’ threat appraisal nor their coping appraisal is high enough to sufficiently incentivise them to adopt private mitigation strategies and measures. Flood information seems to be at hand for local residents, who are, however, mostly not interested in using it. Perceived obscurities in handling the financial resources contribute to the prevailing unwillingness to participate financially in flood protection. Differences in perceptions and actions are associated with respondents’ individual characteristics (age, gender, level of education, previous experience with floods). Based on our findings, we discuss several relevant policy implications.

The aim of this paper was to assess the impact of heat-waves on mortality in ten Czech cities, using data recorded during the summers of 2015 and 2016. Temperature-related mortality during heat-waves was investigated by comparing mortality figures on heat-wave days and those on other days by means of the Mann-Whitney U test. Results for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (CVD+R) mortality, as well as for mortality in the over-65 age group, show statistically significant differences (p

Gambling is a specific type of economic activity that significantly affects many aspects of society. It is associated mainly with negative impacts on the lives of individuals and their families, but it also has a positive economic impact on the public budgets of states, regions and municipalities. In this article, we focus on a geographic assessment of the development of gambling in the Czech Republic, which is based on a spatial analysis of data on licensed games and data on the revenues of municipalities arising from gambling. It turns out that the occurrence of gambling is strongly influenced by binary centre/periphery dichotomy, with the exception of the Czech-Austrian and Czech-German border areas which are characterised by a high concentration of casinos resulting from more rigid regulation of gambling on the other side of the border. In this research, the authors develop an innovative scientific discipline within Czech human geography: The geography of gambling.

Gambling encompasses a wide variety of activities, and the structural characteristics of each form contribute to its potential risk. However, the literature does not fully agree on the risk levels of certain gambling forms. In this study, we classify less risky gambling forms (soft forms) based on public perceptions of their riskiness. We examine the link between gambling experience and problem gambling prevalence. A survey was conducted in a model region of the Czech Republic, a post-socialist country with high gambling availability, with N = 2,498 respondents. A typology of gambling forms (lotteries, betting, and casino games) was created based on perceived risk similarities. Lotteries are the most frequently played gambling form, with 86.3% reporting lifetime participation. Among those who exclusively engage in lottery-type forms, 15 percentage points more women than men participated in the last year, and the gap widens to 31 points over a lifetime. Forms of gambling perceived as more risky show a lower proportion of non-problem gamblers, both for recent and lifetime participation. Furthermore, individuals who gambled within the past month or year are at higher risk of developing gambling problems compared to those whose gambling experiences were less recent., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In 2019, a questionnaire was conducted among foreigners living in the Czech Republic focused on gambling, in which 110 respondents from Vietnam and 80 respondents from Ukraine answered. Firstly, the Attitudes towards gambling scale (ATGS-8) was used to discover respondents' attitudes to gambling. Secondly, their experience with gambling was examined with the help of the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) which allowed, among others, to estimate the level of prevalence of problem gambling in these groups. The methods used allowed us to compare both the Ukrainians to Vietnamese as well as Ukrainians and Vietnamese to Czechs, as similar survey was conducted among the major population of the country in 2017. The overall score of attitudes to gambling is slightly higher for the citizens of Ukraine (17.97) and Vietnam (18.29) compared to the majority. The Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic also have a significantly higher proportion of people in the category of pathological gamblers as based on the PGSI index (Vietnamese 4.2%), whilst the value of this index for Ukrainians (0.7%) is similar to the one of the majority. The analysis of immigrants' gambling behaviour shows that Ukrainians are more like the majority population. The Vietnamese immigrants differ from both the majority population and Ukrainians in terms of attitudes whilst gambling is for them as common problem as alcohol consumption, and an even bigger problem than smoking., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of the article is to contribute to an understanding of the attitudes of post-communist Europe's inhabitants towards gambling, and of their opinions concerning which activities can be regarded as gambling. The Attitudes Towards Gambling Scale (ATGS-8) questionnaire was used in the survey, ensuring the international comparability of the results. For the subsequent in-depth analysis of attitudes we mainly used multidimensional statistical methods. The survey, conducted in 2017, had 1092 respondents. The least negative attitudes to gambling were found in the younger age groups, while the attitudes of senior citizens were the most negative. Concerning participation in gambling, 68.4% of the respondents had taken part in at least one of the range of gambling activities offered as choices. Participation in gambling is an important factor influencing the overall attitude of the respondents to gambling. Of equal importance was the range of intensity in their perceptions of which games can be considered to be gambling, with four similarly perceived types of gambling identified. The research shows that gambling is perceived negatively by the population of the Czech Republic. The explanation may be found in the substantial media coverage of gambling related to changes in the legislation and the tightening of restrictions.

Coal combustion is one of the most significant anthropogenic sources of thallium in the environment. This study presents the results of determination of thallium and some toxic elements (Pb, Cd, As, Ni, Zn, and Cu) concentration in fly ash produced in the coal combustion in conventional furnaces (pulverized coal furnace and grate furnace), in a fluidized-bed furnace with circulation bed, and in a home furnace. The high content of thallium was determined in ash produced in the grate furnace (on average 10.7 mg/kg) and fluidized-bed furnace with circulation bed (6.6 mg/kg). The average content of Tl in the fly ash of the pulverized coal furnace and in the home furnace is 1.7 and 2.4 mg/kg, respectively. There was a strong relationship between the occurrence of Tl and As, Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn in ash from grate and pulverized coal furnace.

Aim: To provide an overview of gambling and associated problems in the Czech Republic, including an overview of the historical context, legislation, prevalence, treatment and research base and agenda., Methods: A review of literature and relevant sources., Results: The trajectory of gambling patterns in the territory of the Czech Republic in the 20th century reflected broad socio-political changes. Those included significant expansion between the wars, strict state control and bans on some gambling activities during the communist regime and finally dynamic development characterized by a boom in electronic gaming machines (EGMs) and increasing accessibility of gambling facilities after 1989, which aggravated gambling-related problems. Many municipalities have banned EGMs, which has created conflict in regulation at state and municipal levels. The draft gambling law prepared in 2014 aims to clarify the regulatory framework. Before 2012 there was only sporadic research interest in gambling, but in 2012 the first complex research on gaming and problem gambling in the Czech population took place. The estimated prevalence of problem gambling is currently 2% in the population aged 15-64 years. Preventive measures, counselling and treatment services for problem gamblers are limited., Conclusions: Weak and ineffective regulation of the gambling market in the Czech Republic during the past 20 years, despite the large growth in gambling, has led to inadequate prevention and response to problem gambling which has become a considerable public health, social and political issue., (© 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.)