Which form of green and blue infrastructure elements (nature-based or semi-natural) is preferred by residents of the medium-sized Czech city of Liberec?

Green and blue urban infrastructure (GBI) has many positive functions often not recognised by residents (e.g., microclimate regulation, water retention, etc.). The question for urban planners who are aware of these functions when planning new GBI elements or revitalising existing GBI is how much they need to account for the preference heterogeneity of locals, who typically consider only aesthetic and recreational value. This study uses data from a discrete choice experiment among residents of the medium-sized Czech city of Liberec to reveal which combinations of nature-based or semi-natural GBI and recreational facilities respondents prefer and how strong their preferences are in terms of their willingness to pay. Overall, study respondents preferred nature-based GBI to semi-natural ones. A mixed-latent class model identified two groups of respondents who differ in preferences, trade-offs, and socio-demographic characteristics: (i) mostly older educated women who prefer nature-based elements and enjoy park infrastructure; (ii) mostly less educated men who dislike urban gardens and semi-natural streams and do not value park infrastructure. Based on the results, we recommend that spatial planners and green space managers design and implement more nature-based elements in Liberec, which are in line with the respondents’ preferences.

Reference: Macháč, J.; Brabec, J.; Arnberger, A. (2022). Exploring public preferences and preference heterogeneity for green and blue infrastructure in urban green spaces. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 75.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127695 

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How serious gaming can contribute to ongoing discussions concerning the shift to more holistic and governance-based flood resilience perspectives?

Serious gaming is increasingly used to explore important real-world problems and a growing number of serious games are addressing flood-related issues. However, there has been limited synthesis of these attempts and their contributions to the ongoing shift toward a more holistic and governance-based flood resilience perspective in flood risk management (FRM). This international review collates and analyses these attempts in order to develop a knowledge base of serious gaming in the field of FRM. It contains 37 games that were developed with different rationales that include engaging players in the topic of FRM, supporting practice by exploring future options through collaboration, improving communication of FRM, as educational tools, and to collect research data. The gameplay countries and player characteristics, game characteristics, relevance to FRM, game rationales, and collection of data are explored in this paper. Identified serious games provided an unconventional and entertaining approach to engage stakeholders on flood-related issues. The review analysed the serious games in light of the shift toward flood resilience and identified limitations in the documentation of serious games and their potential in understanding the longer-term impacts of gameplay on players. Furthermore, the vast majority of reviewed games were played in a single country and missed out on understanding the cultural production and perspectives of FRM that could support cross-cultural learning and inspiration for future FRM strategies. Overall, the review identified an important role for serious games in the shift toward governance and the adoption of more holistic flood resilience perspectives.

Reference: Forrest, S. A.; Kubíková, M.; Macháč, J. (2022). Serious gaming in flood risk management. WIREs WATER 9(4).  https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1589

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Why are city dwellers paticipating in urban gardeing and what motivates people to became a member of community garden?

Abstract: Urban gardening provides city dwellers with a wide range of benefits. Research dealing with the benefits of community gardens (CG) is often qualitative, focused on their founders’ motivations. The objective of our contemporary quantitative study is to understand why the inhabitants of Czech cities join CGs. The paper answers the research question: “What drivers exist for members’ participation in CGs?” It also deals with how the drivers of CG members differ across CGs’ locations in different urban structures. The data were obtained through an online survey from 28 CGs across Czechia, in both the capital and smaller cities. The importance of the different drivers was examined using statistical analysis and logit models. The research shows that the main motivation for the members is not crop production itself but, rather, the spending of leisure time, social contact and relaxation. Other key drivers include the passing on of experience and knowledge about nature to children, which is found mostly among the members with previous cultivation experience. Based on our results, CGs may contribute to the development of public life and to the improvement of public space; hence, the greater support by local decision makers or spatial planners can be justified.

Citation: Dubová, L., Macháč, J., Vacková, A. (2020). Food Provision, Social Interaction or Relaxation: Which Drivers Are Vital to Being a Member of Community Gardens in Czech Cities?, Sustainability, 12, 9588; doi:10.3390/su12229588

The paper shows underestimation of European estimate of the costs induced by the MCP Directive based on SimTool approach.

ABSTRACT: The December 2013 Medium Combustion Plants Directive (MCP Directive) proposal was evaluated by the national governments. In the Czech Republic, there are 6710 plants affected by this Directive, which is about 4.6% of the total of 143,000 relevant European plants.

The paper introduces our approach of policy impact assessment called SimTool. The costs estimated for the European Commission in the background study (AMEC, 2014) are assumed to reach EUR 5.9 million for the Czech Republic for the preferred scenario by the European Commission. Further presented national impact assessment estimates the induced annual costs of the proposal at EUR 61 million, which is about 10 times greater than the European impact assessment estimate.

As part of the national impact assessment, the different fuel categories had to be analyzed separately due to their specific features and different options for achieving the emission limit target values. During the impact assessment, a survey was made in order to determine the source operators’ preferences and responses to the potential adoption of the MCP Directive. Based on the analysis of data from the operators and consultations with experts about the different technologies, technical options for achievement of the proposed emission limits, including an estimate of the operating and investment costs, were proposed.

The paper concentrates on the Czech impact assessment approach and discusses the reasons of the discrepancy between the European impact assessment and the Czech version. We argue that the inaccuracies of the European impact assessments are given by usage of the general abatement cost curves in the models which do not reflect the reality sufficiently. This paper states an argument for the necessity to carry out analysis at the local level

Citation: Vojáček, O., Sobotka, L., Macháč, J., Žilka, M. (2018). Impact assessment of Proposal for a Directive on the limitation of emissions from medium combustion plants – National impact assessment compared to the European impact estimate. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (Vol. 82, pp. 1854-1862). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.119