Institute for European Environmental Policy                                                                                                         Member of network of academics

Research Papers

Improving the quality of life in cities using community gardens: from benefits for members to benefits for all local residents

How does community gardens improve the quality of life in cities not only of their members but also of other city residents?

Abstract: Recent effects of globalization, urbanization and climate change have resulted in an increasing interest in the quality of life in cities and seeking pathways for its improvement. At the same time, there are changes in society and lifestyles that may challenge or facilitate these pathways. Community gardens (CGs) represent an effort to provide more sustainable urban economies, while reflecting on the public demand for cultivation of own crops. However, members of CGs may not perceive all the benefits that CGs provide for their surroundings. Using two case studied from Czechia (CG Kuchyňka and CG Vidimova in Prague) the aim of this paper is a comparison of the benefits perceived by community garden members and the evaluated net social benefits of community gardens in cities for all local residents. Through a questionnaire survey, the paper answers the research question of the benefits of community gardens perceived by community garden members. An economic assessment based on cost-benefit analysis was made to answer the question of the value of the net social benefits of community gardens in cities. Our comparison shows that the net social benefits are higher than perceived by their members. Net present benefits of EUR 31 550 for CG Kuchyňka and EUR 1 175 for CG Vidimova were quantified in a 50-year horizon. This economic analysis should contribute to greater support for community gardens by city governments and spatial planners.

Citation: Dubová, L., Macháč, J., (2019). Improving the quality of life in cities using community gardens: from benefits for members to benefits for all local residents, GeoScape(Vol. 13, No. 1), pp. 68-78, doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/geosc-2019-0005

Using Bayesian Networks to Assess Effectiveness of Phosphorus Abatement Measures under the Water Framework Directive

Paper uses a concept of Bayesian networks to find out whether the selected measures are sufficient to achieve the “good status”

Abstract: The EU Water Framework Directive requires all water bodies within the EU member states to achieve a “good status”. Many economic assessments assume the “good status” is achieved using selected measures and evaluate only associated costs and benefits. In this paper, Bayesian networks are used to test this assumption by evaluating whether the “good status” can be achieved with the selected abatement measures. Unlike in deterministic analysis, Bayesian networks allow effectiveness of measures of the same type to vary, which adds credibility to the analysis by increasing its robustness. The approach was tested on Stanovice reservoir in Czechia using a set of 244 previously designed measures. The results show the target will be met with a probability of 72.4% using the most cost-efficient measures. Based on the results, improvements to the measure selection process are suggested.

Citation: Brabec, J., Macháč, J., Jílková, J., (2019) Water (Vol. 11, No. 9), doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091791

Mayors and “their” land: Revealing approaches to flood risk management in small municipalities

How Mayors of small municipalities perceive possibilities of municipal/local-based flood protection?

ABSTRACT: The multilevel adaptive governance of flood risk reduction has been emphasised in the last decades and supported by the requirements of European Flood Directive (EC, 2007), while assigning an increasingly important role to municipalities. By contrast, only fragmented efforts have addressed the personal (expert knowledge), financial, and institutional limits of municipalities to achieve the flood risk management (FRM) goals. Starting with thorough literature review, we emphasise the key gaps in current understanding of municipal FRM and note that scarce attention has been paid to small‐sized municipalities (both in area and population). Next, we present an empirical case study based on semi‐structured interviews with 17 mayors of small municipalities in a flood‐prone area of northern Czechia. The aggregation of the mayors’ opinions about flood threat and current and planned FRM measures as well as the perceived barriers in their implementation enabled the classification of different FRM strategies at a municipal level (herein referred to as “self‐confidence,” “fatalism,” and “active scepticism”). These strategies are then discussed in terms of the mayors’ leadership styles and the significant consequences on the effectiveness and efficiency of FRM at a municipal level.

Citation: Slavíková, L., Raška, P., Kopáček, M., (2018), doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12474

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

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

Assessment of Disproportionate Costs According to the WFD: Comparison of Applications of two Approaches in the Catchment of the Stanovice Reservoir (Czech Republic)

Paper compares Czech and German methodology for the disproportionate costs evaluation.

ABSTRACT: The EU Water Framework Directive requires all water bodies within EU member states to achieve the “good status” by 2015/2021/2027. As it has proved to be very challenging for many water bodies, demand for cost proportionality analysis has increased dramatically, because disproportionate costs are one of the justifiable reasons for a deadline extension. This has led to development of many approaches across Europe. Among others, the Czech official methodology based on monetary cost-benefit analysis and the German “New Leipzig approach” based on criteria and cost threshold were introduced in 2015. Both approaches estimate costs of achieving the “good status”, but differ significantly in evaluating benefits. The Czech methodology identifies various categories of benefits, monetizes them and later compares them with costs of measure implementation. The German methodology determines how proportionate it is to spend on measures based on past public expenditures, objective distance to the “good status” and generated benefits. Both methodologies were tested on a small Stanovice catchment in the Czech Republic with similar results, which allows for a comparison of the two approaches they represent. Achieving the “good status” is viewed as cost-proportionate. Application of both methodologies is associated with numerous problems (e.g., data availability, estimate accuracy), which are further discussed in the paper.

Citation: Macháč, J. & Brabec, J. Water Resour Manage (2018) 32: 1453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1879-z 

Special Issue Land for Flood Risk Management

Special issue of Journal of Flood Risk management dealing with coordination of land and flood risk managemenent.

Special Issue was compiled as one of the first outputs of our COST Action LAND4FLOOD (land4flood.eu).

CONTENT:

Hartmann, T., Jílková, J., Schanze, J.: Land for flood risk management: A catchment‐wide and cross‐disciplinary perspective. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12344 (available here).

 

Bornschein, A., Pohl, R.: Land use influence on flood routing and retention from the viewpoint of hydromechanics. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12289 (available here).

 

Jüpner, R.: Coping with extremes – experiences from event management during the recent Elbe flood disaster in 2013. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12286 (available here).

 

Pant, R., Thacker, S., Hall, J.W., Alderson, D., Barr, S.: Critical infrastructure impact assessment due to flood exposure. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12288 (available here).

 

Milman, A., Warner, B.P., Chapman, D.A., Short Gianotti, A.G.: Identifying and quantifying landowner perspectives on integrated flood risk management. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12291 (available here).

 

Tarlock, D., Albrecht, J.: Potential constitutional constraints on the regulation of flood plain development: three case studies. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12274 (available here).

 

Seher, W., Löschner, L.: Balancing upstream–downstream interests in flood risk management: experiences from a catchment‐based approach in Austria. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12266 (available here).

 

Machac, J., Hartmann, T., Jilkova, J.: Negotiating land for flood risk management : upstream‐downstream in the light of economic game theory. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12317 (available here).

 

Collentine, D.,Futter, M.N.: Realising the potential of natural water retention measures in catchment flood management: trade‐offs and matching interests. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12269 (available here).

 

McCarthy, S., Viavattene, C., Sheehan, J., Green, C.: Compensatory approaches and engagement techniques to gain flood storage in England and Wales. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12336 (available here).

 

Slavikova, L.: Effects of government flood expenditures: the problem of crowding‐out. DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12265 (available here).

Socio-demographic determinants of municipal waste generation: case study of the Czech Republic

Are socio-demographic variables relevant factors of municipal waste generation?

ABSTRACT: Increasing pressure of the European Union on diverting municipal waste from landfills requires an active role of households and commands a radical change of their behavior. Knowledge of behavioral patterns enables an effective design of municipal waste management systems. Based on several factors influencing environmental behavior, this paper aims at analyzing differences in municipal waste generation among Czech municipalities using socio-demographic factors. A set of 12 characteristics for 5445 Czech municipalities was investigated. Using ordinary least squares regression, we developed a model with eight indicators describing household size, gender, completed education level and diverse housing characteristics. Even though the model explains only 5.1% of waste generation variability among Czech municipalities, it is statistically significant. Other factors such as age or population density do not improve the model significantly. The resulting model will be used as a basis for further spatial analysis.

Citation: Rybová, K., Slavík, J., Burcin, B. et al. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2018), doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-018-0734-5

 

The relationship between competition and efficiency of waste-collection services in the Czech Republic

The role of the competition on the waste-collection market in the Czech Republic.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the role of the competition on the waste-collection market. Based on the case study of the Czech Republic, we evaluate the influence of competition intensity on supply side of the market on efficiency of waste-collection services. The rate of competition was approximated by the number of submitted bids to public tenders and efficiency was measured by per capita expenditures for municipal waste-collection services. We developed two regression models – the first model verified a competitive effect on the public procurement market for the provision of waste-collection services; the second model identified factors that affected municipal expenditures for waste-collection services per capita. We concluded that the competition in the waste-collection market increases by organising open tenders for suppliers at regular intervals, by adapting the duration of contracts to economic life of fixed assets, by sustaining pressure on service providers through a change in suppliers or the distribution of contracts among jurisdictions.

Citation: Pavel J., Slavík J. (2017): Local Government Studies, doi: 10.1080/03003930.2017.1411812

Download: Paper available at the publisher here