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Climate change is probably the biggest present-day environmental problem and a great global challenge. The impact of climate change, direct or indirect, can affect whole societies as well as individuals. We wanted to explore the perception of possible climate change impacts in two Central European countries with different climate change awareness and public discourse. The study was carried out among the population of two regions in the Czech Republic and Germany. These regions are situated in the South Bohemia Region and the federal state of Brandenburg. In total, we asked more than 1000 respondents for their assessment of the impact of ten climate change consequences. We present the results on the perceived impact on different levels (global, country, personal), and the effect of socio-demographic characteristics using the concept of social vulnerability. The results show that water related issues, like water scarcity, droughts or foods are perceived as the most severe climate change consequences. There are considerable differences between the national samples, e.g. Czechs are more concerned about new diseases or species extinction, Germans about climate tax. Overall, Czech respondents show a higher risk perception, they are more concerned about most of the potential consequences than Germans. Regarding the different levels of impacts, respondents in both countries expect a higher impact on the global level than for their countries or themselves. The social vulnerability concept is a stronger predictor in the Czech Republic than in Germany; here the more vulnerable population expects higher impacts on the country and personal levels. Low education and low income are more important predictors than high age. We discuss possible causes of the results in the context of both countries.

Chapter published in the book Current Challenges of Central Europe: Society and Environment. Concepts of green growth and green economy are analysed and their appliaction in the Czech Republic is presented. Special focus is paid to the problem of brown coal mining and solar electricity production.

Kapitola se zabývá aplikací principů zelené ekonomiky v EU v období před a po finanční a ekonomické krizi. Mezi sledované indikátory patří emise např. CO2, HDP, nezaměstnanost, materiálová produktivita, investice do vědy a výzkumu. Výsledky ukazují určité pozitivní posuny z pohledu ekonomické a environmentální udržitelnosti, ale nelez hovořit o důsledné aplikaci prvků zelené ekonomiky.

Řešení globálních výzev dnešního světa, ať už politických, environmentálních, nebo finančních, staví před ekonomickou vědu požadavek na uvažování v širších souvislostech. Tím máme na mysli sociální, environmentální, ale i filozofický nebo etický kontext ekonomického myšlení, včetně jeho teoretických předpokladů a praktických důsledků. Cílem knihy Ekonomika v souvislostech je tento velmi důležitý kontext načrtnout a podívat se na ekonomické jevy z mnoha pohledů. I proto jsou mezi autory knihy nejen zástupci ekonomie, ale i geografie, filozofie, sociologie, kulturologie nebo environmentalistiky. Teoretické zakotvení autorů vytváří určitou duhu, klenoucí se od neoklasické přes environmentální až po ekologickou ekonomii. V sedmi kapitolách jsou čtenářům představeny různorodé pohledy na problematiku životního prostředí, práce, fair trade, ekonomického růstu a nerůstu a etických souvislostí ekonomiky. Název monografie odkazuje ke čtvrtému ročníku tradiční konference Naše společná přítomnost, který se s podtitulem Ekonomický růst v souvislostech konal v roce 2014 na Ekonomické fakultě Jihočeské univerzity v Českých Budějovicích.

Int. J. sustainable Development, Vol.4, No.2, 2001 Solving the problems of marginal areas ... Use of linear and non-linear approaches to ... Institute of Landscape Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Na Sádkách 7, 37005 Ceskd Budejovice, Czech Republic (e-mail: ...

... P26.03 The GILDED Project - governance, infrastructure, lifestyle dynamics and energy demandNick Gotts(1), LA Sutherland(1), E Cudlínová(2), I Kovách(3), F Reusswig(4), L Steg(5) (1) Macaulay Land Use Research InstituteAberdeen, Scotland, UK (2) Institute of Systems ...

This paper reports on the early stages of a collaborative European Union-funded research project investigating changing European landscapes and the role that sustainable tourism can play in maintaining their distinctive cultural features. It refers especially to the use of 'storylines' ...

Int. J. sustainable Development, Vol.4, No.2, 2001 Solving the problems of marginal areas ... Use of linear and non-linear approaches to ... Institute of Landscape Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Na Sádkách 7, 37005 Ceskd Budejovice, Czech Republic (e-mail: ...

Abstract The article focuses on a general analysis of two basic models for solving the problems of marginal areas: 1) linear economic models 2) non-linear ecological models. Following an examination of both types of model, the paper identifies the main successes and failures ...

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of new agri-approaches on possible future land-use changes. We analysed the construction of these post-classical approaches in agriculture management. The post-classical approach to agriculture stresses the leading role of the ...

The paper presents results of a study of heating habits (particularly the reported temperature in the living room during the heating season) in three EU regions: Aberdeenshire in Scotland, Brandenburg state in Germany, and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Data were collected using a questionnaire study carried out in 2010.  There were approximately 500 respondents in each region. Three types of data are analysed: socio-demographics (including gender, age, education, income); housing characteristics (e.g. type, size, insulation, heating system), and attitudes towards energy and environmental issues (perception of climate change and perceived self-efficacy of energy saving). The results show some explanatory power of income, house insulation, age, place of living and self-efficacy on people’s reported living room temperatures. The biggest differences were found, however, between the three regions. Scottish households report the lowest average temperature (18.9°C), Germans higher (20.7°C) and Czechs the highest (21.7°C). We also discuss the role of the local climatic conditions and put the results (especially the negligible role of most socio-demographics and housing characteristics) into the framework of theory of social practice and discussions about the limits of traditional sociopsychological ABC models (attitude-behaviour-choice) of pro-environmental behaviours.

The paper deals with daily print media coverage of climate change in the Czech Republic in time period 1997–2010. Together 5663 articles from six countrywide daily newspapers, including four prestige-press, one tabloid and one political party affiliated newspapers, were chosen for the content analysis focused on the intensity of media coverage. Several categories were also observed, with special attention
to the quality of information and its possible consequences. This study is the first long-term content analysis of media depiction of climate change in the Czech news. The results show that intensity of media attention in the Czech newspapers is similar to other EU or US daily newspapers. Regarding the observed categories, the articles in Czech papers mostly do not refer to scientific sources of information, focus more on the natural issues than social ones and equally link the climate change topics to the Czech Republic and global issues. Most of the articles can be labelled as catastrophic or sensational, only 11 % of them are serious, i.e. not stressing the sensation or catastrophes and referring to some source of
information. With respect to this problematic quality of information we discuss previous studies dealing with the effect of information form on the recipients. Despite the fact, that people perceive the media in various ways, some studies show that catastrophic messages can increase the climate scepticism and undermine the willingness to act in some mitigation processes. We argue that the style of media coverage can influence public perception of climate change, which could partially explore, why the Czech population belongs to those more sceptical among the EU.

A shift from flood protection to flood risk management is occurring in many Western countries, but less is known about the social perception of floods and flood management changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The objective of this paper is to study the social perception of selected water-related issues and to find possible compatibilities with existing flood management. A sociological survey was conducted within a local population living in floodplains in South Bohemia (N=89). The results are discussed in relation to changes in Czech flood management governmental policies over the last 15 years. We conclude that the local population accepts floods as regular events, expects their increased frequency and prefers natural measures of flood mitigation. Czech flood management governmental policies are moving from flood defence and hard structural measures (e.g. dams) to flood risk management and more natural solutions (polders, free spill, etc.). However, there is still a strong legacy of a top-down approach in governmental policies which hinders full incorporation of local perceptions into flood management.

From the historical point of view, some type of food self-provisioning was the most typical way of households’ subsistence. Economic development in 20th century accompanied with the urbanization and lifestyle changes caused the decrease of food self-provisioning. Despite this, the self-provisioning of some food (mostly fruits and vegetables) is still widespread in some parts of Europe, though the motives are not primarily economic. However self- provisioning can increase the economic and social resilience of the region and lower the environmental impact of food production and transport. We use the data collected in four European regions in the 2010 survey to show how widespread food self-provisioning is. We focus mostly on the Czech Republic and compare the results with other four states/regions. Around 500 respondents were questioned in each region, half of them from urban and half from rural areas. The regions belong to different EU states with specific history and present conditions and represent cross-section through Western and Central Europe. These regions include Scottish Aberdeenshire and city of Aberdeen, and city of Assen and its rural surrounding in the Netherlands, German city Potsdam and region Potsdam-Mittelmark, the Czech Republic is represented by České Budějovice and parts of South Bohemia Region and Debrecén with Hajdú-Bihár County belong to Hungary. The results show that the food self-provisioning is relatively widespread in the regions with 20–47 % of households provisioning at least some of their food by themselves. Additionally we investigate the consumption habits, namely buying of regional, seasonal and organic food products. Social, economic and regional aspects of food self-provisioning and consumption of different type of foods are also discussed throughout the paper. We conclude that food self-provisioning is important activity with high sustainability potential.