scholarly journals Usability of IoT and Open Data Repositories for Analyzing Water Pollution. A Case Study in the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Jan Pavlík ◽  
Markéta Hrnčírová ◽  
Michal Stočes ◽  
Jan Masner ◽  
Jiří Vaněk

Recently, the process of data opening has intensified, especially thanks to the involvement of many institutions that have not yet shared their data. Some entities provided data to the public long before the trend of open data was pushed to a wider level, but many institutions have only engaged in this process recently thanks to a systemic state-level effort to make data repositories available to the public. Therefore, there are many new potential sources of data available for research, including the area of water management. This article analyses the current state of available data in the Czech Republic—their content, structure, format, availability, costs and other indicators that affect the usability of these data for independent researchers in the area of water management. The case study was conducted to ascertain the levels of accessibility and usability of data in open data repositories and the possibilities of obtaining data from IoT (Internet of Things) devices such as networked sensors where required data is either not available from existing sources, too costly, or otherwise unsuitable for the research. The goal of the underlying research was to assess the impact/ratio of various watershed factors based on monitored indicators of water pollution in a model watershed. Such information would help propose measures for reducing the volume of pollution resulting in increased security in terms of available drinking water for the capital city Prague.

Author(s):  
Jana Soukopová ◽  
Lenka Furová

Floods are natural events with extensive impact on property and life of affected people. They significantly came in 1997 into the life of Czech society and since then has caused damage almost 172 billion CZK. The paper focuses on the assessment of impact of floods from 1997 to 2010 on economic level of each region. The impact is assessed on basis of development of the basic macroeconomic indicators such as GDP and economic level of regions, change in fixed capital formation, sales of industrial products and unemployment. The basic idea is to show how much floods have influenced region’s economy and if it depends more on the amount of flood damages or nature of damage (structure within infrastructure). 13 regions of the Czech Republic except Prague were chosen for the analysis. Prague was excluded from the analysis because of its specific status (capital city and the region) and economic conditions among regions in the Czech Republic (higher GDP per capita than the national average).


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Plaček ◽  
David Špaček ◽  
František Ochrana

PurposeThis paper discusses the role of public leadership and the strategic response of local governments to the external shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine the typical Czech response with regard to how the leadership of municipalities in the Czech Republic responded to this extremely negative external stimulus.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use qualitative research methods for this investigation. They have chosen the case study method (see Yin, 2009; Stake, 1995; Klonoski, 2013). The general case is the Czech Republic. Mini-cases consist of municipalities from the Znojmo region, municipalities of the Central Bohemian region and the municipal districts in the capital city of Prague. Furthermore, the method of participant observation was used.FindingsThe authors’ analysis of the problem of local government responses to the pandemic crisis shows that municipal leaders responded with a variety of (non-)adaptation strategies. It appears that certain framework factors influenced the various local governments' behavior.Originality/valueThe article examines the strategic behavior of Czech municipal leaders regarding the pandemic crisis based on the observation of the reactions of local governments in the Czech Republic to the pandemic crisis and strives to define their basic strategies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Komenda ◽  
Jiří Jarkovský ◽  
Daniel Klimeš ◽  
Petr Panoška ◽  
Ondřej Šanca ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of providing access to data plays a crucial role in providing the general public and media with up-to-date information. Open datasets also represent one of the means for evaluation of the pandemic on a global level. OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this paper is to describe the methodical and technical framework for publishing datasets describing basic and advanced epidemiological characteristics related to the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic, including the use of these datasets in practice. METHODS As a reaction to the epidemic situation, a new portal COVID‑19: Current Situation in the Czech Republic was developed and launched in March 2020 to provide a fully-fledged and trustworthy source of information for the public and media. The portal also contains a section for the publication of (i) public open datasets available for download in CSV and JSON formats and (ii) authorized-access-only section where the authorized persons can (through an online generated token) safely visualize or download regional datasets with aggregated data at the level of the individual municipalities and regions. The data are also provided to the local open data catalogue of the Ministry of Health and to the National Catalogue of Open Data. RESULTS The datasets have been published in various authentication regimes and widely used by general public, scientists, public authorities and decision-makers. The total number of API calls since its launch in March 2020 to 15th December 2020 exceeded 13 million. The datasets have been adopted as an official and guaranteed source for outputs of third parties, including public authorities, non-governmental organizations, scientists and online news portals. CONCLUSIONS Datasets currently published as open data meet the 3-star open data requirements, which makes them machine-readable and facilitates their further usage without restrictions. This is essential for making the data more easily understandable and usable for data consumers. In conjunction with the strategy of the MH in the field of data opening, additional datasets meeting the already implemented standards will be also released, both on COVID-19 related and unrelated topics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 244 ◽  
pp. 03002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Rybicka ◽  
Ondrej Stopka ◽  
Vladimír Ľupták ◽  
Mária Chovancová ◽  
Paweł Droździel

At present, the impact of transport on the environment constitutes a serious problem. This mainly concerns energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases (GHG) that via their participation in greenhouse effect intensification contribute to global warming. In this paper, the calculations provided by the EN 16258: 2012 methodology will be applied to two modes of transport: railway and road transport. Subsequently, the methodology will be applied to a case study of a selected nonelectrified railway line in comparison with parallel road transport. In particular, energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases will be monitored depending on traveling the distance between selected cities in the Czech Republic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-430
Author(s):  
Ján Dvorský ◽  
Aleksandr Ključnikov ◽  
Jiří Polách

The article aims to determine the difference in the perception of selected business risks and their impact on the future of business concerning the entrepreneur’s experience with business bankruptcy. The case study involved 73 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with experience of business bankruptcy and 381 SMEs without the experience of business bankruptcy from the Czech Republic (CR). Linear regression models were used to verify statistically significant causal relationships between selected indicators of the most significant business risks and respondents’ perceptions of the future of business. The results brought interesting findings. The attitudes of entrepreneurs show that personnel, market, and financial risk are among the three most significant business risks. Experience with business failure is not a significant factor in determining the impact of market indicators on the business’s perceived future. The adequacy of sales of services and products has the greatest impact. The experience of the bankruptcy of SMEs is important in financial risk attitudes. According to entrepreneurs who have no experience with bankruptcy, the perception of financial performance has the greatest direct impact on the future of business. Conversely, for entrepreneurs who have experienced bankruptcy, the ability to properly manage financial risk on the company’s future has the greatest direct impact.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-250
Author(s):  
Markéta Šumpíková ◽  
Ina Ďurčeková

AbstractPublic procurement is a crucial activity undertaken by the public sector. However, public procurement entails a wide range of transaction costs. While many papers focus on the ex-ante transaction costs, it is equally important to evaluate the types of ex-post transaction costs. The disputes stemming from conflicts between procuring authorities and proposers often bring additional costs to both parties. One of the ways to ensure that the procuring authority wins the dispute is using the services of an external law firm to represent the procuring authority in the review process. The aim of the paper is to examine the extent of the use of external law services in the public-procurement review process by procuring authorities and proposers in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. The focus is also on the impact the use of external law firms in the review process may have on the length of the review process and the outcome of the dispute. Our results suggest that while the use of the external law firm may lead to a higher success rate of the review process on the side of a procuring authority, the same does not apply to proposers. There were no conclusive findings regarding the impact of the outsourcing on the length of the review process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
David Kania

This paper aims to compare the developmental aspects of regional airports in the Czech Republic. Only international airports were included in the selection, namely airports with an IATA code (IATA – International Air Transport Association). The following factors affected the selection of airports: air transport volume and the runway length. All public international airports with scheduled and non-scheduled commercial traffic have been included in the selection, these airports being The Brno – Tuřany Airport (BRQ), Leoš Janáček Airport Ostrava (OSR), Pardubice Airport (PED) and Karlovy Vary Airport (KLV). The list intentionally excludes the Vaclav Havel Airport (PRG), which, being the airport of the capital city, would have excessive impact on the evaluation of the monitored statistical data. In terms of individual airports, the author evaluates the impact of runway parameters, reference field length and the parameters of radio navigation and lighting equipment. Other monitored aspects include the population of the respective cities (or cities where the airport is located), the airport's location relative to the city centre and its transport connection. The last monitored aspect is the impact of competing foreign airports from across the border on the regional airport's development. The aim is to prove or disprove the idea that the airport with best equipment and location (airport with the greatest potential) should exhibit the best performance in terms of the number of passengers throughput, number of movements and the cargo throughput.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Tomas Krabec ◽  
Romana Čižinska

Abstract An administrative fine is a monetary penalty that may be imposed by a supervisory authoritity as an administrative punishment. Such a fine adversely interferes in the cash flow generation of the company in question. The fine can be described as an investment carrying opportunity costs with no economic returns. However, according to the judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Pl. ÚS 3/02 of 13 August 2002 it is submitted that the fine cannot be imposed in such an amount that would ultimately be liquidating for the sanctioned entrepreneur. The assessment of whether the specific amount of the fine imposed represents such an intensive interference with the entrepreneur's property that his business activity becomes pointless (i.e., in the long run only for the payment of a fine) is elaborated in this article. Based on a case study from the Czech Republic, this article deals with an example of a suitable methodological procedure, on the basis of which it is possible to evaluate the impact of a specific amount of fine imposed on the property of a sanctioned entrepreneur and assess ex ante whether (i) continuity of his business will be interrupted in the future, i.e., when, as a result of the payment of the fine, he eventually goes bankrupt in the form of insolvency or over-indebtedness and / or (ii) his business activity will only serve to pay the fine and thus become "pointless". The presented economic narrative and methodology are relevant for policy makers and, particularly, for supervisory authorities imposing the fines or assessing the requests for remission.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Naxera

Abstract Corruption is a phenomenon with significant effects – economically, politically and culturally. Corruption tends to be viewed negatively by the public. As such, anti-corruption rhetoric may be an ideal election strategy for individual political parties. Nevertheless, anti-corruption rhetoric does not necessarily translate into an actual anti-corruption policy. This study analyses the impact of anti-corruption rhetoric that does not reflect the actual practices of its speaker and has been used strategically to gain favour. My focus is on elections and the subsequent formation and exercise of government in the Czech Republic. I analyse how anti-corruption rhetoric directed at political opponents works as an election success strategy. At the same time, I show how electoral success, transformed into real political power, strengthens the ability of actors to engage in activities that amount to borderline or outright corruption, irrespective of any anti-corruption rhetoric.


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