Czech and Slovak young brown coals in environmental applications

In recent time, various kinds of young brown (low-rank) coals are utilized increasingly not only as fuels, but also as valuable materials in advanced environmental applications. It should be noted in this context that significant deposits of the young brown coals can be found both in the Czech Republic as well as in Slovakia. For their effective applications e.g. in wastewater treatment or in soil remediation, the properties of the coals should be studied in more details and numerous physico-chemical characteristics should be measured. As a part of a common Czech-Slovak project, a series of various kinds of coals was collected, including North-Bohemian oxihumolites, lignite from South Moravia and several lignites from Slovakia (Baňa Zahorie). Basic properties were measured, such as acid-base titration curves, contents of main functional groups and sorption capability towards heavy metal cations (Cu2+, Zn2+, Co2+) and some organic pollutants. The contents of humic substances – main active constituents of the young coals – were also determined. Selected environmental applications of the brown coals will be mentioned further, e.g. for the removal of metal cations from waters or in phytoremediation of contaminated soils.

Tornádo 2021 v České republice – psychosociální pomoc IZS v zasažených oblastech

The tornado hit the territory of several municipalities in South Moravia in the evening on Thursday, June 24, 2021. Although it was a relatively small area, the extent of the damage was extraordinary and of unprecedented proportions. Many people found themselves in direct danger of themselves and their loved ones. In psychology, we call such an event potentially traumatic, and we know from experience that it can have serious effects on the human psyche. The article aims to present how the system of psychosocial crisis intervention and psychological first aid provided by the Integrated Rescue System of the Czech Republic worked. This psychosocial assistance in the acute phase of a disaster builds the core of psychosocial help. There is a link to other organizations, which have their function mainly in the stabilization phase, in the medium and long-term care of the affected persons. We also consider it necessary to repeat the principles of psychosocial assistance in emergencies.

Agricultural Production on Erosion-Affected Land from the Perspective of Remote Sensing

In this article, we discuss the influence of soil erosion on crop yield in the erosion-prone chernozem region of South Moravia. Erosional and depositional areas show significant differences in soil properties, which are also reflected in total crop yield. Plots of winter wheat, grown during the years 2016–2019 were used for analysis. The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), referred to in literature as one of the best correlates of yield, was used to provide indirect information on yield. Although erosional areas are visible on orthophoto images on chernozem soils, the necessary orthophoto images are not always available. Thus, we have proposed a method for the identification of such erosion-affected areas based on the use of Sentinel 2 satellite images and NDVI or NBR2 indices. The relationship between yield and erosion was expressed through Pearson’s correlation on a sample of pixels randomly selected on the studied plots. The results showed a statistically significant linear reduction in yield depending on the level of degradation. All plots were further reclassified, according to level of degradation, as high, medium, or low state of degradation, where the average EVI values were subsequently calculated. Yield on non-degraded soil is 16 ± 1% higher on average.

Pigmenty a barevnost tradičních venkovských staveb na jižní Moravě

The article describes an interdisciplinary study that uses the means of ethnology and materials science. This approach is quite unusual in the Czech environment. Specifically, it concerns detailed materials analyses of samples of plaster which were acquired during ethnological research on selected recent buildings in South Moravia. The studied plaster samples from folk buildings in the Znojmo area are probably from the twentieth century. However, it cannot be ruled out that the buildings are older. In addition to traditional and mostly inorganic pigments, the plaster samples were also coloured using synthetic pigments, which corresponded to their availability on the market. Besides the description of the set of samples, the article also demonstrates the potential of applying natural-scientific methods to analyse plaster and its pigments for ethnology. At present, these methods are common in materials engineering and are used in restoration work.

Food Self-Provisioning in the Czech Republic – A Comparison of Suburban and Peripheral Regions of Rural South Moravia

The Czech Republic ranks among the countries with a strong tradition of home food self-provisioning. In this article, we focused our attention specifically to the traditional and frequently neglected phenomenon of rural self-provisioning while newly introducing a data-based analysis of the phenomenon in two areas, i.e., suburbs and peripheries of the South Moravian region. Unlike the research carried out in the CR or EU to date, our survey aims exclusively at the analysis of households with access to land, which allow a more detailed scrutiny of growing a wide range of commodities, the attitudes to it and its perspectives. The results of the field study carried out in 178 rural households in two types of South Moravian regions (suburban and peripheral) from 2017 show the regional differences in food self-provisioning. They also contribute to a better understanding of a phenomenon whose variability within a rural territory is quite known a little. Even though the suburban and peripheral regions have very comparable natural conditions and opportunities of growing crops (a similar type of estate, nearly the same size of the gardens surveyed), we can observe rather remarkable differences, especially in the extent of the areas being farmed and in the scale of breeding domesticated animals (work demanding activities). Compared to that, only negligible differences were found in growing commodities demanding less work (fruit and tomato growing). The identified differences in attitudes to self-provisioning in the observed regions (depending on the varied types of population in the regions) allow for analysing the perspectives of particular self-provisioning activities both in South Moravia and the CR on the whole.

Sídliště a pohřebiště kultury nálevkovitých pohárů v Dambořicích, okr. Hodonín. Příspěvek k poznání pohřebišť s pohřby v natažené poloze / A Funnel Beaker settlement and cemetery in Dambořice, South Moravia. A contribution to knowledge of cemeteries with burials in an extended position

The main subject of the article is evidence of settlement and burial activities from the beginning of the Early Eneolithic from Dambořice belonging to the Funnel Beaker culture. From the perspective of the current chronology, this is the early phase of the Baalberg stage of the Moravian – Lower Austrian group of this particular culture. To date, ten settlement features with a representative assemblage of pottery and six graves with burials in an extended position without grave goods have been investigated. The site is another example of only recently recorded burial customs of a local Funnel Beaker group and, simultaneously, an opportunity to present this phenomenon of the Early Eneolithic in Moravia in a broader context. The article includes an evaluation of anthropological material and a presentation of the radiocarbon dates that were acquired from the bones.

TBE in the Czech Republic

The TBE virus (TBEV) was first isolated in the Czech Republic by Czech scientists in 1948-1949 from both a patient and also from Ixodes ricinus ticks.1 However, even before 1948, etiologically unclear summer cases of viral meningoencephalitis had been reported, and likely, at least in part, they are attributable to the TBE virus. These cases were reported mostly from patients in the districts of Beroun (Central Bohemia), Hradec Králové (East Bohemia), Vyškov (South Moravia), and occasionally from the neighborhood of Prague. The official reports of these probable cases of ”tick-borne encephalitis” were registered in the database of the National Institute of Public Health in Prague since 1945.

Energy Utilization of Torrefied Residue from Wine Production

A significant amount of waste is generated in the food industry, which is both an environmental and an economic problem. The recycling of this waste has become an important area of research. The processing of grapes produces 20–30% of the waste in the form of grape pomace and stalks. This article assesses the fuel values of these materials before and after torrefaction. The input materials were grape pomace samples from the varieties Riesling (Vitis vinifera “Welschriesling”) and Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis vinifera “Cabernet Sauvignon”) from the South Moravia region and stalks from the variety Welschriesling. The torrefaction process was performed using a LECO TGA 701 thermogravimetric analyzer under nitrogen atmosphere at set temperatures of 225 °C, 250 °C, and 275 °C. The residence time was 30 min. Elemental analysis, calorific value, and gross calorific value were determined for all samples. The analyses show a positive effect of torrefaction on fuel properties in the samples. Between temperatures 250 °C and 275 °C, the carbon content increased by 4.29 wt.%, and the calorific value increased with the increase in temperature reaching a value of 25.84 MJ·kg−1 at a peak temperature of 275 °C in the sample grape pomace from blue grapevine.

Spatial Unevenness of Formation, Remediation and Persistence of Post-Agricultural Brownfields

The fall of the Iron Curtain created a vacuum upon which large-scale collectivized agriculture was largely abandoned. Post-agricultural brownfields emerge in multiple manners across national, regional and local levels. While these sites remain rarely explored, we aimed to better understand the spatial consequences of the formation, persistence and reuse of these sites. The regions of South Bohemia and South Moravia in the Czech Republic are used to show the location of post-agricultural brownfields identified in 2004 through 2018. Using Global Moran’s I test we have found that post-agricultural brownfields existing in 2004, long-term brownfields in 2018 and brownfields established between 2004 and 2018 are spatially clustered, but remediated brownfields between 2004 and 2018 are not. Next, the Anselin’s Local Moran’s I test identified where the spatial clusters exist. The clusters identified were examined for differences in their social, economic and environmental development by the means of logistic regression. The results show that the brownfields initially identified in 2004 are concentrated in regions with lower quality agricultural land while simultaneously located in the hinterlands of regional urban centers. In contrast, peripheral regions most often contained long-term brownfields. Brownfield sites identified after 2004 occurred in regions with higher agricultural quality of land and where corn usually grows.