The Czech Republic has made progress in decoupling economic growth from freshwater abstractions, energy consumption, GHG and other air pollutants emissions. However, its strong industrial base and reliance on coal place the country among the most energy- and carbon-intensive in the OECD and air pollution is a serious health concern. Progressing towards sustainable development will require strengthening political commitment to a low-carbon economy and implementing more cost-effective environmental policies. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth, with special features on waste, materials management and circular economy and sustainable urban development.

Reflecting the concerns over environmental sustainability, there has been an increasing focus on the protection of our water resources and on the proper management of our waste. Our economic growth can only be sustainable when it does not represent a threat to human health and to fauna, flora, and eco-system in the long-term. A long-term resilience, new business and economic opportunities, and environmental sustainability can be achieved through circular economy model that offers us a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign our economic activities and consumption patterns. With an aim to give the reader a new perspective on this issue, this book covers European Union’s water and waste management legislation and the Czech Republic’s transposition of this legislation, and includes a comparative analysis of the performances of the EU Member States on the implementation of new water and waste management policy strategies.

Europe remains divided between east and west, with differences caused and worsened by uneven economic and political development. Amid these divisions, the environment has become a key battleground. The condition and sustainability of environmental resources are interlinked with systems of governance and power, from local to EU levels. Key challenges in the eastern European region today include increasingly authoritarian forms of government that threaten the operations and very existence of civil society groups; the importation of locally-contested conservation and environmental programmes that were designed elsewhere; and a resurgence in cultural nationalism that prescribes and normalises exclusionary nation-building myths. This volume draws together essays by early-career academic researchers from across eastern Europe. Engaging with the critical tools of political ecology, its contributors provide a hitherto overlooked perspective on the current fate and reception of ‘environmentalism’ in the region. It asks how emergent forms of environmentalism have been received, how these movements and perspectives have redefined landscapes, and what the subtler effects of new regulatory regimes on communities and environment-dependent livelihoods have been. Arranged in three sections, with case studies from Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Serbia, this collection develops anthropological views on the processes and consequences of the politicisation of the environment. It is valuable reading for human geographers, social and cultural historians, political ecologists, social movement and government scholars, political scientists, and specialists on Europe and European Union politics.

. . . the book s contents will appeal to academics working within the fields of environmental politics or central and east European studies, as well as to political or social scientists with an interest in SMO development. David Benson, Environmental Politics Environment and Democracy in the Czech Republic is a succinct, well written and scrupulously researched book. . . Sean Hanley, Europe Asia Studies . . . this book provides a well-researched survey of the development of the environmental movement in the Czech Republic and of its role in relation to the democratic transition process. . . For scholars and students looking at environmental politics in Central and Eastern Europe, it provides a wealth of information that will be useful in conducting comparative studies. Alberto Costi, European Environment Fagan has written a well-researched analysis of the evolving role and status of Czech EMOs since the overthrow of communism. John M. Kramer, Slavic Review This volume presents an original study of the development of the environmental movement in the Czech Republic, particularly in relation to the democratic transition process. It offers a broad, historical analysis of the evolution of the movement through the 1990s to the present day, and presents rich case studies on a number of environmental organisations. The detailed empirical work reveals interesting insights into the character of contemporary Czech politics and the difficulties faced by the environmental movement. This is a well researched and well written piece of work which will make a valuable contribution to the existing literature. James Meadowcroft, University of Sheffield, UK Since a handful of environmental activists helped to bring down the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, the arena of environmental politics has offered a valuable lens on the transition process, providing a unique insight into the contradictory and highly contingent relationship between democratisation and neo-liberalism. Environment and Democracy in the Czech Republic offers a radical perspective on the democratisation process, revealing the extent to which the consolidation of a politically efficacious and diverse civil society is far more complex than the earlier generation of commentators acknowledged. The environmental movement has not flourished under political democracy; its radical activists have been marginalized and targeted by the state, their ideologies and strategies compromised and their critical voice silenced. Yet the book concludes that whilst the mainstream environmental movement has become institutionalised and appears incapable of representing community interests, the environmental issue retains the capacity to mobilise, this time against the neo-liberal agenda of the democratic government. This definitive account of the evolution of the Czech environmental movement since 1990 offers a radical evaluation of the institutions and practice of political democracy, and challenges some of the certainties of social movement theory. Although focused on the Czech Republic, the book will undoubtedly contribute to a better understanding of the role of environmental movements within contemporary politics throughout the world. It will be welcomed by political and social scientists with an interest in Central and Eastern Europe, and academics and students with an interest in environmental politics.

The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe is the first in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition after the fall of the Communist bloc. Edited by Jan Svejnar,a principal architect of the Czech economic transformation and Economic Advisor to President Vaclav Havel, the book poses important questions about the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. The thirty-five essayists describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues it faces.In this in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition, an international team of thirty-five economists examine the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. Important questions and issues permeate the essays. For example, prior to 1939 the Czech Republic possessed the most advanced economy in the region; is it capable of reestablishing its dominance? Relative to its neighbors, the Republic ranks especially high on some transition-related performance indicators but low on others. What economic effects are related to the 1993 dissolution of the Czech and Slovak governments? And what can be learned by comparing the economic outcomes of two countries that shared legal and institutional frameworks? Data describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. Its most important contributions are its clarifications of the transition process.The authors included in Transforming Czechoslovakia combine the best available data and techniques of economic analysis to assess the replacement of the inefficient but internally consistent central planning system with a more efficient market system. These authors, among whom are central European economic analysts, senior U.S. economists, and Czechoslovakian professors and economic researchers, discuss the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. The essays vary between presentations of history and policy and technical examinations of data. Together they offer the most comprehensive and detailed assessment of the country's economic transformation in print.This book is important because its essayists compile results and reach conclusions that are broad and credible. The empirical data were gathered on the ground and have been subjected to advanced methodologies, including game theory, industrial organization, and Granger-Sims causality.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book provides a unique overview of the impacts of railways on biodiversity, integrating the existing knowledge on the ecological effects of railways on wildlife, identifying major knowledge gaps and research directions and presenting the emerging field of railway ecology. The book is divided into two major parts: Part one offers a general review of the major conceptual and theoretical principles of railway ecology. The chapters consider the impacts of railways on wildlife populations and concentrate on four major topics: mortality, barrier effects, species invasions and disturbances (ranging from noise to chemical pollution). Part two focuses on a number of case studies from Europe, Asia and North America written by an international group of experts.

The book aims to present the unique geomorphological landscapes of the Czech Republic. The geomorphic uniqueness of this country benefits from the proximity to two distinct European geological domains: the old cratonized Bohemian Massif and the relatively young Tertiary fold and thrust belt of the Western Carpathians. Landscapes and Landforms of the Czech Republic introduces general physiographical characteristics of the landscape and presents the main driving factors leading to the evolution of the present landscape. The book contains twenty two chapters describing the most interesting geomorphic landscapes of the Czech Republic. The selection of individual landscapes was based on visual exceptionality (e.g. sandstone landscapes of the Northern Bohemia), scientific importance (e.g. patterned grounds in the Sudetic Mountains) and historical relevance (e.g. mining of the Nízký and Hrubý Jeseník Mountains). The final chapters of the book discuss the protection of geomorphic heritage in the Czech Republic.

This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth, with special features on waste, materials management and circular economy and sustainable urban development.

The objective of this book is to analyze changes in the landscape of Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic since the first half of the 19th century. The text focuses not only on describing these considerable changes by means of statistical and spatial data, but also on explaining the processes, societal, economic, political and institutional forces that drive them. Drawing on more than two decades of experience with land use research, the authors have combined methods and approaches from the fields of human geography, cartography, landscape ecology, historical geography and environmental history. The authors understand land use research as a way of analyzing nature-society interactions, their development, spatial aspects, causes and impacts. Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic serves as an example, combining general processes occurring in landscapes of developed countries with the results of regionally specific driving forces, most of them political (world wars, communism, return to market economy etc.).