In the Czech Republic, the afforestation of agricultural land has been supported by providing subsidies from the government and the European Union. Afforestation of less-productive agricultural land provides many benefits including carbon sequestration, soil erosion control, biodiversity, water retention, cooling, social benefits, decreasing noise and light pollution, increasing air quality, wind speed reduction, oxygen production, wood production and non-wood products. In some aspects, it is possible to produce wood of the same quality on former agricultural land compared to permanent forest land. In this study, we attempted to find out the course of temperatures and volumetric water content as well as some other physical soil properties (at depths of 20, 40 and 60 cm) 9 years after the afforestation of agricultural land (warm, mild dry region of the Czech Republic) with a mixture of broadleaved tree species (Quercus robur L., Quercus rubra L. and Acer platanoides L.) or monospecific Pinus sylvestris L. stand; the study was performed in the period from April to the beginning of November 2020. Concerning the studied physical soil properties, the value of bulk density was higher (and total porosity lower) at a depth of 20 cm in Pinus sylvestris L. compared with agricultural land or the mixture of broadleaves; the water stability of soil aggregates was higher after the afforestation with the mixture of broadleaves. The temperature was lower in the soil of afforested plots (at all studied depths) compared to the agriculturally used land. Differences in rainfall interception, transpiration, soil<br />(and forest floor) properties and other factors could influence the obtained values of water content in the soil of the studied plots. The average volumetric water contents were the highest in the plots with Scots pine (depth of 20 cm) and broadleaves (depth of 40 cm), and on the control plot (depth of 60 cm). The volumetric water content at a soil depth of 20 cm was not significantly (P &gt; 0.05) different when the plot with Scots pine and agriculturally used land were compared. In all other cases and depths, the differences between plots were significant (P &lt; 0.05).

Many studies showed that afforestation increases carbon storage and it can have effects on physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. Afforestation can affect local and regional climate and these effects differ between tropical, temperate and boreal areas. Forests are also efficient in protecting soils against erosion and their flood mitigation functions or other benefits are described in different publications. In this study, the pattern of air temperatures (20 cm, 40 cm and 60 cm above the surface) was studied 10 years after the afforestation of agricultural land (warm, mild dry region of the Czech Republic) with a mixture of broadleaved tree species (Quercus robur L., Quercus rubra L. and Acer platanoides L.) or monospecific Pinus sylvestris L. stand. The aim of our study was to find out the pattern of air temperatures (20 cm, 40 cm and 60 cm above the surface) on two plots (one of the plots ‒ old beech trees, the other plot ‒ clearing) in a beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forest in a mildly warm, mildly wet region of the Czech Republic. The afforestation of agriculturally used land led to air temperature cooling and to a reduction of the amplitude of maximum and minimum temperatures. The average air temperature (from April 2021 to the beginning of November 2021) decreased by 0.7–1.1 °C on the afforested plots compared with the agriculturally used plot. In the beech forest, the average temperature decreased on the plot with clearing compared with the old beech trees (from the middle of September 2021 to the middle of November 2021). Our results confirm the benefits of afforestation to climate change mitigation;  buffering of extreme temperatures is important for the human thermal comfort.

Kadlec V., Žížala D., Novotný I., Heřmanovská D., Kapička J., Tippl M.: Land consolidations as an effective instrument in soil conservation. Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 188-200, 2014.In the Czech Republic, more than 50% of agricultural land is threatened by water erosion, which is tremendously increasing during last couple of years. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with soil conservation as soon as possible. Land consolidations (LCs) are thus an important tool for implementation of soil, water and landscape conservation measures. It is possible to arrange land ownerships by them. They also arrange land spatially and functionally, provide availability of parcels and their land use in public interest. Besides that, environmental improvement, soil conservation, water management and increase in landscape ecological stability supplement the use of LCs. The results of soil consolidations serve for renewal of cadastral records and for the backgrounds for landscape planning. The aim of the research was to evaluate the selected site (district Plzeň - South) with regard to the amounts and limits of proposed and implemented measures in LC process. The research was processed on the basis of detailed analysis regarding erosion risk and runoff conditions in GIS compared with the previous data (before LC).

Kovář P., Pelikán M., Heřmanovská D., Vrana I. Harmful impacts of floods are the result of an interaction between extreme hydrological events and environmental, social, and economic processes. Flood management should consider many diverse aspects and influences and an integrated approach to flood management therefore plays an important role. In order to make an analysis and provide an adequate flood management, it is necessary to bring together a team comprising experts e.g. from the fields of hydrology and water resources, nature protection, risk management, human security, municipal administration, economics, and land use. Estimates by experts can serve finding solutions to given YES/NO problems, and estimating the value of specific attributes or parameters. It is not easy to adopt the solution which represents the best possible agreement among the participating experts, since experts and other participants can represent diverse standpoints. In particular, landowners and leaseholders upstream a catchment are often in a different position than the members of the municipal flood control committee downstream in a city with a high inhabitancy. In order to measure and evaluate the level of agreement between experts and landowners, a newly developed method for assessing the level of agreement and the τ-agreement value was applied. The aim of the present paper is to illustrate the use of a fuzzy-group-agreement decision-making procedure of this kind, involving a broad range of standpoints in a case study of the Zdravá Voda catchment, Žarošice, Czech Republic. This illustration has been made by comparison of hydrological model scenarios with the experts' decision. The method used in the paper applied towards aggregating expert proposals expressed as fuzzy quantities to propose a binary solution to estimate a decisive parameter numerical value. The decision achieved for the Zdravá Voda catchment was that the efficiency of structural measures (polder) was superior over the non-structural measures (replacement of the arable land by grassland).

The aim of the article was to verify the curve number (CN) values given in the National Engineering Handbook (NEH) methodology, whether they really correspond to all wide-row crops. The tested crops were maize, hops and potatoes grown using conventional and soil conservation technologies. All these crops are classified as wide-row crops, but they are very different in terms of the cultivation process. The basis for the calculation of our CN values were field measurements carried out using a rainfall simulator within the time span from 2014 to 2020 on the soil corresponding to hydrological group B in two repetitions: naturally dry soil corresponding to an ARC II curve and saturated soil corresponding to an ARC III curve. The results show that our calculated CN values for the conventional cultivation of wide-row crops are, in principle, the same as the CN values given in the NEH methodology. On the contrary, a certain difference was recorded in the soil conservation technologies with plant residues on the surface, in the case of naturally dry soil. Lower CN values are clearly seen in the technologies of no-till maize, strip-till maize and hops with catch crops, which was confirmed by the statistical tests, probably due to the interception and surface roughness.