ABSTRACT:Brownfields are an integral part of contemporary cities in Central Europe. It is obvious that the occurrence of brownfields influences the value of residential properties that are located in their neighbourhoods. In our research, we focused on the problem of perception of brownfields and ways how the perception of these sites affects prices of local real estate. Set of questionnaire surveys was conducted in three case study municipalities (Karvina, Orlova, Detmarovice in the Czech Republic) to ascertain factors that cause the specific perception of brownfields in municipalities that are heavily affected by the heavy industry and mining. It was found that brownfields are perceived quite negatively here and local population believes that the occurrence of brownfields significantly affects local residential property values. More polarized opinions of the population have been ascertained in case of Karvina, where plenty of brownfields are located within the settled part of the city. A key finding of our survey is that spatial distribution of brownfields within the particular city is of crucial importance while thinking about the impact of brownfields on the residential property values.

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The presented paper deals with the regionalization of the electoral support of the Czech Pirate Party (Pirates) in regional elections using methods and techniques of spatial data analysis. The aim is to answer the question whether the territorial distribution of Pirate electoral support allows this party to participate in governance at the regional level and thus influence the form of regional policy in individual regions. The results of the analysis show that the spatial distribution of Pirates’ electoral support in regional elections differed quite significantly not only from the pattern found in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament and elections to the European Parliament, but also between individual regional elections. This suggests the current lack of anchorage of Pirates’ electoral support in regional politics, but at the same time, it may have its origins in the second-order character of regional elections and the candidacy of many local and regional entities in regional elections. On the other hand, the results of the regional elections in 2020 meant that the Pirates received seats in all regional councils, but especially in nine of the thirteen regions they joined the regional government (similarly to two years earlier when they joined government of capital city of Prague), gaining the opportunity to influence, with regard to its priorities, the form of regional governance in most Czech regions.

Facilities for generating renewable energy form important elements in the rural landscape of the Czech Republic. The distribution of these facilities is highly uneven due to various natural and socio-economic factors. In our paper, we are focusing our attention on one of the important facilities for the generation of renewable energy in the Czech Republic; anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. In 2016, more than five hundred AD plants could be found in the country with a total installed capacity of 360 MW. By means of analyses of data on location of individual AD plants, quality of soils, size of agricultural farms (in which majority of AD plants is incorporated) we found that agricultural AD plants in the Czech Republic tend to concentrate in areas with larger agricultural farms and also in areas with average and slightly below average conditions for agricultural activities. Core areas where agricultural AD plants are the most densely located were also identified. In these areas, large farms with AD plants tend to crowd out smaller farms. Pressure to grow maize for ADs significantly competes here with growing of other agricultural crops for food. This finding is in strong contradiction with the official national agricultural policy where support for small farms is systematically emphasized. Core areas with AD plants make a belt that mostly covers sub-mountainous central parts of the Czech Republic where traditional agricultural plants are now significantly being displaced by maize to feed AD plants.

Brownfield regeneration is one of the key measures for sustainable development and it combines three pillarseconomic, environmental and social. The aim of this paper is to identify interlinkages between strategic, financial and regional frameworks of brownfield regeneration in the Czech Republic. The first part of the paper consists of literature review associated with brownfield regeneration. The second part of paper focuses on practical aspects of brownfield regeneration in the Czech Republic during the period 2000 to 2020. This empirical part is based on analysis of strategic documents, financial instruments and regional disparities. In this paper, national level and regional level data were applied (7 NUTS II regions excluding the region of the capital city Prague). Data summarizing the drawn funds or allocated financial amount to support the regeneration of brownfields from EU funds were obtained from secondary sources mainly (national strategies, websites of individual operational programs or national programs). The results show certain time delay in solving this issue in this post-socialistic country in comparison with Western European countries. Data also indicate noticeable differences between regions, both in terms of the number of brownfields and their regeneration, especially in terms of a number of projects or financial resources. Another finding is that the Czech Republic significantly improved the strategic planning of brownfield regeneration and as this problem is cross-sectional more institutions are involved both in strategic and financial dimension.