rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for GeoScapehttps://sciendo.com/journal/GEOSChttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/6471e04a215d2f6c89db3c6c/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/GEOSC140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The study addressed flood-induced food insecurity and coping strategies in agrarian South-eastern Nigeria. Data were collected from 400 households in 8 communities. Food (in)security was measured using Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) and 92.8% households were found to be food insecure. The most adopted coping strategies were compromising food quantity and quality namely; skipping meals; reducing meal frequency and reducing meal portion size in descending order. The study revealed a gender-based disparity in coping strategies adopted between female- and male-headed households and this has been linked to income and asset poverty gaps including differential household food insecurity levels. The coping strategies adopted were self-devised strategies that provided short-term means of survival in times of food shortages. Thus, policy measures, such as social security and food safety nets that are sustainable are recommended to reduce vulnerability to flood-induced food insecurity, thereby improving adaptation to help achieve Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00022023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The geomorphic processes in high-mountain environments are crucial and often limiting factors of vegetation development. Studies based on the long-term field monitoring are still scarce, however, thus limiting our understandng to vegetation dynamics and the knowledge needed for effective conservation management. In this paper we interpret results of a 20 years long observation considering the relationship between alpine vegetation and intensity of geomorphic processes in the territory of seven permanent plots in the Belianske Tatra Mts. (Slovakia, Central Europe). In principle, these sites represent a “battle field” for ongoing geomorphic processes and vegetation. They are either gradually occupied by initial stages of ecological succession of vegetation or were occupied in the past with the vegetation being more or less destructed. The field research was combined with data collection for standard phytosociological relèves. Spatial distribution of particular tussocks or individuals on each field was drawn in detail. We observed the share of species and their spatial arrangement in relation to the control sites with uncovered substrate. Special attention was paid to measuring the intensity of geomorphic processes using various methods and carried out three times a year. The CANOCO software was used for quantitative evaluation of the phytosociological relèves data. We applied indirect gradient analysis of principal components (PCA) to find out the variability of vegetation and sites, and the direct gradient analysis (RDA) to explain the diversity of species ad the habitat characteristicsThe geomorphic processes affecting the extreme high-mountain environment were evaluated as the most crucial elements that determine the spatial distribution of vegetation, its particular species or overall nature of coppice fragmentation. The relief and mainly its spatial geomorphic attributes are therefore relevant phenomena of landscape that enable scientists to understand, for example the scale and hierarchy of vegetation arrangement. The relationship of vegetation and the intensity of geomorphic processes can be only considered and generalized on the basis of longtermed research.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00062023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The literature on the concentration of urban poverty has considered two kinds of locations as the pockets of poverty: slums (vs. non-slums) and towns (vs. cities). Moving beyond these binaries in discussing spatial concentration of urban poverty, we have made an intersection of these two kinds of residential locations in the post-reform India using four rounds of data from the National Sample Survey. The proportion of relatively poor households was lower in city slum areas than in towns (both slum and non-slum households). Next, this paper tries to find out the level of basic services availability across these intersectional spatial categories and how public policies respond to existing poverty. Availability of basic services was higher in city slums than in town non-slum households. Across all these urban areas, the poor had a lower access to services than the non-poor, and the gap between them had increased over time. These findings also pose serious concerns on the geographical targeting of poverty alleviation programmes in India and on iniquitous resources allocations for providing basic amenities</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00012023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The aim of this research study is to compare the procedures for solving geographical problems with printed and digital cartographic products. These documents are used in various areas of society, including regional development or visual communication in the media. A total of 27 probands participated in the research. Individuals were randomly divided into two groups, one group working with a printed atlas and the other with a digital atlas in the same version. Respondents were tested using stationary and wearable eye-trackers while completing a didactic test to determine different levels of map skills. The results of the research showed that although the procedures and the success rate for solving the different tasks did not differ between the two groups of respondents, the differences were mainly in the time needed for the solution and in the satisfaction in the use of a given type of cartographic work.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00032023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper focuses on electronic record of sales, a tool enabling continuous monitoring and control of declared sales of business entities. Such systems have been recently gaining popularity in European countries. The objective of the paper is to analyse the possible use of electronic record of sales for a fairer redistribution of shared taxes according to the place where the taxable income was earned. We do not consider the current situation to be entirely fair, as sales may be realized in the whole territory of the country. However municipalities that help businesses achieve their income are not fairly rewarded for doing so. This usually gives larger municipalities an advantage at the expense of smaller ones. Currently, the tax administration has sufficient technical equipment to be able to identify the place where the revenue was received.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00042023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Water crisis issues are common in rural and urban areas, which can be tackled honestly by planning and managing existing water resources. The site suitability map is the principal footstep of planning practice for a region’s sustainable surface and groundwater resource development. The paper aims to delineate and suggest suitable sites for water harvesting for sustainable water resource development by taking the lower Kulsi watershed as a study area. Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are used in the multi-criteria decision-making process to identify a suitability map of water harvesting structures like percolation tanks, check dams, and surface farm ponds on the basin of the specific key factor of each design. About one hundred ninety-six sites are detected from the most suitable category of suitability based on particular criteria and suggestions for sustainable water conservation in the study area.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2023-00052023-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-0005<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Dzierżoniów’s residents definitely represent one of its most valuable resources. Its development and improvement of the generally approached life quality depends on their involvement in solving social and economic problems, their entrepreneurship and creativity. It should also be emphasized that the vast majority of surveyed residents are in favour of their city development. This phenomenon is based on the principle of mutual dependencies, i.e. the better the city functioning, the better living the conditions provided for its residents. On the other hand, the more active and involved the residents are the more effective is their support for the city development (e.g. by their involvement in NGOs’ activities). The presented article was prepared based on the survey studies ordered by Dzierżoniów’s Town Office and conducted in the period July–August 2013 which covered, among others, the city residents (422 respondents). The research was carried out within the framework of one of the stages in developing Dzierżoniów’s Local Sustainable Development Strategy for the period 2014-2020. The purpose of the study is to discuss and assess the selected functional areas of Dzierżoniów Town (geographic environment, economy, technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, city management) based on its residents’ opinions.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-00052016-01-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-0004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Innovations, innovation potential and innovation transfer are very actual topics in many fields of people’s activities. This problematic intersects very broad spectrum of disciplines, from regional development crossing economy to much specified business management and engineering. In the geographical studies this theme appears most often in the connection to social economic situation, internal or external potential and regional development on different hierarchical levels. This paper summarizes the results of research (questionnaires and interviews), which was carried out in the same time on both sides of the border (in the Usti region and in the Central Saxony¹). It was held under the cross border project “Innovation potential as a factor of increasing of the competitiveness of the Czech-Saxon borderland” (INPOK). Target respondents were on both sides the same: subjects from practices (companies), research and development institutions (high schools, universities, research institutes), then the public administration (above all the municipalities) and the regional actors (for example the economic chambers). We have focuses on analyzing the general framework conditions of the Czech-Saxon borderland, its strengths and weaknesses in the connection with active cross border cooperation above all between the research and practice field with the stress on the innovation behaviour in the study area.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-00042016-01-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-0002<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The paper focuses on the foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Central Europe and on the development changes among the individual countries. The paper follows from the work (Gauselmann et al. 2011) dealing with the development of the transient economies with focus on the role of the FDI. The objective of the paper is identification of the impact of the FDI on the economic growth and economic performance during the post-transformation era where differences among the countries at the beginning of the monitored period in 2000 and at the end of 2011 are evaluated based on data of United Nations Conference for Trade and Development. The development of FDI following 2000 was positively influenced by new system of the investment incentives for the foreign investors, accession of the countries to the European Union, it increased their credibility for foreign investors. High inflow of foreign direct investment ended with beginning of the economic crisis in 2008. Current trend in FDI is below its level before the economic crisis, and their amount increase only by few percent per year.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-00022015-06-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-0003<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Through this paper, the author would like to raise a discussion on possible specific effects of current demographic trends (namely the demographic ageing) in low-performace regions of Central and Eastern Europe. The article focuses on the current tendencies of the demographic development of the Ústí nad Labem Region (N Czechia), an old industrial region undergoing the economic transition since 1990s. The demographic development in the Ústí nad Labem Region is put in the context of the demographic development of the world, Europe, and the Czech Republic. Population development in the Ústí nad Labem Region copies the tendencies at the level of the territorial units of higher level. The differences in values of the demographic indicators, especially when compared to the Czech Republic, are mainly caused by specific demographic, economic, and social structures of the inhabitants of the region. The most important and discussed tendency of the population development in last decades is the process of the demographic ageing. The change will be slow but growing stronger with the ageing process becoming more powerful. It would be necessary to prepare for the process, particularly in the economic and social field, at the level of the regional government, otherwise the demographic ageing may further restrict the speed of economic and social transition in the region.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-00032015-06-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-0001<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The principal objective of this paper is to evaluate the spatial patterns of creative industries in a micro-geographic perspective. As the creative industries represent a highly heterogeneous complex, only selected creative industries were studied (culture, marketing and advertising, printing, publishing, architecture). The polycentric industrial city of Ostrava was chosen as the surveyed area. Various spatial statistical methods (e.g. nearest neighbour analysis, kernel density estimation) were applied for the needs of assessment. The results show that spatial patterns of creative industries at intra-urban level do not vary significantly from their counterparts in Western Europe. Despite the fact that Ostrava is highly industrialized polycentric city with relatively weak position of the city centre, creative industries are highly concentrated into the historical city centre and the inner city.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/geosc-2015-00012015-06-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0005<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The major aim of the paper is to summarize the main paths of regional development in the Czech Republic during the period of political, economical and societal transition using the statistical data and own survey at the country level. Following this summary, we aim at differentiation of regional developmental paths at individual hierarchical levels. Our analyses shows that structured assessment of quality of socio-economic environment at the regional respectively meso-regional level provides the necessary information needed for creation and implementation of effectively decentralized regional policy.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00052014-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0006<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Dhaka City has been suffering from many environmental problems including flooding, water logging and other related problems. Urbanization, which is occurring very fast and with larger magnitude in Dhaka, is the intrinsic reason behind these problems. High rate of urbanization causes extensive urban area expansion and as a result canals, wetland and other water bodies are quickly vanishing from the landscape. This study shows the present physical condition of the canals; identifies the processes of canal encroachment; represents the consequences of canal encroachment. 13 canals of 50 were surveyed; local people were surveyed to identify the impact and processes of encroachment. According to this study, canals of Dhaka city are under serious threat of extinction and require immediate recovery actions. Canals are being encroached in various styles and this study identifies five: unauthorized land filling, illegal construction over canal, expansion of slum, solid waste dumping, taking advantage of lack of awareness of local people as well as government agencies. However, this study also discusses the grave consequences of canal encroachment: increasing flood vulnerability, wane of ground water recharge area and ground water level, collapse of natural drainage system, loss of local ecology and biodiversity.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00062014-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0003<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Migration behaviour of the Inhabitants of Meghna Estuarine region has been affected by several social, economic and natural causes. This migration has been thought as a part of social behaviour in this region. It has been predicted in several international researches that, human migration is going to be the worst possible effect triggered by the changing climatic scenario (IPCC, 2007). Natural hazards are also very much responsible for human migration. Purpose of this research is to find out the pattern and factors of natural hazards induced outmigration in Meghna Estuarine Islands of Bangladesh. In this empirical research, primary data has been collected through threestage socioeconomic survey. From this research it has been seen that, natural hazards like river bank erosion, saline tide, flood, cyclone, storms cause extreme havoc to the life and livelihood of the inhabitants of Meghna Estuary islands. Many of these situations force inhabitants to migrate temporarily or permanently. Indirectly these hazards also affects migration behaviours by affecting natural resources and income sources of inhabitants of this region. Natural hazards have two types of effect on migration behaviour; one is forcing rapid migration by riverbank erosion, cyclone etc. and the other is making situations for slow migration decision by disturbing the regular economic, social and environmental system. Two types of outmigrations are prominent in these islands; permanent household migration and partial migration – and these migration behaviours have been influenced by natural hazards of these study areas.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00032014-06-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0001<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The issues of protection and management of biodiversity has become one of main environmental policy tasks in Europe and elsewhere. As an application of precautionary principles the EU member states are required to assess projects and plans which alone or in combination with other plans or projects are likely to have significant negative effects on Natura 2000 sites. Several EU provisions set out the obligations for such assessment (the Birds and Habitat Directives, EIA and SEA Directives). One of the key steps in the assessment process is to carry out the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) the final outcome of the assessment. If there is possibility of significant negative effects on Natura 2000 sites, the result of the process also has to be a part of EIS. The main goal of this study was to find out, what are the practitioners´ opinions and attitudes on the quality of EIS in Slovakia, especially in the case when the assessment process is related to Natura 2000 sites. Because it often involves practitioners from a very wide range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds, the contribution tries to show to what extent does the professional background or practitioners working positions influence their perception of EIS quality.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00012014-06-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Demographic potential constitutes one of the most important aspects of socioeconomic development by exerting impact on the growth potential and directions of the policy carried out at local and regional level. The areas concentrating young people, characterized by high birth rate and a positive migration balance gain growth potential not only for their current but also longterm development. The objective of the article is to present spatial diversification of the selected demographic phenomena in the crosssection of Polish communes in 2011 as well as to indicate areas presenting high and low growth potential.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00042014-06-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-0002<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The development of viticulture and wine producing has brought forward some unique elements of cultural land and introduced culture itself into the landscape. This culture has affected lives of many generations and determined the development of the society and the living environment. The form, the shape and the type of use of the respective elements of landscape structure has changed according to the change in technology, cultivation processes, orientation of production and the value system of the society. However, the recent viticultural rural land (together with residual areas of historical structure elements) in the vicinity of the capital city of Slovakia -- Bratislava has been under growing pressure caused by suburbanisation. This pressure directly threatens the existence of this kind of landscape and causes irreversible changes to landscape character. Landscape ecologists and architects have to face the issue of how to identify the valuable characteristics of the land and how to protects and keep them for the future generations. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of viticulture in the formation, existence and change of the elements of historical structures of agricultural landscape (HSAL). In addition, this paper presents the layout of various types of these elements, the methodical approach to their mapping and their present status. The results show that out of 141 localities where the HSALs were present in 1951, they could have been located only in 25 localities in 2011. These localities are mainly situated in private properties. However, many of the mapped HSALs are no longer used and in the state of deterioration. The lack of their management gradually causes their demise.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2014-00022014-06-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Multi-hazard mapping in urban areas is relevant for preventing and mitigating the impact of nature- and human-induced disasters while being a challenging task as different competencies have to be put together. Artificial intelligence models are being increasingly exploited for single-hazard susceptibility mapping, from which multi-hazard maps are ultimately derived. Despite the remarkable performance of these models, their application requires the identification of a list of conditioning factors as well as the collection of relevant data and historical inventories, which may be non-trivial tasks. The objective of this study is twofold. First, based on a review of recent publications, it identifies conditioning factors to be used as an input to machine and deep learning techniques for singlehazard susceptibility mapping. Second, it investigates open datasets describing those factors for two European cities, namely Milan (Italy) and Sofia (Bulgaria) by exploiting local authorities’ databases. Identification of the conditioning factors was carried out through the review of recent publications aiming at hazard mapping with artificial intelligence models. Two indicators were conceived to define the relevance of each factor. A first research result consists of a relevance-sorted list of conditioning factors per hazard as well as a set of open and free access data describing several factors for Milan and Sofia. Based on data availability, a feasibility analysis was carried out to investigate the possibility to model hazard susceptibility for the two case studies as well as for the limit case of a city with no local data available. Results show major differences between Milan and Sofia while pointing out Copernicus services’ datasets as a valuable resource for susceptibility mapping in case of limited local data availability. Achieved outcomes have to be intended as preliminary results, as further details shall be disclosed after the discussion with domain experts.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-00082023-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-0010<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Cities serve as hubs for various activities that necessitate comprehensive transportation connectivity. This study examines the decadal urban agglomeration patterns from 2001 to 2020 and critically assesses the relationship between freeway developments, industrial relocation, and population density in the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) metropolitan area. Landsat satellite imageries, US census, and open-source GIS datasets have been utilized in the study. The Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) algorithm helped generate the vector database, using which Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) variations were assessed. The calculated overall accuracies of the classified images for 2001, 2011, and 2020 were 93.12%, 91.87%, and 93.12%, respectively. Eventually, buffer generation techniques and summary statistics helped detect potential boom hotspots. Our results indicate that the highway advancement project lures industries, leading to population migration. The LULC variations suggest that the increase in highway infrastructure resulted in a surge in built-up and a decrease in open spaces in District-3 of DFW. From our study, we find that 79.16% of old industries are located near old freeways, while 78.84% of new industries are located near new freeways. Further, our industrial area to road area comparison clearly shows that industrial relocation was driven by transportation advancements over time. Our results also confirm that this relocation of industries fostered a massive population influx during the following decades.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-00102023-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The optical sensors on satellites nowadays provide images covering large areas with a resolution better than 1 meter and with a frequency of more than once a week. This opens up new opportunities to utilize satellite-based information such as periodic monitoring of transport flows and parked vehicles for better transport, urban planning and decision making. Current vehicle detection methods face issues in selection of training data, utilization of augmented data, multivariate classification or complexity of the hardware. The pilot area is located in Prague in the surroundings of the Old Town Square. The WorldView3 panchromatic image with the best available spatial resolution was processed in ENVI, CATALYST Pro and ArcGIS Pro using SVM, KNN, PCA, RT and Faster R-CNN methods. Vehicle detection was relatively successful, above all in open public places with neither shade nor vegetation. The best overall performance was provided by SVM in ENVI, for which the achieved F1 score was 74%. The PCA method provided the worst results with an F1 score of 33%. The other methods achieved F1 scores ranging from 61 to 68%. Although vehicle detection using artificial intelligence on panchromatic images is more challenging than on multispectral images, it shows promising results. The following findings contribute to better design of object-based detection of vehicles in an urban environment and applications of data augmentation.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/geosc-2022-00092023-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1