Current
| INTUF - European Network for the Integrative Approach of Urban Forestry | |
| Duration: | 25. 9. 2024 - 24. 9. 2028 |
| Evidence number: | CA23148 |
| Program: | COST |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Goga Tomáš, PhD. |
| Annotation: | Urban forests have been proposed by European Commission as a strategy to support climate adaptation capacity and sustainable development in the urban areas where over 70% of the EU’s population live. Urban forests produce numerous ecosystem services which reach significant levels when trees reach maturity. Unfortunately, urban trees have an average lifespan of 30 years resulting in failing ecosystems services. Urban forestry is a complex discipline because of the required multidisciplinary, the diversity of stakeholders’ and the long timeframe of trees. It is therefore essential to approach urban forestry from a sustainable and integrative viewpoint. The current approach is unable to fulfill the strategies of the European Commission due to lack of standardisation and scattering networks. New tools and better integration of different knowledge pools are urgently needed.The Action will bring together a pan-European network of scientists and stakeholders. The network will 1) integrative assess and benchmark the urban forest, 2) develop frameworks for strategic long-term, science-driven management and 3) stimulate stewardship by building cross-sectoral and inclusive management partnerships. The main pillar of attaining the challenges is by knowledge transfer between group members involved and from the Action to the global community. The Action will enhance networking among European scientists and increase the competitiveness of European research by promoting the exploitation of transnational research outcomes (SMEs). Finally, by knowledge creation and sharing, the Action will train young scientists. Career development of Young Researchers and Innovators and research impulses in Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) will be considered as a priority in the Action. |
| Partner countries: | Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom |
| Project website: | https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA23148 |
| G4B - Grasslands for biodiversity: supporting the protection of the biodiversity-rich grasslands and related management practices in the Alps and Carpathians | |
| Duration: | 1. 4. 2023 - 31. 3. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | Biodiversa2021-532 |
| Program: | Multilaterálne - iné |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Pazúr Róbert, PhD. |
| SAS cosolvers: | Mgr. Goga Tomáš, PhD., Mgr. Opravil Šimon, Mgr. Pazúrová Zuzana, PhD., Mgr. Šuška Pavel, PhD. |
| Annotation: | The objectives of the proposed project are (1) to identify diversity-rich grasslands and their distribution in the Alps and Carpathians; (2) to identify diversity-enhancing grassland management practices and their changes and persistence; (3) to identify areas suitable for the expansion of the protected grassland network; and (4) to propose new protected areas and their management in the Alps and Carpathians. In addressing these objectives, we will work with stakeholders to (i) identify effective methods for extrapolating vegetation patterns across mountain ranges; (ii) identify drivers of grassland management and historical influences on grassland diversity; (iii) identify constraints and motivations for biodiversity-supportive management practices; and (iv) provide a scientific basis for expanding the network of protected areas in the Alps and Carpathians. |
| Partner countries: | Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine |
| Project website: | https://www.biodiversa.eu/2023/04/19/g4b/ |
| 3DForEcoTech - Three-dimensional forest ecosystem monitoring and better understanding by terrestrial-based technologies | |
| Duration: | 13. 10. 2021 - 12. 10. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | COST Action CA20118 |
| Program: | COST |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Rusnák Miloš, PhD. |
| Annotation: | Forest ecosystems across the world are facing high pressures due to climate changes. In many areas, they are in a transition to adopt the changes. However, many are damaged in this process. It is crucial to make forest ecosystems more resistant to face these challenges, through resilience strengthening and close-to-nature forestry. Implementing such approaches and monitoring their progress requires accurate knowledge about forest ecosystems that rely on a forest in situ data at high spatial and temporal resolution.Novel terrestrial-based technologies will play an important part to face these challenges. Such technologies have experienced a fast development in recent years. The forests can now be observed and monitored in a very high spatial and temporal resolution that was not possible even a few years ago. Researchers and practitioners are facing a unique opportunity to deepen the understanding of forest ecosystems and to change the forestry to adopt the climate, environment and industrial changes. Various research groups across EU and beyond are testing such technologies or developing processing algorithms for precision forestry and forest ecology. But further cooperation is strongly required.3DForEcoTech project aims to establish a strong network of scientists and stakeholders (i.e. practitioners) and sensor manufacturers to synchronise the knowledge, to develop general protocols and algorithms for forest ecosystem state survey and forest functioning, and to make these novel technologies available to a broad audience. Specifically, 3DForEcoTech will develop protocols for data acquisition, processing, fusion for forest inventory and ecological applications, and will establish open-data and open-source algorithm databases. |
| Project website: | www.cost.eu/actions/CA20118 |
| Remote sensing for vegetation studies: deepening research collaboration and networking in the framework of 4EU+ Alliance | |
| Duration: | 1. 4. 2024 - 30. 11. 2024 |
| Evidence number: | MA/4EU+/2024/F4/03 |
| Program: | Multilaterálne - iné |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Goga Tomáš, PhD. |
| SAS cosolvers: | Doc. RNDr. Feranec Ján, DrSc. |
| Annotation: | In the last decades, a strong environmental transition as the result of long-term human-environment interaction propagated by biodiversity loss, landscape polarization, climate change and other dangerous processes became a severe problem. Protected areas, such as the Krkonoše Mts. National Parks are also exposed to these problems. As our team from the Faculty of Science of Charles University has been working in the Krkonoše Mts. for a long time, we would like to conduct our international research there within the 4EU+ partnership. So far, we have specialised mainly in the vegetation studies in the relict arctic-alpine tundra and partly in the forest ecosystem. In the framework of the Charles University Academic Minigrant, we would like to deepen our forest research and focus further on issues of ruderalization and invasive plant species. The aim of the project will, therefore, be to acquire aerial hyperspectral data for the eastern part of the Krkonoše Mts. and also to collect and analyse ground truth data (including laboratory biochemical analysis). The obtained data will be used in the joint research activities of the international 4EU+ team, as well as in teaching students at partner universities. The next objective of the Minigrant is to organise a workshop for all partners in the Czech Republic with the aim of working on a joint preparation of project proposal/pubication and further research and educational activities. During the workshop, we plan a field trip to the Krkonoše Mts. to introduce the area and research inputs to all partners. |
| Partner countries: | Denmark, Germany, Poland, Switzerland |
| LAPIA - Land cover change monitoring for identification of potential illegal activities in Slovakia | |
| Duration: | 15. 2. 2023 - 14. 8. 2024 |
| Evidence number: | |
| Program: | European Space Agency (ESA) |
| Project leader: | Ing. Szatmári Daniel, PhD. |
| SAS cosolvers: | Doc. RNDr. Feranec Ján, DrSc., Mgr. Goga Tomáš, PhD., RNDr. Kopecká Monika, PhD., Ing. Nováček Jozef, Mgr. Opravil Šimon, Mgr. Pazúr Róbert, PhD., Mgr. Rusnák Miloš, PhD. |
| Annotation: | The number of satellite-based remotely sensed datasets available for land cover (LC) change identification has increased markedly since the launch of the first Landsat satellite. Many change detection techniques have been developed and applied during this period to assess LC changes. Human impact on landscape causes categorical changes in its use: change of one type of landscape to another, e. g. arable land to built-up area. As such changes may influence the condition of the landscape, it is important to determine where and to what extent they take place. Legal changes in landscape involve planning and recording in the Land Register, agricultural, forestry or water economic plans. However, the landscape is ever more frequently attacked by illegal human interventions, and their tracking may be difficult because of remoteness, difficult access, etc. Nowadays, various methods of LC change identification are applied. The most progressive ones combine remotely sensed data (optical and radar) with data from environmental databases, thematic maps and field survey. This approach is also suitable for the identification of LC changes caused by illegal human activities in the landscape: (i) illegal dumps; (ii) illegally ploughed protected meadows; (iii) illegal clear-cuts of non-forest tree vegetation in the agricultural landscape. |
| Partner countries: | Slovakia |
| Project website: | http://projects.geography.sav.sk/international-projects/lapia/ |
| TMP4LAPIA - The Third-Party Missions Datasets for Identification of Potential Illegal Activities in Slovakia | |
| Duration: | 1. 8. 2023 - 31. 7. 2024 |
| Evidence number: | PP0091672 |
| Program: | European Space Agency (ESA) |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Goga Tomáš, PhD. |
| SAS cosolvers: | Doc. RNDr. Feranec Ján, DrSc., Mgr. Opravil Šimon, Mgr. Pazúr Róbert, PhD., Mgr. Rusnák Miloš, PhD., Ing. Szatmári Daniel, PhD. |
Finished
| Increasing the capacity of freight transportation infrastructure on EU-Ukraine borders | |
| Duration: | 1. 10. 2022 - 31. 3. 2024 |
| Evidence number: | 22220189 |
| Program: | International Visegrad Fund (IVF) |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Michniak Daniel, PhD. |
| Annotation: | Increasing the capacity of freight transportation infrastructure will strengthen the EU-Ukraine connectivity. The project provides for a study ofprospects for capacity building of existing border crossing points and opening new ones. It also focuses on the investigation of the potential of existingand planned network of transshipment and multimodal terminals in Ukraine and neighboring EU member states (three of which are countries of the V4region), and on the assessment of prospects for adaptation of the European and Ukrainian freight markets to the requirements of the European GreenDeal. |
| Partner countries: | Hungary, Poland, Romania |
| Project website: | http://projects.geography.sav.sk/international-projects/freight-eu-ua/ |
| Geotouristic potential of Podtatrze area and the possibilities of its development | |
| Duration: | 3. 10. 2022 - 29. 3. 2024 |
| Evidence number: | 22220059 |
| Program: | International Visegrad Fund (IVF) |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Novotný Ján, PhD. |
| SAS cosolvers: | Mgr. Michniak Daniel, PhD., RNDr. Székely Vladimír, CSc. |
| Annotation: | Podtatrze is a bordering area surrounding the Tatra Mountains, which includes four historical and cultural regions: Podhale, Orava, Liptov and Spiš. This area is also characterized by a long tradition associated with tourism and exploration of the highest mountain range of the Carpathians, which are the Tatra Mountains. However, tourism in this area is primarily based on visiting the most famous and most promoted places, such as Morskie Oko lake, Kasprowy Wierch peak, Kościeliska Valley, Giewont peak, Štrbské pleso lake, Mengusovská Valley, Studenovodské vodopády in the Tatras, Dunajec Gorge, Trzy Korony peak, Sokolica peak in the Pieniny Mountains, Demänovská Valley, Chopok Mountain in the Low Tatras, Suchá Belá Valley, Prielom Hornádu Valley in the Slovak Paradise, therefore the phenomenon of overtourism is observed there. To prevent this from happening, it was decided to present this region as geotouristically attractive and indicate the possibilities of developing this form of tourism as an alternative to the most crowded places.The main goal of the project is to inventory and assess the unique forms of abiotic nature in the area as well as to assess the tourist potential of this area and conduct pilot studies on a purposefully selected group of people deciding about the condition and development of the studied region (representatives of local governments, managers of national parks located in the vicinity of the analyzed area, entrepreneurs providing tourist services) over the possibility of tourist use of previously selected geosites.The added value of this project will be to raise the awareness of tourists and the local community about the responsible use of natural resources and activities for sustainable tourism by involving many social and professional groups, as well as promoting a healthy/sustainable style of tourism based on contact with nature, staying in silence, and not on crowded paths in noise and rubbish.As part of the project, various projects of tourist products (trails, educational paths, guides and applications) will be prepared and tailored to the needs of various age groups (children, adolescents, adults) based on carefully selected geosites depending on the condition and physical capabilities of the recipients, as well as their perception of the transmitted knowledge.According to the concept of UNESCO geoparks, Podtatrze is an area with strictly defined borders, where individual abiotic natural objects and landscapes are of international geological importance, which has already been proven many times in various scientific articles. Therefore, if this area is skilfully managed in accordance with the holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development, it may be included in the UNESCO World Geoparks List, which will undoubtedly be the most significant added value of this project in the future. |
| Partner countries: | Poland, Slovakia |
| Project website: | http://projects.geography.sav.sk/international-projects/podtatrzegeosites/ |