Jaroslav KŘÍŽ: Grassing, reforestation and abandonment of agriculture land of Czechia after 1990 The thesis deals with land use changes on the Czech territory, which run from 1990 to the present, focusing on extensification processes, primarily for grassing, reforestation and abandonment of agricultural land. Research will focus on revealing the factors that these processes at the level of individual agricultural parcels influence. Examined are both natural factors (slope, productive capacity of the soil) and socioeconomic factors (distance from settlements and roads, the number of owners of the area, the distance from the area of residence of the owner). Research is carried out in two model areas, which also correspond to the cadastral area. Current data are collected by field survey and then compared to the situation before 1990, which is shown in map sheets of the State Map derived 1: 5000. The natural factors have extensification processes influence both slope and the productive capacity of the soil. For socio- economic factors, especially the number of owners of the area, and the distance between their place of residence. The grassing, reforestation and abandonment of agricultural land also occurs on average smaller areas than those on which there are, for example, arable land, and also in...

Jaroslav KŘÍŽ: Processes of land use extensification in the inner periphery of Czechia after 1990 The thesis deals with land use changes in the territory of the Czechia inner periphery, which run from 1990 to the present, focusing on extensification processes, primarily for grass planting, afforestation and abandonment of agricultural land. Research will focus on revealing the factors that these processes at the level of individual agricultural parcels influence. Examined are both natural factors (slope, productive capacity of the soil) and socioeconomic factors (distance from settlements and roads, the number of owners of the area, the distance from the area of residence of the owner). Research is carried out in two model areas, which also correspond to the cadastral area. Current data are collected by field survey and then compared to the situation before 1990, which is shown in map sheets of the State Map derived 1: 5000. The natural factors have extensification processes influence both slope and the productive capacity of the soil. For socio-economic factors, especially the number of owners of the area, and the distance between their place of residence. The grassing, afforestation and abandonment of agricultural land also occurs on average smaller areas than those on which there are, for...

The Midwest US has experienced significant changes in agricultural land use and management practices in recent decades. Cropland expansion, crop rotation change, and crop phenology changes could lead to divergent environmental impacts on linked ecosystems. The overall objective is to examine agricultural land use and management changes and their impacts on water quality in the Midwest US, which is addressed in three separate studies. The first study examined spatial and temporal dimensions of agricultural land use dynamics in east-central Iowa, 2001-2012. Results of this study indicated that increases in corn production in response to US biofuel policies had been achieved mainly by altering crop rotation. This study also examined spatial relationships between cultivated fields and crop rotation practices with respect to underlying soils and terrain. The most intensively cultivated land had shallower slopes and fewer pedologic limitations than others, and the corn was planted on the most suitable soils. The second study characterized key crop phenological parameters (SOS and EOS) for corn and soybean and analyzed their spatial patterns to evaluate their change trends in the Midwest US, 2001-2015. Results showed that MODIS-derived SOS and EOS values are sensitive to input time-series data and threshold values chosen for crop phenology detection. The non-winter MODIS NDVI time-series input data, and a lower threshold value (i.e., 40%) both generated better results for SOS and EOS estimates. Spatial analyses of SOS and EOS values displayed clear south-north gradient for corn and trend analyses of SOS revealed only a small percentage of counties showed statistically significant earlier trends within a user-defined temporal window (2001-2012). The third study integrated remote sensing-derived products from the first two studies with the SWAT model to assess impacts of agricultural management changes on sediment and nutrient yields for three selected watersheds in the Midwest US. With satisfied calibration and validation results for stream flows, sediment and nutrient yields, considered under differing management scenarios, were compared at different spatial scales. Results showed that intensive crop rotation, advancing the planting date with the same length of growing season, and longer growing seasons, dramatically increased, maintained, and slightly reduced sediment, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous yields, respectively. Overall, these studies together illuminate relationships between broad-scale agricultural policies, management decisions, and environmental impacts, and the value of multi-temporal, broad-scale, geospatial analysis of agricultural landscapes. / Ph. D.

Yes / This paper critically examines how low-paid workers, who need to work in more than one legitimate job to make ends meet, attempt to reconcile work and life. The concept of work-life articulation is utilised to investigate the experiences, strategies and practicalities of combining multiple employment with domestic and care duties. Based on detailed qualitative research, the findings reveal workers with 2, 3, 4, 5 and even 7 different jobs due to low-pay, limited working hours and employment instability. The study highlights the increasing variability of working hours, together with the dual fragmentation of working time and employment. It identifies unique dimensions of work extensification, as these workers have an amalgamation of jobs dispersed across fragmented, expansive and complex temporalities and spatialities. This research makes explicit the interconnected economic and temporal challenges of low-pay, insufficient hours and precarious employment, which creates significant challenges of juggling multiple jobs with familial responsibilities.

This master thesis focuses on extensification of agricultural production and land use, and on driving forces and factors that influence this process. The research concentrates on land-use changes resulting from the extensification of agriculture (especially grassing-over and abandonment of agricultural land) in last twenty years. Emphasis is put on an analysis of driving forces of extensification processes that have an influence on land-use change. Factors with an impact on extensification are divided into natural and socio-economic ones. Natural factors are represented for example by air temperature, precipitation, altitude, slope, or soil productivity. As socio-economic ones we consider for instance the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, Gross Domestic Product, population density, spatial exposedness, or patterns of use and ownership of agricultural land. These factors are studied on European, Czech and local scales. Data for this research were collected from international and Czech databases; on the local level there was performed the author's own field research. Results of this thesis are obtained by quantitative research that demonstrate the main influence of natural driving forces on the process of extensification in Europe. Land-use changes related with extensification of agriculture...

The main topic of the dissertation thesis is the evaluation of the influence of socio- geographical exposure and other factors (natural: altitude, inclination of slopes, productivity of land) on the extensification processes of the land use in Czechia in the period of more than 160 years, 1845-2010. Emphasis is also placed on the associated losses of agricultural and arable land, given that afforestation and increase of grassland took place essentially at the expense of that land. The main data source is the "Database of long-term land use changes in Czechia (1845-2010)", LUCC Czechia, based on cadastral records. It is a detailed monitoring which covers almost 9,000 so-called stable territorial units. Both the extensification processes and the overall intensity of land use (using the coefficient of ecological importance) are evaluated. Given that most of the Czechia's territory is still used as agricultural land, the thesis also includes an overview of the evolution of the selected agricultural intensity indicators. Attention is likewise paid to the wider context of land use changes at the European level. The essential part of the thesis is to build models of socio-geographical exposure of Czechia, which are comparable with the data on land use in the time horizons of 1845, 1896, 1948, 1990 and...

This diploma thesis is an analysis of the influence of specific socio-political changes to the landscape and agriculture in Czechia. The chosen socio-political changes are the beginning of communist regime in 1948 and the transformation of the whole society after the end of communist regime in 1989. The main idea used in this thesis was the concept of driving forces and the other used concepts were social capital, agricultural diversification and intensification and extensification of the landscape. Detailed presentation of the influence of specific socio- political changes in agriculture and landscape was made by a case study in administrative region Tábor. The used concepts were described In the opening part as well as the main stages of development of agriculture and landscape in Czechia and in the model area. The main method used in the case study were semi-structured interviews with farmers, who were active in agriculture before 1948 and in the time of the research. According to the results of the research the influence of institutional driving forces significantly increased in comparison to the period before 1948. The results also showed to important role of non-productive functions of current agriculture. . Keywords: landscape, agriculture, driving forces, land use, intensification and...