Volumen 14 (2020): Heft 2 (December 2020)

The aim of the study was to present and to classify current processes and phenomena which are observed within the depopulated villages in the Kłodzko region in SW Poland, to assess the present conditions, functions and meanings of deserted settlements, and to forecast their potential further transformations. The study was based on diverse cartographic sources, field investigations, inventories and interviews, historical documents and current spatial development plans. The current processes and phenomena occurring in the highly depopulated or deserted villages are spatially very diverse in terms of their types and dynamics. They include: afforestation (re-wilding), return to agricultural use (limitation of the secondary succession), new houses or the renovation of the old ones, partial restoration of the sacral landscape, large-scale tourist infrastructure and educational initiatives (educational trails, eco-museums, information boards). However, some areas remain forgotten and neglected. These processes often co-occur with each other and they may be diverse in different parts of the village. In the current transformations of the abandoned areas the main focus is on local economy or nature protection while the cultural landscape of the deserted villages is hardly appreciated as an important value itself. The potential future transformations of the depopulated areas will be multidirectional with the tendency to polarization. Some areas will be subject to an increased human pressure, especially due to the new developments in housing and large-scale tourist infrastructure, the other areas will remain out of the way allowing for using their potential as “archives” of traditional cultural landscapes.

This paper offers an introduction to the renewed landscape archaeological and historical geographical research on the lost village of Nieuw-Roeselare. Despite being the first site to be studied as a Deserted Medieval Settlement in modern-day Flanders, little is known about the village and its relation to the surrounding landscape. Nieuw-Roeselare is presented as a case study on lost and deserted medieval settlements in the context of the research history on the topic in both Flanders and Zealand. Past historical geographical and archaeological research at the site is described and the ongoing and future research is presented along with its potential for landscape studies and planning.

The magnitude and frequency of severe and extreme drought events continue to grow, instigating a grave risk to human wellbeing. Marathwada region of India is one of the most chronically drought affected region of India. The sequential drought events between the years 2012 to 2016 acutely impacted the natural as well as socio-economic resources of the region. This study attempts to assess the drought vulnerability of Marathwada region at sub-district level. An integrated drought vulnerability index has been developed by blending biophysical and socio-economic indicators of drought vulnerability. The analysis revealed that sub-districts like Shirur-Anantpal, Deoni, Shirur Kasar, Dharur, Biloli, Paranda, Mukhed, Khuldabad, Patoda, Hadgaon, Palam, Badnapur and Kaij, emerged as the very highly vulnerable to drought, representing 14.43% of geographical area and 10.96% of population of Marathwada while the sub-districts lying under the category of high drought vulnerability represented 39.15% of geographical area and 34.69% of population.

Being one of the densely populated cities of the world, city dwellers of Dhaka have to face severe traffic congestion daily while commuting for different purposes. According to the World Bank report, Dhaka is losing around 3.2 billion working hours daily as the current average driving speed is about seven kilometers per hour. To ease traffic congestion, urban policymakers around the world are concentrating on the geographical balance between the locations of jobs and housing. Despite the apparent acceptance of jobs-housing balance as a policy tool to guide urban development, little empirical research has been carried out on jobs-housing balance and its relation to the travel behavior of the residents. This study aims to close this research gap by: (a) quantifying neighborhoodlevel jobs-housing balance; (b) investigating whether there are any significant differences in commuting time and distance of the resident workers in correspondence with different Job-Housing Ratio (JHR) values of neighbourhoods. This paper uses Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs) demarcated on the Revised Strategic Transport Plan as a unit of measuring the Job-Housing Ratio, and then, TAZs have been categorized into three groups, named as Housing-rich, Balanced, and Employment-rich, in terms of the recommended range of Job-Housing Ratio. Residents’ home-based commuting data have been calculated from 16,000 households who participated in Household Interview Survey of Revised Strategic Transport Plan 2015. Results demonstrate that Housing-rich neighbourhoods have a significantly longer commuting distance and time than both Balanced and Employment-rich neighbourhoods. Above all, both commuting time and distance show exponentially declining relation, but with a decreasing rate, in correspondence with JHR. The study output suggests that the achievement of a balance between jobs and housing in a neighborhood would be beneficial for the people to economize the commuting time and distance.

Illicit drug use and drug-related crime constitute a significant issue and create large economic and societal costs both at national and regional level. The aim of this article is to examine the differences in primary drug-related crime between urban, suburban and rural local police departments in Czechia. The primary drug-related crime rate in local police departments was constructed from the data collected in the national crime database and the geographical classification of these departments was taken from previous research. To analyze the differences among urban, suburban and rural departments, we used the general linear model. The models with measures that were not standardized for the number of inhabitants were all significant, while not all the models with standardized measures were significant. Overall primary drug-related crime, unauthorized production and other handling of illicit drugs and possession of illicit drugs models with standardized measures showed no significant differences between departments. The cultivation of plants model with standardized measure shows an increase in the predicted values of independent variables in suburban and rural departments compared to urban departments. Our research results show that local urban police departments are not related to higher rates of standardized primary drug-related crime, although there are differences in specific drug law offences. It suggests that drug-related issues are prevalent in all types of departments, however, the specific issues differ between them. Conclusions: The research showed that standardized primary drug-related crime rate in urban departments is not higher than in suburban or rural local police departments.

Spatial exclusion as a result of social exclusion is a complex problem that hinders the development of territories and undermines social cohesion in society. These are issues that need to be addressed at a local level through cooperation between the various influential bodies (public administration, politicians, citizens, social workers, the media among others). This article examines social exclusion based on an internationally recognised case that occurred in the Czech Republic 10 years after the 1989 democratic revolution. The starting point for this article is 1999, when a chain of decisions made by public administration resulted in the emerging spatial segregation in Matiční Street in the region′s capital Ústí nad Labem. The article is based on semi-structured oral history interviews with social participants. It identifies barriers for the successful resolution of issues at that time on the basis of the Pierson theory of social exclusion (2010) as the insufficient use of local participation and networks and their abuse for political and media purposes. Using the lens of social actors, it is looking for important milestones and lessons learned for the future development in public policies.