
Bohumil FrantálCzech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geonics
Bohumil Frantál
Ph.D.
“If energy and society are parts of the same cloth, geography is the thread that ties them together“ (Mike Pasqualetti)
About
106
Publications
93,875
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Introduction
Bohumil works as Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Geonics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of Environmental Geography (since 2002) and as a Senior Researcher and lecturer at Palacký University in Olomouc (since 2012). In his research he focuses on social-spatial contexts of energy transitions (particularly the spatial diffusion and social acceptance of renewable energy innovations), urban renewal and brownfields regeneration, time geography and spatial models of behaviour.
Additional affiliations
The Institute of Geonics Czech Academy of Sciences and Palacky University Olomouc
Position
- Senior Research Scientist
January 2009 - present
September 2002 - April 2015
Institute of Geonics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Position
- Scientific researcher
Publications
Publications (106)
The paper presents results of an international comparative survey with local communities living in three coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. The survey attempted to answer the questions to what extent do the perceptions of negative impacts and threats of coal mining, the attitudes towards coal mining and preferences for th...
As our crowded and warming world continues moving away from fossil fuels such as coal, we are increasingly attempting to transform the landscapes damaged by mining into beneficial, appealing and valuable new uses. The post-mining transformation involves many dilemmas, often arouses land use conflicts and can reproduce environmental injustices. In t...
The transition away from coal has often been discussed in abstract and disembodied terms. This paper aims to show how the post coal-mining transition is a territorially embedded process that is contested by local actors. We use the case of the Czechoslovak Army Mine in the northwestern part of the Czech Republic to problematize the role of local hi...
A crucial task to accelerate global decarbonisation is to understand how to enable fast, equitable, low-carbon transformations in Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions (CCIRs). In this early literature review we underlined the relevance of the boundary concept of social-ecological tipping points (SETPs) and showed that the research and policy usage of...
On Sunday, August 13, 2023, Stanislav Martinát – a respected Czech geographer and member of the Editorial Board of Moravian Geographical Reports journal – died after a short serious illness at the age of 47. Despite his relatively young age, Stanislav Martinát was one of the most productive and the most cited Czech geographers. He is the author or...
“Smart consumption”. ‘What is that? Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas. The EU is positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. Smart consumption as a key element of these efforts, however, mostly explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to ide...
The energy tourism nexus can be conceptualized from at least three perspectives. First, energy in the form of basic infrastructure, electricity, and fuels consumed for traveling, heating, cooling, and other services is a principal determinant of tourism. Its supply and price directly affect the development or stagnation of tourism and related econo...
Adaptation to sustainable energy transition in Europe: Environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects (ADAPTAS) (No. CSO2017-86975-R) is a project funded by the Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, State Research Agency of Spain, and European Regional Development Fund. It took place between January 2018 and September 2022. Thi...
The continued expansion of the wind energy sector with wind turbines growing in number and size has significantly altered landscapes and brought about more sitting controversies and land use conflicts. The novel contribution of this study to the wind energy acceptance debate is in identifying and classifying relationships among specific conflict pa...
New empirical evidence regarding theories of the resource curse and regional resilience in the context of energy transitions is presented in this article. Our analysis aimed to answer the questions of what the principal differences are between coal mining and other regions in the Czech Republic, and what are the determinants of
population decline,...
Coal energy landscapes have changed dramatically over the last decades, including geographic shifts in production and consumption, technological changes that have reduced labour demand and led to relatively new mining practices (e.g. invasive mountain-top approaches), changed economic footprints, a shutdown of capacities or a complete end of mining...
This paper contributes to existing research on home energy efficiency renovations by analysing the extent to which regional differences in the distribution of subsidies for renovations are related to geographical and socioeconomic factors, by analysing statistical data for districts in the Czech Republic. The novelty of this study lies in the fact...
Energy sites tourism involves visits by tourists to former, retired, or regenerated sites, as well as to still operational energy sites (e.g., nuclear power plants, coal mines, geothermal plants, wind farms, etc.). Some facilities, services, or activities have been developed and provided specifically for tourists’ use. Energy site tourism takes pla...
Anaerobic digestion (AD) plants fed by agricultural biowastes are highly relevant renewable energy producers supporting the transition towards sustainable waste management. However, local support for the operation of individual AD plants seems to be highly diverse, case specific and generally insufficient. Following this challenge visible especiall...
With immensely growing pressure on land and its scarcity, conflicting societal expectations concerning land use increasingly result in land use conflicts (LUCs). In this paper, we explore local LUCs, which we define as the complex situations, where fragmented planning policies encounter place-based societal conceptions and perceptions of site-speci...
Anaerobic digestion (AD) plants undoubtedly represent an integral and irreplaceable element in rural energy transition and sustainable waste management. In our study, we focus on an advanced understanding of the dynamics behind the changing perceptions of AD plants in host communities in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The surveyed AD pla...
In this year, 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has imposed new challenges for most human activities. Time-geography is a theoretical approach with great potential for analysing the consequences of the new disease and other disturbances, and this article aims at identifying possible developments of interest for the approach in the post-Covid era. The art...
The geography of ageing is addressed in this article by providing new empirical evidence about the significant role of daily activities on the perceptions of isolation and loneliness. The developed model of socio-spatial isolation is based on data from time-space diaries and questionnaires completed by older adults living in three cities in the Cze...
The European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme provides exciting opportunities for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research to contribute to the fulfilment of the EU’s ambitious policy goals on energy and climate change. This report presents 100 questions that have been identified by experts as priorities for SSH research on smart consumpt...
The integration of socioeconomically marginalized areas into regional systems in the context of post-communist transformation has been an important subject of social science research in general. The military training areas (MTA), as specific type of peripheries, have been so far little explored. Based on the results of an extensive questionnaire su...
The increasing importance of tourism and the growing number of tourists put pressure on tourist destinations. To support competitive and sustainable tourism development, it is advisable to focus on alternative forms of tourism in order to diversify tourism options in the destinations. From this point of view, it seems appropriate to deal with the i...
Growing awareness of anthropogenic climate change, deep cuts in CO2 emissions, and the exhaustion of easy-to-extract fossil fuels have led to a growing interest in developing renewable energy sources as a part of the (desired) transition to a low-carbon society. The target of the European Union for 2020 is to cover 20% of final energy consumption b...
Issues related to the evolving role of citizen science and open science are reviewed and discussed in this article. We focus on the changing approaches to science, research and development related to the turn to openness and transparency, which has made science more open and inclusive, even for non-researchers. Reproducible and collaborative resear...
This paper examines issues concerning mothering and childcare, with an emphasis on two crucial aspects which are based on the fact that mothers’ individual behaviours are undoubtedly time‐space dependent. First, unlike the majority of studies which have investigated mothers’ isolation by applying qualitative methods, this exploratory study using da...
Wind energy research is dominated by studies of local acceptance (or not) of wind farms and comparative studies at a national level. Research on the spatial differentiation of wind energy developments at the regional level is still insufficient, however. This study provides new empirical evidence for the extent to which regional differences in the...
This communication concerns the prestigious award - the Karel Engliš Honorary Medal for Merit in the Social and Economic Sciences - that Bryn Greer-Wootten, Professor Emeritus at York University in Toronto and the Editor-in-Chief of the Moravian Geographical Reports (MGR), received from the Czech Academy of Sciences in 2018. The article contains th...
The article is a product of the COST RELY Action, it is a glossary: definitions related to renewable energy and landscape quality.
The long-term regional policy of metropolitan regions contributes to the socio-economic development of the entire functional region as it prevents the disharmony in the activity of the interested actors. In the Czech environment, metropolitan cooperation has not been institutionalized yet, which is remarkable while its importance is emphasized in m...
In response to climate change and limited fossil fuels, renewable energy is being heavily promoted throughout Europe. Despite general support for green energy, perceived landscape change and loss of landscape quality have featured heavily in opposition campaigns.
The COST Action ‘Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality’ (RELY) systematically investi...
Policies and strategies to develop renewable energy and the rates of successful deployment vary from country to country. Academic literature is rife with examples of recurring problems and malpractice in the implementation of renewable energy projects. We could see each national and sectoral effort as an 'experiment' in the early phase of our attem...
The application of principles of good governance in brownfield regeneration, for instance through improved transparency and participation of various groups of stakeholders, varies between regions and cities. In this article, we approach good governance as a strategic response of actors in the struggle for creating development opportunities on brown...
Industrial tradition in the Czech Republic spans across the last two centuries, it has established deep roots, and the significance of industry in the contemporary national economy is virtually irreplaceable. Industrial brownfields originated along with the first industrial estates in the 19th century but brownfields as an independent object of stu...
This paper provides new empirical evidence on the hypothesis that the perception of landscape disruption by wind turbines is a substantially subjective and relative matter. It is based on a survey involving nearly five hundred residents living in six different locations with operational wind turbines in the Czech Republic. Geographical and socioeco...
Using a case study of the Búrfell wind farm project, a large wind farm proposed in the Central Highlands of Iceland, the authors attempt to provide new insights into the factors shaping subjective landscape perceptions and attitudes to renewable energy developments, and into alternative methods that may be used for their assessment. The research wa...
After conceptualizing the interrelationships between energy and tourism, the authors
provide a definition of energy tourism as a new niche of industrial tourism, theorize
on how it overlaps with other types of special interest tourism, and discuss specifics
concerning its forms, locales, and possible societal impacts. Potential directions,
along wi...
Central Europe is replete with legacy contaminated sites, commonly called “brownfields”. The question is what can be done to remediate them and make them again safe and useful to society. This question is addressed in post-socialistic city of Brno, the Czech Republic. Our research assesses public perceptions of such sites that are currently utilize...
In the article, which is a theoretical and conceptual introduction for the Special Issue of Moravian Geographical Reports on 'New trends and challenges of urban agriculture in the context of Europe', the authors resume and review diverging issues of urban agriculture, exploring and discussing them from a geographical perspective and in a wider cont...
Paper available via http://rdcu.be/o6cW
This article deals with experiences acquired during the process of developing the Timbre Brownfield Prioritization Tool (TBPT). Developing a decision support tool that takes into account the expectations and experiences of its potential users is similar to creating applicable knowledge by the joint action of...
Focusing on coal energy from a geographical perspective, the regional consequences of coal mining in the Czech Republic are investigated and discussed in terms of the resource curse and environmental injustice theories using. A comparative analysis revealed prevailing differences in the quality of the environment and well-being between coal-affecte...
Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants have recently become a typical part of rural landscape in the Czech Republic due to massive governmental subvention programmes. Yet, their potential as an effective tool how to response to global climate changes at a local level is rather underused (maize used as a primary input mainly, usage of waste heat is...
The paper presents results of a long-term, after several years repeated survey of local communities living in the Czech Republic in areas where wind farms were implemented in 2003 – 2008. We analyze changes of attitudes towards wind turbines (before construction, after commissioning, and after several years of operation) and changes in the percepti...
Rebuilding and upgrading of existing nuclear power plants represent a great energy policy challenge today. In this paper, factors that affect local community support for the rebuilding of an existing nuclear power plant are explored using a regression analysis model. It is based on a survey involving nearly 600 residents of twelve municipalities lo...
The development of renewable energy sources has been primarily justified on the ground of environmental policies and energy security, but new jobs opportunities and establishment of new economy sectors may be equally important co-benefits from investments in this sector. The main goal of this paper is to assess the employment benefits of investment...
There is fundamental agreement about the environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies, but unintended consequences arising from their deployment are frequent sources of conflicts. The Czech Republic has committed itself to supply 13.5% of its electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020. High state incentives for renewable ener...
This paper provides new insights about the factors shaping social acceptance of and opposition to coal mining. It is based on a comparative survey of communities living in two towns with different demographic development and residential quality located in a close proximity to expanding opencast mine in the Czech Republic, which are threatened by di...
Prioritizing brownfields for redevelopment in real estate portfolios can contribute to more sustainable regeneration and land management. Owners of large real estate and brownfield portfolios are challenged to allocate their limited resources to the development of the most critical or promising sites, in terms of time and cost efficiency. Authoriti...
The effect of geographical distance on the extent of socioeconomic impacts of the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic is assessed by combining two different research approaches. First, we survey how people living in municipalities in the vicinity of the power plant perceive impacts on their personal quality of life. Second, we explor...
The aim of INSPIRATION is to establish and promote the adoption of a strategic research agenda for land use, land-use changes and soil management in the light of current and future societal challenges. Main objectives are:
Formulate, consult on and revise an end-user oriented strategic research agenda (SRA);
Scope out models for implementing th...
The chapter provides a general definition of energy and resume the role and environmental impacts of tourism as one of the largest global industries and energy consumers.Then the energy tourism nexus is conceptualized from three perspectives: The first is energy as a driver of tourism. The second is energy as a constraint of tourism. The third is e...
The chapter provides basic information about the history and development of tourism in the Czech Republic from the socialism time till today. Main types of tourism in the country are presented and basic statistical data concerning
total bed capacity, overnight stays, the share of foreign tourists, the level of employment in the tourism sector and...
Due to recent societal changes ‘brownfield’ sites have gradually become a significant element in planning urban development. Brownfields can occur as a barrier and obstacle to the development of the urban organism but simultaneously they also represent unrealized potential. Brownfields, ex-industrial sites, are greater in those cities whose develop...
The aim of the Coordination and Support Action INSPIRATION is to achieve in a the bottom-up approach the developing, delivering, match-making and promoting of a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for land and the soil-sediment-water system, land-use changes and soil management addressing the societal challenges in Europe.
The main objective of WP2 “De...
In the last decade, the regeneration of derelict or underused sites, fully or partly located in urban areas (or so called "brownfields"), has become more common, since free developable land (or so called "greenfields") has more and more become a scare and, hence, more expensive resource, especially in densely populated areas. Although the regenerat...
Previous studies have demonstrated that the location of brownfields is an important factor affecting potential investor decisions and brownfields regeneration. In this study, the spatial patterns of urban redevelopment are explored, using an analysis of variance model for a detailed database of existing and regenerated brownfields in the city of Br...
The paper presents the results of an international comparative survey of stakeholders from four European countries (the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Romania). The aim was to identify and classify the 'success factors' of brownfields regeneration and to detect significant convergences and divergences concerning the drivers and barriers of reg...
Previous studies have demonstrated that the location of brownfields is an important factor affecting
potential investor decisions and brownfields regeneration. In this study, the spatial patterns of urban
redevelopment are explored, using an analysis of variance model for a detailed database of existing
and regenerated brownfields in the city of Br...
The paper presents the results of an international comparative survey of stakeholders from four European countries (the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Romania). The aim was to identify and classify the 'success factors' of brownfields regeneration and to detect significant convergences and divergences concerning the drivers and barriers of reg...
Replacing existing wind turbines with new and higher capacity turbines (‘repowering’) is to become a major challenge for planners within the next decade. While the benefits of repowering are evident, it cannot be assumed that the process will proceed automatically and without problems. The acceptance of future developments will be significantly aff...
Focusing on coal energy from a geographical perspective, the unintended regional consequences of coal mining and combustion in the Czech Republic are discussed and analysed in terms of the environmental injustice and resource curse theories. The explorative case study attempts to identify significant associations between the spatially uneven distri...
Compared to Western European or North American countries with developed market economies, the formation and acceptance of brownfields in post-socialist countries was delayed by approximately 30 years. For the Central European and partly Eastern European countries, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the transition after 1989 from a planned and state-c...
Transformations of economy and society, which had begun in the Eastern and Central European countries in the 1990ies, have also occasioned a profound change of the urban environment. Extensive de-industrialization led not only to the rise of neglected and abandoned objects and industrial estates, but also to an increase of technical, environmental,...
This TIMBRE project deliverable report (full title: “Results of demonstration studies, outreach material (brochure, extended documentation, online presentation, cartographic outputs); Targeted dissemination of the outcomes and public relations (PR) by providing applicable brochures, documentations, websites and cartographic outputs for the end user...
In 1961, the Canadian geographer John D. Chapman recognized the rapid growth in demand for inanimate energy and the role geographers could be playing in explaining its patterns and importance in the growing world economy (Chapman, 1961). Fifty years later, Karl Zimmerer (2011) introduced a Special Issue of the Annals of the Association of American...
The book focuses on three areas of development driving the significant structural and functional changes that have been appearing in and shaping rural spaces: development of renewable energy, multifunctional agriculture, and rural tourism. In the rural context these three phenomena are related and significantly influence each other – or better to s...