Knowledge base for Ore Mountains case study

Resources for themetic issues available on internet


Czech Republic - background information

Ore mountains - region and history‎

Ore mountains - social and economic conditions‎

Cross border cooperation and role of the EU in supporting integrated spatial development

Case study: Historical mining in the Ore mountains‎

Case study: Brown coal mining in the Usti region‎

Case study: The Battle for Jezeří Chateau

Case study: The Life and Near Death of Jezeří Chateau Under the Czechoslovak Communist Regime

Case study: Energy in Usti region‎

Case study: Environment in the Usti region

Syndrome approach applied in Ore Mountains

...and different "interest groups" views on the regional development as a special bonus (2011 summer school students role play outcomes).

Study materials to receive more theoretical insight
Use Google Scholar to find relevant resources:


 * Ladysz, J. (2006). Chosen aspects of sustainable development on the Polish, Czech and German borderland. GeoJournal, 67(1), 1–7. 

Abstract: The shift to market forces in Poland, East Germany and Czech Republic has fundamentally reconfigured its economic geography. In particular, spatial inequalities between neighbouring Polish, Czech and German border regions have re-emerged forcefully in response to new values, expectations and preferences. In this paper the example of coal mines illustrates the potency of spatial planning. The abundance of coal mines in the Polish, Czech and German borderland at or near abandonment and their proximity to ecological corridors make them candidates for renewed uses in industry or conservation. Attention will also be given to the main environmental problems caused by wrongly conducted spatial policy on this borderland. Transforming a landscape requires continuation of guidance and financial assistance of the European Union.


 * Balej, M., &amp; Andel, J. (2008). Land use changes and environmental stress accounting (case study from northwestern part of the Czech-German borderland). Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, 1(5), 97–109.

Abstract: The authors assess the long-term changes in utilisation of the territory (1845 - 2005). They apply a new methodology called environmental stress accounting. They notice qualitative changes in how utilisation of the territory develops. They assess the stress-causing effects on both the natural subsystem (ecological stress) as well as on the social subsystem (social stress). The aggregate result is a methodology measuring environmental stress, as a sum of stress existing in the natural and social subsystem. The methodology can be applied in a randomly chosen territory at various time scales. It reflects the external spatial relations, i.e. relations with localities beyond the model territory, and indicates causal effects (driving forces). Driving forces directly or indirectly affect the structure and function of the landscape and at the same time the landscape can retroactively be one of the impulses for origination and modification of the given driving force. The process of mutual interaction of driving forces and the landscape is monitored in three different landscape types of the Czech-German border area: 1) “mining landscape”, 2) “intensive agriculture” and 3) “highland marginal landscape”. The authors analyse changes in the use of the landscape and the trend in environmental stress in four time phases that are mutually differentiated by their specific characteristics. They generally correspond to stages of change in Czech society: pre-industrial, industrial, totalitarian (final phase of the industrial period) and post-industrial period.


 * Dołzbłasz, S., &amp; Raczyk, A. (2007). New versus old cross-border co-operation programmes in the example of Polish-Czech and Polish-German border areas. Europa XXI, 16, 153–165.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to assess the Polish–Czech border cooperation and to compare it to the Polish–German border. The studies have been based on the analysis of the projects qualified for implementation under the INTERREG III A programmes. Particular emphasis was put on the relationships between spatial distribution of these projects and the level of economic development of the given areas. The generic characteristic of the projects and institutional structure of beneficiaries was also examined. On the basis of the obtained results it was verified how the scale of cooperation and the amount of financial outlays incurred to date affect its quality.


 * Heimpold, G. (2008). Growth versus equalisation? An examination of strategies for regional policy in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland after EU accession. Jahrbuch f\ür Regionalwissenschaft, 28(1), 1–29. (NUTS 2 region under our focus is "Severozápad"

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis which regional policy strategies are conducted in the Czech Republic, in Hungary and Poland, i.e. in three of the new EU member states after EU accession, and whether these regional policy strategies give priority to the growth objective or whether they place emphasis on the equalisation objective. This question is of great importance for the respective member states when they are trying to cope with the balancing act between rapid macroeconomic convergence towards the EU level and avoiding marginalisation of less developed regions in the respective countries. The paper starts with a brief survey on regional disparities in the countries under consideration. Then, the general objectives of the respective regional policy strategies laid down in the context of using the EU Structural Funds during the period 2004–2006 are examined regarding the relevance of growth and equalisation objectives. To gain insights, how the general objectives are implemented, the procedures to select beneficiary regions are reviewed. Then, the individual measures designated to reach the policy objectives are examined whether they are targeted at spatial growth poles or at the weakest regions. Finally, an overview regarding the prospects of regional policies in the countries under consideration in the programming period 2007–2013 will be given. For the purpose of this paper, documents of the national governments of the countries under consideration as well as thematically relevant academic literature and regional data provided by EUROSTAT are explored.


 * Leibenath, M., &amp; Knippschild, R. (2007). Territorial Cohesion and Transboundary Governance: Insights from the Polish-German and the Czech-German Borders. Territorial Cohesion, 123–150.
 * Leibenath, M., Blum, A., &amp; Stutzriemer, S. (2010). Transboundary cooperation in establishing ecological networks: The case of Germany’s external borders. Landscape and Urban Planning, 94(2), 84–93.

Abstract: Many voices call for better transboundary coordination and management of ecological networks. Little, though, is known about the kind of transboundary cooperation currently going on in establishing ecological networks across European borders. The objective of the present research is to gain an empirical overview of transboundary cooperation in establishing ecological networks on Germany's external borders, to analyse reasons why such cooperation is launched and why some border regions seem to be more active in this than others, and finally to identify shortfalls in current practice and potential remedies. The empirical analysis is guided by a theoretic framework which includes hypotheses on: (1) the institutional context, (2) structural and situational contexts, (3) actors with their resources, orientations and interests, (4) actor constellations, and (5) ideas, symbols and discourses. The methodology consists of a literature review, a comprehensive internet survey in combination with exploratory expert interviews, and a series of semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews. We identified 34 transboundary cooperation projects in establishing ecological networks across Germany's external borders in the period 2003–2007, the majority of which was located at Germany's western borders. Many factors that had been derived theoretically were borne out by the interviews. However, hypotheses on the influence of NGOs and on international institutions and organisations seem to be of specific explanatory value. In practical terms we recommend intensifying the flow of knowledge and information between practitioners in this field and strengthening the ties between ecological network planning and spatial planning in transboundary contexts.


 * ZAPLETALOVÁ, A. V. J. (without date). GEOGRAPHY OF THE CZECH BORDERLAND. DISCUSSION PAPERS Special, 15.
 * Roseland, M. (2000). Sustainable community development: integrating environmental, economic, and social objectives. Progress in Planning, 54(2), 73–132.
 * Glassheim, E. (2006). Ethnic Cleansing, Communism, and Environmental Devastation in Czechoslovakia’s Borderlands, 1945–1989. The Journal of Modern History 78: 65–92

Glassheim look critically at the expulsion of the Czech inhabitants of the border regions by the Nazis in the late 1930s and the consequent resettlement of the former Sudetenland following the war. He then analyses the construction of a new regional identity under the communist regime based on satisfying the needs of the new 'socialist man' and an economy based on heavy industry and the consequent need for coal to fuel growth, and finally he looks at the consequences for the environment and resettlement resulting from the destruction of town and villages to extract the coal beneath.


 * Glassheim, E. (2007). Most, the Town that Moved: Coal, Communists and the ʻGypsy Questionʼ in Post-War Czechoslovakia Environment and History 13: 447–76.

As Czechoslovakiaʼs communist planners continually increased norms for power and coal production in the 1950s through 1970s, the sprawling surface mines of the north Bohemian brown coal basin expanded voraciously, swallowing 116 villages and parts of several larger cities by 1980. Infamously, the entire historic centre of Most was obliterated in order to expose over 85 million tons of coal. Planners envisioned a new city of Most as a model of socialist modernity. Deriding Mostʼs old town as a decaying capitalist relic, officials lauded New Mostʼs spacious and efficient prefabricated high-rises. Adding to the contrast, the majority of Old Mostʼs remaining inhabitants by 1970 were Roma (Gypsies). For communists, the Roma evoked an old order of segregation, class oppression and bad hygiene. By relocating Roma to modern housing, they could ʻliquidate once and for all the Gypsy problemʼ. This article examines the rhetorics of modernity employed as communists sought to ʻsolveʼ intertwined coal, gypsy and housing ʻproblemsʼ in the city of Most. At the crossroads of several related modernising projects in the twentieth century, Most provides insight into connections between ethnic cleansing, social and environmental engineering and urban planning.