VTEI / From the world of water management

From the world of water management

PFAS in surface waters in the Czech Republic

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Per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFAS), a group of fluorinated compounds of anthropogenic origin, have been classified as a persistent organic substances of significant concern due to their chemical properties, widespread use in a number of industrial sectors, environmental spread, long term bioaccumulation potential, and resulting risk to human health. This article brings an overview of current knowledge about the occurrence of PFAS in the environment, mainly in surface, ground, and drinking water and about the methods of their removal from con-taminated water. Furthermore, the legislative requirements regarding PFAS at the level of the EU and Czech Republic are summarised here, including the list of compounds according to the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council 2020/2184 and the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council 2008/105/EC.

From a drop to energy: assessing the hydropower potential of watercourses using results from the “Pico-Hydropower” project

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The growing demand for decentralized renewable energy sources has sparked renewed interest in harnessing the hydropower potential of small watercourses. This paper presents a two-stage methodology developed within the Pico-Hydropower project (TA CR, No. TK04030223), aimed at identifying and evaluating suitable locations for micro-hydropower installations in the Czech Republic. The first stage involves a nationwide spatial assessment of theoretical hydro-power potential (HPP) across all fourth-order catchments, based on a combination of digital elevation models (DMR 5G), interpolated values of mean annual flow (Qa), and calculated average channel head (H). The resulting geodatabase enables prioritization of catchments with above-average potential and serves as input for more detailed analyses.

The beginnings of timber floating in the region of Novohradské hory

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In the last quarter of the 18th century, a unique system for timber floating was built in the region of Nové Hrady. Its creation is linked to the name of the then owner of the Nové Hrady Estate, Johann Nepomuk Buquoy, while the project and its implementation were designed and overseen by engineer Johann Franz Riemer. The uniqueness of the system lay in the fact that it allowed the floating of both loose timber (logs) and bound timber (rafts), even on the narrow and low-capacity streams of the Novohradské hory (Gratzen Mountains). The basis of the navigation system was formed by modified (navigable) watercourses, on which there were reservoirs (ponds) ensuring the necessary amount of water for floating timber. The beginnings of the construction of the navigation system date back to the second half of the 1770s. Materials preserved in the archival records of the Nové Hrady Estate provide insight into the beginnings of the waterway construction in 1780–1784. In 1783, the first part of the construction of the navigation system was completed. From that year on, logs were transported to České Budějovice and the first rafts to Prague. In the section to České Budějovice, the waterway included the Pohořský stream, which con-nects to the Černá and Malše rivers. After 1783, the expansion of the navigation system continued to the upper reaches of the Černá river and its tributaries. The navigation system was completed at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries by making smaller tributaries of the Černá river navigable and with the construction of reservoirs on those streams. The navigation system was maintained and operated until the first half of the 1940s.

Interview with Mgr. Martin Pták, Director of the Water Protection Department at the Ministry of the Environment

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How is Czech water management coping with droughts, floods, and new legislative requirements? Mgr. Martin Pták, Director of the Water Protection Department at the Ministry of the Environment, discusses the Ministry’s current priorities, his professional journey, the challenges facing Czech water management, European legislation, and the need for long-term adaptation to climate change. “Our priorities are clear,” he says. “Adaptation, prevention, and cooperation.”

Jáchymov III: Where does the radon water come from?

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Let us return once more – and for the last time – to Jáchymov, a small town nestled in a deep, forested valley of the Ore Mountains. However, Jáchymov boasts many other remarkable firsts and renowned “bests”. It was here that the world’s first radon spa was founded, centred around the construction of the grand Radium Kurhaus (author’s note: today’s Radium Palace) – once one of the most luxurious hotels in Europe (Fig. 3). The origins of the spa are closely tied to the discoveries of Marie Curie, the first woman to earn a doctorate from the Sorbonne and to receive two Nobel Prizes. In 1520, Jáchymov also became home to the first pharmacy in Bohemia. To this day, the town remains unique worldwide for its use of brachytherapy (“Jáchymov boxes”, BRT), a specialized treatment method found nowhere else. All these remarkable Jáchymov milestones have already been discussed in detail in the April and especially August issues of VTEI this year. So now, let us turn our attention to another local marvel that literally shaped Jáchymov’s history – Svornost Mine. And let us start from the very beginning.

Interview with Ing. Libor Elleder, Ph.D., hydrologist from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Prague

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Have you ever wondered what a hydrologist might discuss at a table with historians, archivists, and chroniclers? Can historical data help us gain a better understanding of today’s flood risk assessment? And might deeper knowledge of past floods prepare us for future ones linked to climate change? We put these questions to Ing. Libor Elleder, Ph.D., in the October hydrology issue of VTEI.

Department of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Hydrogeology: international projects starting in 2025

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At the T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute (TGM WRI), two international projects were launched in 2025. These include the SWIM project, funded under the Horizon Europe programme, and the FrauNyLu project, supported by the Interreg cross-border cooperation programme. Both projects also address hydrological topics, which will be managed by the Department of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Hydrogeology.

Interview with Mgr. Petr Birklen, Director General of the Povodí Odry, state enterprise

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At the beginning of March this year, Petr Birklen became Director General of the state enterprise Povodí Odry. How long was the journey to this position and what does it mean to him? How did he cope with the aftermath of the 2024 floods, and how does he manage to fight against misinformation? And will the long-discussed Nové Heřminovy dam finally be built? Mgr. Petr Birklen answers our questions.

Jáchymov II.: at the right time in the right place

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The town of Jáchymov in the Ore Mountains foothills is part of the Karlovy Vary Region and member of the West Bohemian spa family. However, Jáchymov offers a very spe-cific treatment; thanks to the high concentration of radon in the local natural mineral water, the world’s first radon spa was established here and is still operating successfully today.

Interview with Ivan Tučník, Head of Group Sustainability Asahi Europe & International

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How does Radegast Brewery work with water when brewing beer, what are the brewery’s aims regarding sustainability, to what extent does the brewery use the latest technological trends in its production, and why do we like bitter beer in the Czech Republic? The offer to be inter-viewed for our VTEI journal was accepted by Ing. Mgr. et Mgr. Ivan Tučník from Asahi Europe & International; in the Czech Republic, the company owns Radegast, Plzeňský Prazdroj, Velkopopovický Kozel, and many other breweries across Europe.

Historical changes in water use in Czech third-order catchments and indications of potential trends based on new regional climate models by the CHMI

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The article presents the results of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) obtained when addressing the sub-objectives “Scenarios of future water needs for different climate scenarios and individual sectors of water use” (DC 1.1) and “Identification of areas with deficient water resources” (DC 1.2), which are part of TA CR project No. SS02030027 “Water systems and water management in the Czech Republic in conditions of climate change (Water Centre)” and constitute specific tasks within the work package WP1 focusing on the future of water. The aim of the CHMI was to calculate and analyse how river flows upstream of gauging stations in Czechia are influenced by water use and to determine how this influence may change in relation to climate change.

Jáchymov: following the mills

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An article discussing the West Bohemian spa town of Jáchymov and its surroundings, where there is a nature trail called the Valley of Mills, leading through the valley of the Jáchymov stream to the town of Ostrov nad Ohří, where there is a castle with an admirable castle garden.

Interview with Dr. Ing. Antonín Tůma, Deputy General Director of the Morava Basin State Enterprise

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For the February issue of VTEI, we interviewed a long-time employee of the Morava Basin State Enterprise, the director of the Basin administration, and since 2006 the deputy general director of this organization. A man for whom water management is not a job, but a mission. “Water is the carrier of not only life, but also information and energy. Something so simple, yet so extraordinary, irreplaceable…,” says Dr. Ing. Antonín Tůma.

Czech Copernicus User Forum and Remote Sensing Conference 2024 and the opening of Czech Space Week 2024 with participation of the President of the Czech Republic

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In November 2024, a conference was held focused on the use of satellite data, organized by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) and the Ministry of Transport (MoT), under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic, who delivered the opening speech. In addition to expert workshops and panel discussions, the conference also featured several interesting contributions from the Transport and Environment Ministries, which illustrated the real-world use of remote sensing data in applications focused on ecological burdens and hydrological forecasting, as well as climate change, transport monitoring, and landscape planning. One of the most important conclusions of the conference is the confirmation of the importance of remote sensing data in the daily work of not only state institutions, but also commercial companies. These data give us the spatial context of selected natural phenomena and processes that would be monitored only partially or not at all without these data.

Future water demand scenarios to 2050: sectoral analyses and forecasts

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This article presents the results of the sub-objective “Scenarios of future water demands for different climate scenarios and individual sec-tors of water use” (DC 1.1). Which is part of TA CR project No. SS02030027 “Water systems and water management in the Czech Republic and climate change conditions (Water Centre)” and is a sub-part of the WP 1 “Prediction of the development of water resources security in the Czech Republic until 2050 in regions depending on climate change”.

Interview with Ing. Vladimír Novák, Director General of the Directorate of Water Policy of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic

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This year, the Slovak Republic is chairing the largest commission focused on the protection of watercourses, the International Commis-sion for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). Therefore, we interviewed its president for the Year 2024, Ing. Vladimír Novák, who is also the General Director of the Directorate of Water Policy at the Slovak Ministry of Environment.

Groundwater abstraction noticeably reduces the flow of some watercourses during the dry season

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The paper highlights the fact that some significant watercourses dry up during periods of minimal flows due to groundwater abstraction. It provides a summary of the most affected significant watercourses in the Czech Republic. Large concentrated groundwater abstraction has a considerable impact on small and medium-sized watercourses. To select the most significant effects of abstraction on stream flows, we used the ratio of abstraction to 355-day flows from 1931–1960. Watercourses exceeding 30 % were selected. In half of the selected cases the following relationship was confirmed: the 355-day flow from 1931–1960, reduced by the abstraction rate, is approximately equal to the 355-day flow from 1991–2020. The cases where this relationship does not apply can be explained by changes in abstraction volumes, declining groundwater levels and flows in the wider area due to groundwater collection and the use of static groundwater reserves. The effect of climate change is unlikely to be present in the baseflow in the cases studied. Our analysis identified 13 cases where groundwater abstraction is severely affecting the flow of significant watercourses. In about half of these cases, there is an alternative source of water that should be used when the flow of the watercourse is at a minimum. Another option to protect water resources is to apply the minimum groundwater level or minimum residual flow under the Water Act.

Recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive brings new challenges not only in the water management sector

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This article presents the main elements of the recast of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban wastewater treatment, which lays down rules for the collection, treatment, and discharge of urban wastewater in order to protect the environment and human health. In addition to strengthening existing requirements, the text of the new Directive, as provisionally agreed, introduces a significant number of new obligations to be achieved within ambitious deadlines.

Interview with Mgr. Mark Výborný, Minister of Agriculture

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Mr Výborný is participating in preparations for the construction of new reservoirs in the Czech Republic and is planning to build new pumped storage waterpower stations. According to the Minister, the priority in the field of water management is mainly the development of water supply and sewerage infrastructure, including drinking water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants, technological measures to retain water in the landscape, construction and restoration of small water reservoirs and ponds, development of water supply systems, and also the modernization of existing irrigation systems. Mgr. Marek Výborný told VTEI about his first year as Minister of Agriculture and the objective he would like to achieve in this position.

Developing cooperation with Canada in the field of water quality

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Between 10th and 16th June 2024, Mgr. Kateřina Sovová, Ph.D., TGM WRI, and Ing. Pavla Fojtíková, Ph.D., the University of South Bohemia, visited Canada to liaise over water quality issues, wastewater monitoring, and toxicity research. This event was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its main goal was to deepen cooperation in the field of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6).

Interview with Mrs. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Birgit Vogel, ICPDR Executive Secretary

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One of the biggest international activities in water protection is the multilateral cooperation in protecting the Danube. It originally started in the 1980s in the form of the Declaration signed in Bucharest in 1985, which concerned the Danube River itself. In 1992, at the initiative of the European Communities, the internationally supported Danube Environment Programme was launched, covering the entire Danube basin including its tributaries. In parallel, work was underway to prepare a Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube. The Convention was submitted for signature in Sofia on 29th June
1994 and entered into force on 22nd October 1998. The Contracting Parties to the Convention are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Ukraine, and the European Union. In August 2022, for the first time, a woman became the Executive Secretary of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) – Prof. Dr.-Ing. Birgit Vogel.

This year’s Danube Day is marked with round anniversaries

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This year we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River. This is a significant event; the signing of the Convention on the Protection of the Danube River initiated cross-border cooperation aimed at the protection of the Danube and its tributaries. The Convention was signed on 29th June 1994 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Jizera Mountains researchers in Podbaba

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On 25th January 2024, a seminar Meeting of researchers in the Jizera Mountains was held in the conference centre of T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute (TGM WRI) in Prague. It presented (mainly long-term) research projects implemented in the Jizera Mountains and focused on atmospheric precipitation, forest soils and forests, waters and their biota in recent decades, i.e. from peak acidification to current phenomena associated with climate change. However, no less important was the personal meeting of people who research, permanently work or live in the Jizera Mountains and are interested in the development of the situation in this area, as well as the final debate open to all.

Comparison of the quality of thalweg lines extracted from data of DMR 4G, DMR 5G and its derivatives

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Determining the gradient of watercourses in the case of local applications is a common problem, which is most often dealt with by geodetic surveying. However, determining the gradient of all watercourses in the Czech Republic is a challenge. The use of geodetic methods on such a scale is usually unrealistic. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a different approach, such as the extraction of the gradient lines from other already existing elevation data. The DMR 4G and DMR 5G are elevation models currently available for the Czech Republic. For the extraction of gradient lines, it is necessary to create a digital terrain model (DTM) from the available datasets. Various interpolation methods are used for this. But which of the available interpolation methods is the most suitable? What role does the size of spatial resolution play in the quality of altimetry representation and subsequent sizes of the stored DTMs? To find answers to these questions, we chose four study sites (fourth order catchments) in the Otava river basin. Eight different DTMs were then created at each site, which were then compared. The results show that choice of raster size has a significantly greater influence on the resulting quality of the gradient lines than the choice of interpolation method in the case of DTM creation from DMR 5G data. DTM from DMR 4G data gives worse results than from DMR 5G at the same raster resolution.

Interview with Ing. Petr Kazda, Director of Partnership Environmental Foundation

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Do you know Tree of the Year, Planting for the Future, and the Adapterra Awards? And do you know what an Open Garden is? Do you use Greenways? All this and much more is related to the Partnership Environmental Foundation in Brno, whose director since 2019 has been Ing. Petr Kazda. Why is climate change a challenge for him that can bring us new opportunities?

Watermills and windmills as a meeting place

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There were many attempts in the past to establish a holiday of Czech mills, which could be related to the holiday of St. John of Nepomuk or even lesser-known saints such as St. Senan or St. Vinok. Therefore, our colleagues Rudolf Šimek (for watermills) and Jan Doubek (for windmills) agreed to organize a joint event for the anniversary of the creation of the legendary mill emblem on 13th May 1116. They also invited archivist and molinologist Jan Škoda to cooperate and approached the owners of several mills to see if they would support the event. There was a wave of very positive reactions, so they decided to organize a big event called Mill Open Day, which will take place on Saturday 11th May this year.

The Czech Republic chairs the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River for the next three years

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In Magdeburg on 16th January 2024, the handover ceremony took place of the presidency of the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River (ICPER). The Czech Republic took over from the Federal Republic of Germany for the next three years. Ing Tomáš Fojtík, who is Director of T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute (TGM WRI), was appointed as the new president with the agreement of the contracting parties. The TGM WRI employees are internationally recognized and long-term leaders, spokespeople, and members of working groups and expert groups, who significantly participate in the Commission’s activities and direction. This fact underlines the significance and importance of this re-search organization of the Ministry of the Environment as well as the actual research. Since the ICPER establishment in 1990, Ing. Tomáš Fojtík is the fifth president of the Commission from the Czech Republic.

Interview with Ing. Tomáš Fojtík, director of the T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute

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He has been Director of TGM WRI for a year. How does he evaluate this first year and what has he already managed to change for the better in our Institute? How does he remember his twenty years at the Institute as regular employee? And what are his plans and goals for the future regarding the direction of TGM WRI? „I would like to continue fulfilling my vision of creating a recognized and functioning institute of national and European importance as a research base for the field of water management with such a working culture and environment that it would be a target and prestigious workplace for quality and satisfied experts willing to actively cooperate,“ says the Director of our Institute, and newly also the president of the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe, Ing. Tomá Fojtík.

Interview with prof. Ing. Pavel Pech, CSc., professor at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

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the future be over water rather than oil and land? Why is he more afraid of genes than climate change? And is it better to build dams and large water reservoirs, or establish ponds, wetlands, and pools? What is his opinion on artificial intelligence? These are just some of the topics that I discussed with prof. Ing. Pavel Pech, CSc., long-time head of the Department of Water Resources and Environmental Modeling at the Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS). “I’m from Hnojárna,”* he says about himself with a smile, and it does not sound pejorative at all – after all, he is the founder of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at CULS in Prague.

Looking back at the National Dialogue on Water 2023

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After a four-year break caused by the covid pandemic, the National Dialogue on Water took place on 25–26th October 2023, this time in the Skalský Dvůr hotel in Vysočina. The event was organized by the T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, p. r. i. (hereinafter TGM WRI) in coop-eration with the Czech Scientific and Technological Water Management Company (Česká vědeckotechnická vodohospodářská společnost, z. s.) The main theme of the event was a comprehensive approach to the protection of drinking water sources. This topic was addressed by a large number of experts from the field of water management (118 participants), whether it was representatives of the Ministry of the Environment (MoE), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Health, state-owned River Basin State Enterprises, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), water authorities, operators of water supply and sewerage systems (VaK), mayors, private companies, hydrogeologists, and others.

Kozmice bird meadows and their importance for nature and landscape

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Alluvial wetlands and alluvial meadows (often referred to as “wet” in the literature) are one of the types of habitats that, with the gradual develop-ment of the cultural landscape, suffered the greatest transformation and often complete disappearance; in the Czech Republic, the most significant transformation by the transfer to field crops together with land improvement peaked roughly in the 1970s. Discussions about the importance of wetlands have, however, been revived in different periods; the factors that trigger these discussions are mainly floods and drought, which is clearly indicated by the drought that started in 2015. In their name, alluvial wetlands and meadows indicate that they are situated in a river landscape and are in periodic or constant contact with the surface water of larger rivers and groundwater, including the hyporeal. It is therefore obvious that these landscape elements are at least locally important for the cycle of water and chemical substances in the river landscape.

Interview with RNDr. Radim Tolasz, Ph.D., climatologist of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

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Today, one individual cannot quickly mitigate the current impact of climate change that the entire world is facing by changing their behaviour. However, the promotion and spread of education is one of the main keys to making positive changes in a significant part of the population. In an interview for VTEI, the Czech representative in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climatologist RNDr. Radim Tolasz, Ph.D., from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), describes further steps to mitigate the effects of climate change or, for example, his own first professional experience after 1980.

Development of pond locations in the Polabí lowland since the mid-19th century – part 2 – Poděbrady region

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This article presents the results of research on landscape changes in the Poděbrady region as part of the Polabí lowland, where there have been significant changes in the location of ponds. The area of all types of ponds (according to stability) makes up 3.17 % of the Poděbrady region. Ac-cording to their occurrence in the area in 1836/1852–2022, the ponds (or their parts) were divided into disappeared, continuous, and new. Disap-peared ponds have the largest representation – about 60 % of the total pond area according to stability. They are followed by continuous ponds, with the minimum area represented by new ponds. The historical or (more precisely) disappeared ponds were more robust than the present ones, i.e., they had a larger average size. Analyses show that almost three-quarters of the disappeared ponds have been replaced by arable land.

Fundamental revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive provokes conflicting reactions from European Union member states

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Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21st May 1991, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD), entered into force 32 years ago, which is a respectable age for a legal regulation. Since then, through the consistent implementation of its requirements, good results in water protection have been achieved in practice. Between 1990 and 2014, there was a reduction in the amount of pollutants in treated and discharged urban waste water for organic pollution expressed as BOD5 by 61 %, for total nitrogen by 32 %, and for total phosphorus by 44 %. The extensive support pro-vided to cities and municipalities from EU financial instruments as well as from national sources and the relatively strict application of sanctions have led, according to data published by the European Commission (EC), to the fact that currently 98 % of waste water in the EU is effectively collected and removed of and 92 % properly treated. Until now, the Directive’s requirements have primarily focused on centralized systems for the collection, removal, and treatment of waste water in agglomerations producing loads at the level of 2,000 population equivalent (PE) and more.