{"id":27518,"date":"2023-12-14T12:25:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T11:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/2023\/12\/rozhovor-s-prof-ing-pavlem-pechem-csc-profesorem-ceske-zemedelske-univerzity-v-praze\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T12:59:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T11:59:53","slug":"interview-with-prof-ing-pavel-pech-csc-professor-at-the-czech-university-of-life-sciences-prague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/2023\/12\/interview-with-prof-ing-pavel-pech-csc-professor-at-the-czech-university-of-life-sciences-prague\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with prof. Ing. Pavel Pech, CSc., professor at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
Photo: archiv P. Pecha<\/span><\/h6>\n

Will world conflicts in 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\u00a0discussed 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). \u201cI\u2019m from Hnoj\u00e1rna,\u201d* he says about himself with a\u00a0smile, and it does not sound pejorative at all \u2013 after all, he is the\u00a0founder of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at CULS in Prague.<\/p>\n

Professor, during our recent meeting you told me that you have been teaching at CULS for 33 years. However, you yourself graduated from CTU. What do you think about the current relationship between these two institutions? Do\u00a0they compete, or rather cooperate?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Considering that I\u00a0graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in the field of Water Management and Water Structures, I\u00a0am a\u00a0technical person. In 2004, at\u00a0the\u00a0Department of Water Resources and Environmental Modeling, we accredited the\u00a0Environmental Modelling study programme, which could be considered as a\u00a0potential competitor of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at CTU in Prague. But in fact, the\u00a0representatives of the Faculty of Civil Engineering actually teach in this programme. After the establishment of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and the\u00a0subsequent accreditation of the doctoral, habilitation, and professorship programme in Environmental Modelling, representatives of water management from CTU became members of the\u00a0Field of Study Board. For some time then, I\u00a0was a\u00a0member of the\u00a0Field of Study Board of\u00a0Environmental Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. The\u00a0current head of the department, Prof. Martin Hanel, continues to be a\u00a0member of this Field of Study Board, who further deepens cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, for example in organizing joint conferences. Teachers from the Faculty of Civil Engineering regularly participate in the defence of bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s\u00a0and doctoral theses, as well as chairpersons and members of state commissions. Therefore, in my opinion, cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering in the field of water management is positive and correct.<\/p>\n

You spoke about the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, which you helped to establish. When was that and what preceded its establishment?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2003, when I\u00a0was acting as Vice-Dean for Education at the Faculty of Forestry, as a\u00a0member of the landscape-ecological part, I\u00a0participated in the renaming of the\u00a0faculty to the Faculty of Forestry and Environment. Later, the university began to think about a\u00a0greater involvement of the university in the field of the environment by creating an institute or a\u00a0new faculty. The result was that in April 2007, CULS Rector, Prof.\u00a0Jan Hron, entrusted me as the guarantor of the establishment of the\u00a0new Faculty of Environmental Sciences, and then Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Prof. Vil\u00e9m Podr\u00e1zsk\u00fd, with the establishment of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences. After about two months of intensive work, with the help of the\u00a0Department of Water Resources and Environmental Modeling, it was possible to prepare all the\u00a0documents for the establishment of the new faculty. I\u00a0would like to highlight at least one name, Dr. Ji\u0159\u00ed Pavl\u00e1sek, who helped a\u00a0lot and later, after the establishment of the Faculty, mainly participated in the consolidation of the education part, including the subsequent preparation of the accreditation of the bachelor\u2019s\u00a0field of Water Management. At the field meeting of the Accreditation Commission in Pavlov on 18\u201320th June\u00a02007, the division of the Faculty of Forestry and the Environment and the establishment of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences and the Faculty of Environmental Sciences from 1st July 2007 were approved. The staff of the landscape and ecology departments moved from the original faculty to the newly created faculty; The Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports also agreed to the transfer of three bachelor\u2019s, four master\u2019s, four doctoral fields of study, as well as one habilitation and three habilitation and professor\u2019s\u00a0fields of study. Subsequently, the\u00a0Rector appointed me to the position of \u201cPerson entrusted with the management of the\u00a0Faculty of Environment Sciences\u201d until the regular Dean elections, which took place in December 2007. Between 1st July and 6th December 2007, I\u00a0was arranging the functional mechanisms for the Faculty with the authorized management. It was interesting that less than two months passed from the decision to the\u00a0approval of the Faculty establishment.<\/p>\n

At the master\u2019s\u00a0and doctoral programme, you offer over ten professional subjects, including studies in English. Do you have a\u00a0lot of international students at your university?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, I\u00a0guarantee eleven subjects \u2013 five in the bachelor\u2019s, four in the master\u2019s, and two in the doctoral programme, of which three subjects are taught in English. During the academic year, approximately 20 to 25 students take part in English subjects. Around 1,500 foreign students study at CULS every year.<\/p>\n

Could you please compare the construction of dams around the world with our country? Where do you see the differences in these conditions, for example, when compared to Austria or Poland?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Compared to other European countries, the construction of dams in our country was at a\u00a0similar level in the 20th century. I\u00a0am not an expert in the design or construction of dams; however, I\u00a0can see that the current situation in this area is not good. Let me give you one example. After the floods in Moravia and Poland in 1997, both countries began to address the situation by considering the construction of a\u00a0dam. Nov\u00e9 He\u0159m\u00ednovy in the Czech Republic, and Ratibo\u0159 in Poland. Both dams should be used for flood protection \u2013 on the Polish side it was supposed to be a\u00a0dry polder for a\u00a0period of five years, which should be converted into a\u00a0classic water dam holding 180 million\u00a0m3 of water, and on the Czech side the new dam was supposed to capture around 14 million\u00a0m3 of water, of which 3.5 million m3 would be used for drinking purposes. On the Czech side, a\u00a0zoning decision for the construction of the dam was approved in\u00a0June\u00a02023. The construction should begin in 2027 and the dam should be completed in 2032. Although considerations about the construction of dams started at the same time, the Polish side already opened the waterworks in 2020, which, by the\u00a0way, was designed to hold ten times more water.<\/p>\n

From the above case, a\u00a0different approach to the planning, approval, and construction of dams is clear. It should be noted that for a\u00a0quick and successful solution to water management issues related to climate change, water management issues should be included in the responsibility of one ministry; or, given the importance of the issue, it\u00a0deserves its own ministry. Currently, in our country, water management issues are integrated into two ministries, which by their very nature have different priorities in\u00a0this area.<\/p>\n

Do you think that Czech natural conditions allow the construction of such dams? And if a\u00a0new dam were to be built, would it be possible to get enough water to fill it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Natural conditions certainly allow the construction of other necessary dams, which is evidenced by the plans mainly coming from the Ministry of Agriculture. In my opinion, climate change will force some dams to be built. My previous answer shows my rather pessimistic view of their implementation in our country. A\u00a0comparison of the\u00a0length of building permits in different countries was recently published in the\u00a0press, and the\u00a0Czech Republic is in about 160th place in the world, even behind countries such as Congo or Rwanda. In order to ensure (not only) enough drinking water, but also water for agriculture and to maintain sufficient flows in the\u00a0rivers in the\u00a0near future, it will be necessary to significantly speed up and make the\u00a0decision-making and implementation more efficient. The approval and construction of dams on some Czech rivers will have to happen, hopefully as soon as possible, because a\u00a0dam will not be built in a\u00a0year or five years and climate change will not wait. And to your question about enough water to fill them. According to experts on hydrology, the total volume of precipitation does not change significantly over the\u00a0years \u2013 even in times of climate change \u2013 but their intensity and time distribution throughout the year do. One example regarding getting enough water to fill a\u00a0new dam; if you take only the\u00a0flow of 0.3 m3s-1 from the\u00a0total flow on the river, it would take about five months to fill Nov\u00e9 He\u0159m\u00ednovy dam.<\/p>\n

Do you think it is better to focus on the construction of large water reservoirs, or rather build or restore ponds, pools, and wetlands?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, I would not prioritize any of the listed measures. However, it will be necessary to focus on building these structures in parallel \u2013 each of them has its own importance. Various studies show that semi-natural measures only help with the water balance by about eight to ten per cent, so it will be necessary to proceed with the construction of both smaller and larger dams, which are often wrongly perceived negatively by the public. Regarding, for example, ponds and wetlands, they do not help the water balance much with their usable volumes. They may have problems in the near future due to the increasing amount of water vapour. I would not say that it is better to focus on building bigger dams, but it will be necessary for maintaining \u201cwater comfort\u201d. There are already places in the Czech Republic that have great difficulties in securing sufficient water during dry periods. So far, it has been \u201cforgotten\u201d that the use of groundwater is an inseparable part of the strategy to ensure sufficient water in times of climate change. The advantage of groundwater is that there are no evapotranspiration losses. From the balance of drinking water used, it follows that 50 per cent of the Czech Republic is actually groundwater, which gradually leads to a reduction in its reserves. Therefore, artificial infiltration should also be implemented, which can be a suitable source of water in the dry season. Artificial infiltration began to be used to enrich groundwater supplies at the beginning of the 20th century. This is also where the history of the K\u00e1ran\u00fd waterworks begins, built according to a project of one of\u00a0the\u00a0classics in the field of groundwater, Adolf Thiem, in 1919. An artificial infiltration system has been operating in K\u00e1ran\u00fd since 1968, but its further use is very sporadic in our country. A\u00a0number of scientists have been dealing with this issue within grants, including practical applications. In projects related to groundwater, I\u00a0rather concentrated on the efficient use of so-called \u201cactual wells\u201d, because in many cases the constructed networks of underground wells are used by water management companies, and as long as a\u00a0sufficient amount of water is pumped from the wells for treatment, the companies do not care about their condition. The clogging (aging) of wells and a\u00a0noticeable drop in abundance then leads to their complete depreciation, while timely intervention can maintain the well\u2019s\u00a0productivity at a\u00a0sufficient level for many decades.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that much of the information that the media is flooding us with on an almost daily basis regarding climate change is already approaching the spread of an alarmist message. Do you believe that the current situation is already irreversible?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Much information from the media about climate change is currently rather one-sided and presented in a\u00a0pessimistic or even depressing manner. If people get information presented in this way from the media, it can cause a\u00a0certain kind of apathy, depression and resulting psychological problems in many of them, which we also know from the recent covid pandemic. This massive and often one-sided information \u201cmassage\u201d can be taken as a\u00a0\u201cmediocracy\u201d, i.e., the government of the media, with a\u00a0huge influence on human thinking and the actions of human society. It would probably be more reasonable to try to inform as truthfully as possible in the press, taking into account the\u00a0different opinions on the matter, mention the uncertainties in connection with climate change, and point out that there are real ways out of this critical situation and ways of adapting to the given situation. Nowadays, it is clear that climate change is happening; however, it is necessary to take into account other opinions when explaining it, for example, that the opposite process to what is happening now, i.e., cooling, can theoretically occur. These theories are also presented by scientists from reliable sources, for example the recent reports from NASA. If we take into account that the theory of global warming works, there are a\u00a0number of options in the\u00a0field of water management to effectively respond to this change \u2013 be it semi-natural measures, building reservoirs, connecting water management (water supply) systems and so on; however, it is necessary to implement these measures in the foreseeable future, and not as was presented in the case of Nov\u00e9 He\u0159m\u00ednovy dam.<\/p>\n

During our meeting, I\u00a0was very interested in your mention that you fear gene manipulation more than climate change. Could you please explain this to our readers?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Let me clarify. If climate change continues, I\u00a0am also concerned about the consequences, especially in terms of sufficient water availability in various parts of the world. From places with catastrophic situation with water resources, masses of people will head towards places where there is still enough water. It will not be a\u00a0matter of millions of people, but tens to hundreds of millions. These shifts will cause the steep fall of advanced civilizations.<\/p>\n

Going back to the concern about genes. Firstly, these are genetically modified crops, in which the hereditary DNA material is changed using gene technologies, and although most scientists assure the safety of the mentioned procedures, many of them have more cautious opinions in assessing their harmlessness; according to them, possible negative effects on humans may manifest themselves only after decades or even in the following generations. Secondly, and this is even more serious, is the direct intervention in the organism\u2019s\u00a0genome using modern DNA technologies involving the introduction of foreign genes into the organism. For example, in 2018, in China, they used revolutionary new genetic methods of altering a\u00a0human embryo. After this intervention, twins were born who had genetically altered DNA. At the current level of knowledge, it is not possible to reliably demonstrate how gene manipulations can interfere with life and how it will continue to affect it.<\/p>\n

We talked about the technicized era, as well as the very rapid development of artificial intelligence. What is your opinion about it and how do your students perceive it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The rapid development and application of artificial intelligence brings great expectations, but also concerns. It is clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is already beneficial in a\u00a0number of areas and in different fields. As an older person, I\u00a0remember well the sci-fi movie \u201cThe Terminator\u201d, which could gradually become a\u00a0reality. In this film, a\u00a0pessimistic scenario is shown with the use of artificial intelligence, which at a\u00a0certain point discovers that it no longer needs humans for its existence \u2013 it can learn, make decisions, change, adapt, and so on. To ensure fulfilment of Isaac Asimov\u2019s\u00a0three well-known laws of robotics (AI can be substituted for the word \u201crobot\u201d) \u2013\u201d1) A\u00a0robot must not injure a\u00a0person or, through inaction, allow a\u00a0person to be harmed; 2) A\u00a0robot must obey orders given to it by humans, except where such orders would be contrary to the first law; 3) A\u00a0robot must protect its own existence if such protection does not conflict with the first or second law\u201d \u2013 becomes unrealizable, due to its nature and origin. From the occasional debates with students, it appears that they do not have a\u00a0problem with the use of AI, and most of them have no concerns about the future. I\u00a0learned from a\u00a0faculty colleague that one of the students used AI to write a\u00a0bachelor\u2019s\u00a0thesis, but at the current level of AI it was easily identified and the student failed the thesis. However, AI is in its early stages of development and it is moving forward very quickly. It is necessary to prepare well for its effects in the future.<\/p>\n

Do you think there is a\u00a0risk of water wars in addition to other world conflicts in the future?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0remember that years ago, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Army of\u00a0the\u00a0Czech Republic said in an interview that future military conflicts are not expected to be about oil, but will be related to battles over water and its resources. This issue is presented very well in the three-part Norwegian documentary \u201cThe Future of Water\u201d, and I\u00a0recommend watching it for those interested in water management issues. The\u00a0author of the document is Prof. Terje Tvedt from the Universities of Bergen and Oslo. He travelled all continents and created an excellent documentary about water and its problems and outlined possible solutions. The individual parts have apt names: \u201cRulers of Water\u201d, \u201cNew Uncertainty\u201d, \u201cAge of Water\u201d. The war for water resources in\u00a0the\u00a0past is shown using the example of the Republic of South Africa. In 1986, it signed a\u00a0water supply agreement with Lesotho and participated in the construction of a\u00a0large dam. In 1998, there was a\u00a0threat of a\u00a0coup in Lesotho and a\u00a0refusal to supply water to the\u00a0Republic of South Africa. Its president at the time, Nelson Mandela, ordered a\u00a0direct air strike, which solved Lesotho\u2019s\u00a0water supply problem. Other potential water resource fights threaten Africa, such as the Nile. Sudan and Ethiopia have built huge dams with China\u2019s\u00a0help, thereby disrupting the stability of the Nile water supply system in, for example, Egypt. With ongoing climate change, the situation is intensifying and there is a\u00a0threat of explosive conflict between countries dependent on the Nile water. Another example are the war conflicts in Asia. In the Himalayas, at altitudes of around 6,000\u00a0m above sea level, a\u00a0secret war has been going on for more than twenty years over the\u00a0sources of water from the Himalayan glaciers, called the \u201cBattle in the Skies\u201d. This conflict between India and Pakistan is all the more dangerous because they are nuclear powers, and its escalation threatens severe consequences.<\/p>\n

And this is just a\u00a0small sample of the ongoing war over water resources. It is necessary to prepare for the fact that if climate change continues at the pace that we can observe now, then, in my opinion, there is a\u00a0high risk of significantly larger military clashes over water resources.<\/p>\n

Regarding the lack of water, how would you deal with very dry areas in South Moravia or Rakovn\u00edk district, for example? In comparison with the world, you told me that the Chinese, for example, are able to conduct water through open channels and underground to very distant places, within hundreds to thousands of kilometres.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First, a\u00a0note on China and its water management issues. The south of China has plenty of fresh water, but its northern part has only twenty per cent of the fresh water available in the whole country, even though it contains two-thirds of China\u2019s\u00a0arable land. China has been dealing with this issue since the 1950s. The total length of tunnels and open channels currently being built or planned to transfer water from the\u00a0south to the north will reach 20,000 kilometres when completed. For example, in 2014, China opened a\u00a0channel to transfer 54 billion m3 of water. The commissioning of the canal brought the unexpected effect of a\u00a0significant increase in the groundwater level in some places. At the same time, China is building the world\u2019s\u00a0longest water tunnel to transfer water from the Three Gorges to Beijing. The entire transport network measures 1,400 kilometres, which is a\u00a0gigantic, even megalomaniacal construction, which of course we cannot compete with.<\/p>\n

Now for the first part of your question. Our society must deal with the lack of water in South Moravia, Rakovn\u00edk district in Polab\u00ed, and in the foothills of the Ore Mountains in the shortest possible time. The individual Povod\u00ed State Enterprises have already prepared or are preparing solutions with the construction of the necessary dams, and at the same time the connection of water supply systems is prepared or planned. We\u00a0have a\u00a0very good example from the past that it is possible to build such structures. For example, in 1972, a\u00a051-kilometre-long tunnel was completed \u2013 the longest water transfer tunnel in Central Europe \u2013 leading from the \u017delivka reservoir to Prague. The\u00a0water from \u017delivka supplies drinking water not only to Prague, but also Beroun, the surroundings of Kladno, and partly the Vyso\u010dina region. I\u00a0will return to the situation in our country. \u201cMediocracy\u201d should do away with climate scaremongering and concentrate on the vital water issues and their solution in the period of climate change, so that instead of lookout towers, cycle lanes, electromobility and many other \u201cnecessary\u201d things, it puts pressure on public opinion and, above all, on political representation. There must be accelerated strategic decision-making and the implementation of necessary water management structures and measures because we all know that without water there is no life. And I\u00a0will add that larger water management structures will not be built in this country in five, ten, or even twenty years, although if there is will, it can be done in significantly shorter time.<\/p>\n

Finally, I\u00a0want to talk about your students again, Professor. You have been teaching for 33 years, so you certainly have the opportunity to compare the\u00a0level and knowledge of those today compared to three decades ago. You mentioned that the number of students in both water management and environmental modelling continues to decrease. How do you explain that?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If I compare my studies and today\u2019s teaching, there is quite a big difference, not in the content of, for example, hydraulics that I teach, but in what today\u2019s students are capable of, but also willing to learn. Allow me a small note that also clarifies my experience of more than 30 years of teaching, and nowadays a decline in the quality of teaching can also be observed, which is logical. About 20 years ago, as Vice-Dean for Education, I attended a seminar held in connection with the preparation of the state \u201cmatriculation\u201d exams. At this seminar, neuropathologist Dr. Franti\u0161ek Koukol\u00edk gave a lecture, and his excellent presentation showed that over the course of generations, 12 to 14 per cent of the population year had the prerequisites to successfully complete university studies. At that time, he said in his lecture that 60 to 70 per cent of the population year goes to university to study and this amount of students has an effect on the quality of students, but is naturally also reflected in the quality of the teaching process (I apologize for possible inaccuracies in the quotation from this lecture). Now a specific example from my experience. When asked about their knowledge of Archimedes\u2019 law, many students \u2013 and it is not a small number \u2013 are unable to interpret it correctly, even after completing the hydraulics subject. During one of my visits to my wife\u2019s mother (she is more than 80 years old, comes from a farm, and after finishing primary school, she worked in the forest all her working life) I tried to jokingly ask if she knew Archimedes\u2019 law. And the result \u2013 not only did she tell me the whole thing correctly, but she even explained it. And finally, to the last part of the question. After the accreditation of the Environmental Modelling programme, between eight\u00a0and fourteen students from various fields of study at Faculty, but also from other faculties and even from Charles University, studied it every year. The level of these graduates was excellent. The evidence is their application in practice, at the Faculty, in the institutes of the\u00a0Academy of Sciences (Institute of Hydrodynamics, Institute of Thermomechanics), in the company DHI, a. s., but also in TGM WRI, and graduates have also applied abroad\u00a0\u2013 in Germany, Great Britain, etc. Subsequently, there was a\u00a0gradual decrease in interest in this field, and the interest of students in the bachelor\u2019s\u00a0field of Water Management and the master\u2019s\u00a0field of Water in the Landscape is also decreasing. My explanation for this is that once students find out that they should study technical field of study and with it mathematics, physics, hydraulics, hydrology and other technical subjects, they prefer to take the easier route to get university education. And so, at the end of the\u00a0interview, I\u00a0will add one more statement \u2013 in the near future, there will be a\u00a0shortage of university-educated water managers in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor, thank you very much for the pleasant meeting and for the time you devoted to our interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mgr. Zuzana \u0158eho\u0159ov\u00e1<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prof. Ing. Pavel Pech, CSc.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Prof. Ing. Pavel Pech, CSc., born on 31st January 1955 in Beroun, graduated in Water Management and Water Structures at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the\u00a0Czech Technical University in Prague. After graduating in 1979, he joined Vodn\u00ed zdroje, state enterprise, where he worked on issues related to well hydraulics. In his doctoral thesis at the Department of Health Engineering of the Czech Technical University, he also dealt with the issue of hydrodynamic tests on wells, the creation and evaluation of additional resistances in the well and its immediate surroundings. He defended his thesis in 1985. He then moved to the Institute of Hydrodynamics \u2013 then the\u00a0Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences \u2013 and dealt with the issue of oscillatory flow in the cardiovascular system in the Department of Biomechanics, and later with numerical modelling of flow in reservoirs in the Department of Hydrology. In 1990, he started working at the Czech Agricultural University, later the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (CULS). In 1995, he obtained his habilitation in the field of Hydroinformatics, and in 2005 he was appointed professor in the field of Agricultural and Forestry Hydrology. At CULS, he started his teaching carrier with practical lessons in Hydraulics and Small Water Courses. He currently teaches the subjects of Hydraulics, Surface and Groundwater Hydraulics, Groundwater Hydraulics, and also Hydraulics and Groundwater Hydraulics in English. He participated in and later led a\u00a0number of practically focused grants issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR). Recently, he has led TA CR grants focused on the sustainable use of groundwater reserves in the Czech Republic and the introduction of new well cleaning technologies; for example, a\u00a0well cleaning device using ultrasound was developed within the TA CR project in cooperation with the German company SONIC Technologies GmbH, which is now successfully used by the company VODN\u00cd ZDROJE, a. s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Translator\u2019s\u00a0note:<\/p>\n

\u201cHnoj\u00e1rna\u201d \u2013 a\u00a0pejorative term (from Czech \u201chn\u016fj\u201d \u2013 manure) used for CULS, as it was previously called \u201cUniversity of Agriculture\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0discussed 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). \u201cI\u2019m from Hnoj\u00e1rna,\u201d* he says about himself with a\u00a0smile, and it does not sound pejorative at all \u2013 after all, he is the\u00a0founder of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at CULS in Prague.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,86,93],"tags":[3328,3330,3332,3333,3329,61,3146,3334,3335,3331,2924],"coauthors":[2785],"class_list":["post-27518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-world-of-water-management","category-hydraulics-hydrology-and-hydrogeology","category-two-articles","tag-ceska-zemedelska-univerzita","tag-fakulta-zivotniho-prostredi-czu","tag-genove-inzenyrstvi","tag-genove-manipulace","tag-katedra-vodniho-hospodarstvi-a-environmentalniho-modelovani-czu","tag-klimaticka-zmena","tag-umela-inteligence","tag-vilky-o-vodu","tag-vodohospodarske-studium","tag-vystavba-prehrad","tag-vzdelavani"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27518"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28711,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518\/revisions\/28711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27518"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtei.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}