Impact of Coal Mining and Combustion upon Forests in the Czech Republic

 

Authors: Šišák L, Pulkrab K, Černín R

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 74, issue 2; pages: 203 - 206;

Keywords: Coal mining and combustion, forest damages calculations, Czech Republic,

Export to RIS

 

Abstract

Czech forests are still damaged by sulphur oxides generated by coal combustion in spite of the considerable decrease of the emissions of sulphur oxides. Although the negative effect of decreasing sulphur oxides emissions is substituted by the increasing effect of growing volumes of other harmful emissions, calculations of economic damages of forests are based on sulphur oxides pollution. In the calculation of economic damages, the substantial role is still played by differentiation the forests in the Czech Republic into 4 areas of forest immission threat zones and into 7 areas of grades of damage by immissions. Results from investigation performed by the authors show that on the average in the frame of the total area of forests in the Czech Republic (CR) the calculated economic damage was 686 mil. Czech Crowns (CZK) per year, whereas the claimed damage to 427 mil. CZK, but actually recovered damage reached only 83 mil. CZK per year in the period 1991-1996. The ratio of recovered damage to the calculated damage can be said to reach only 19.5 % for the whole CZR , whereas in the forests supervised by the Forests of the Czech Republic, state Company, this value reached as much as 35 %).