Urban geology of Liberec - model study of spatial information for sustainable development of cities in the Czech Republic

Geoscience Research Reports 49, 2016, pages 165–170

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Published online: 30 September 2016

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Abstract

This article represents the executive summary of the Czech Geological Survey report on the urban geology of the Liberec district city in northern Bohemia. This study includes spatial and attribute information on geological units and their lithology, as well as on network of the geological faults, natural magnetic field, natural radioactivity, iron mining, coal mining, quarries of building stones, clay resources ground water and geothermal resources, engineering-geological ground classification, natural outcrops, antropogenous exposures, and road cuts, network of the hydrogeological and geotechnical drill holes, underground objects and sewers, man-made deposits of the industrial and municipal waste, pavement and frontages of building in the Liberec conservation zone, natural seismicity, radon risk, radioactive fallout of caesium 137, soil cover contamination by industrial emissions, Lužická Nisa river inundation area and its geological fundament in the town centre. Data on individual themes were first of all obtained from existing Czech Geological Survey databases, and the new geodata were created by detail mapping (Fig. 4). I This set of information provides data for the municipal government to underpin reliable urban planning and sustainable development of building density. All available information from various data sources have been linked in GIS format to the street plan at the scale of 1 : 13,000, covering the town site of about 40 km² (Fig.1). An image analysis of the individual data layers and their mutual interferences gives some important information about resources including ground water and geothermal energy, plus environmental hazards that have the potential to impact the town and its residents.
The following features of the urban geology model for Liberec may be applicable to other cities in the Czech Republic:

• Generation of urban geological maps and spatial models of cities for groundwater and geothermal energy exploitation, and for planning housing and underground constructions.
• Use of geological knowledge to assist in protecting the environment of conurbations by identification of man-made infilling, deposits of dangerous waste and air pollutants.
• Better informing city dwellers about the environment in which they live and do business, including improving their knowledge of existing and potential geological hazards in their towns.