Nature and Landscape Management

Nature Conservation 2/2008 — 22. 4. 2008 — Nature and Landscape Management

Ship Transport versus Nature and the Landscape

author: Tomáš Just

Those who have been trying to make profit from ship transport declare the mode of transport as very environmentally friendly.

The fact that navigable rivers had to be technologically adjusted and consequently they have been degraded from a environmental point of view casts doubt on the above argument. At present, rivers have been kept degraded due to shipping, although economically, shipping transport has been in profound decline. For making ship transport acceptable for ecological status of watercourses, significant changes in navigable waterway management shall occur. The arrested principles which had been conformed to the period before the World War II, should be left and navigable watercourse management should be harmonized with current requirements for river bed and floodplain restoration. Otherwise, the question, whether shipping transport on the rivers has been reasonable in the Czech Republic, is in of place.