SEVEROZAPAD - Environment
Region with bad quality of the environment
The region belongs to the most damaged within the Republic. Decisive factors of nature destruction are air pollution and landscape devastation due to developed opencast coal mining. Territories with extraordinarily high concentration of pollutants especially due to raw material extraction, industrial activity and transport are the basins of Mostecká and Sokolovská pánev. A crucial problem of mountain areas of the region is damage of forest ecosystems by distant transfer of pollutants.
Since 1990, the burden on the landscape has substantially decreased, which is a positive result of legislative measures application; at the same time, reduction of mining, industrial and agricultural activity shows its influence. Specific emissions of pollutants have decreased several times over the period; however, they remain relatively high among the regions (the worst situation is in sulphur dioxide emissions).
Water quality is rather high in most of the rivers. On the other hand, forest damage in some places still exceeds 50%.
As for natural beauties, the most famous is the Ceské Švýcarsko (Czech Switzerland) National Park with famous natural stone bridge called the Pravcická brána. The biggest protected area is the Slavkov Forest Protected Landscape Region. Highly valuable territory also in an international scale is a bog and moorland with mineral water and gas seeps called soos in the area around the town of Cheb.
The protected landscape region Ceské stredohorí was established to the protection of typical hills with tertiary volcanic rocks and several important ecosystems. The area of protected region makes about 4500 hectares. Its administration resides in Litomerice. A national natural monument is the rock Vrkoc. It is a geological form of European meaning (the denuded lode is basalt with typical column separation. The columns are arranged vertically to the surface of solidification - into a fan). The natural reserve Slunecní strán (Sunshine hillside) is in the region of Brná n. L.. Its area has 7.62 hectares, the protected area 2.33 ha. The object of protection is the thermophile flora with a number of especially protected species of plants. During the last 20 years 71 species of vertebrates were recorded on the area of Ústí n. L.. Some of them are strongly protected: Buzzard - Milvus milvus, Salamander - Triturus cristatus. Mariánská skála (rock), the Valley of Rytina, Prucelská rokle (gorge), rocks and slopes above Brná, Vysoký Ostrý, Strekovské skály (rocks) and Habrovický rybník (pond) rank among the signicifant landscape forms.
In 2002, 95.3% of the population of the region was connected to public water supply system and the total consumption of public water supply for this year was 67.7 million of m3. For the same year, 82.2% of the population of the region of Severozapad was connected to public sewerage and 75.5% of the total sewerage of the region has been treated in 2001. The telephone network at 1st of January 2003 consisted of 329 968 hardwired stations.
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