doc. Mgr. Pavel Raška, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Vice-Rector for Internationalization / Guarantor of Master’s Programme in Geography and Ph.D. Programme Geographies of Transformations

Research interests: environmental geography, geomorphology, disaster risk reduction, historical geography, urban environmentalism

Office: CPTO-4.26, Telephone: +420 475 28 6777, E-mail: pavel.raska@ujep.cz


Recent Thesis

Personal profile

I studied history and geography at J. E. Purkyně University (UJEP) in Ústí nad Labem (M.A.) and physical geography at Masaryk University in Brno (Ph.D.). I was chairing the Department of Geography at UJEP between 2015 and 2023, recently taking up the position of vice-rector for international affairs at UJEP. In my research, I first focused on the long-term dynamics in cultural landscapes and on geomorphologic processes in Central-European landscapes, later shifting the focus of my research to historical and social aspects of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction. Framed by debate on resilience and adaptive planning, my research focuses on analysing both the historical and present day disastrous events with respect to their social impacts and community responses. At the theoretical level, I strive to critically analyse the concepts of risk, adaptability, and community-based resilience, while at the practical level my interests revolve around the role of spatial-planning measures to disaster risk reduction and the barriers to their implementation in multi-level governance contexts. I have also been involved in projects devoted to long-term land use/land cover changes, environmental management, and to the interactions within the complex biogeomorphic systems. As an expert consultant, I have provided extensive consulting services to practitioners on urban regeneration, nature and landscape conservation, environmental management, and local community development. I strongly emphasise my responsibilities for academic service and I am grateful that I have been given an opportunity to provide my feedback as a reviewer for many scholarly journals and as a panel member in ERC Consolidator Grants SH7 and an external reviewer to ERC Starting, Advanced, and Synergy Grants, among others.

Education and internships

  • 2005 J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem (Teachers training in geography and history, Mgr.)
  • 2011 Masaryk University, Brno (Physical geography, Ph.D.)
  • 2017 Charles University, Prague (General geography, Associate professor – habilitation)
  • 2018 University College London – Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (6 months EU-funded research internship)

Academic and professional activities

  • since 2005 Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
  • since 2008 Landscape Synthesis Research Unit, J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
  • 2017-2023 Member of the Internal Evaluation Board of the university
  • Member of the Scientific board at Faculty of Science, Faculty of Environmental Studies, and Faculty of Social and Economic Studies at UJEP
  • Member of the Scientific board at Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava
  • Member of the Programme Committee of PhD programme (Charles university) and State Exam Committee (Masaryk university)
  • since 2022 Evaluator for the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education of the Czech Republic
  • Panel member for the ERC Consolidator Grants SH7 (2021-2022)
  • Member of editorial boards of scientific journals Geografie, Moravian Geographical Reports, GeoScape, and of a popular journal Geografické rozhledy

 

Selected recent papers

  • DOLEJŠ, M., RAŠKA, P., KOHNOVÁ, S., SCHINKE, R., WARACHOWSKA, W., THALER, T., KOČICKÝ, D. (2022). On the right track of flood planning policy? Land uptake in Central-European floodplains (1990-2018). Landscape and Urban Planning 228, 104560  (IF=8.119) DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104560
  • RAŠKA, P., BEZAK, N., FERREIRA, C.S.S., … HARTMANN, T. (2022). Identifying barriers for nature-based solutions in flood risk management: An interdisciplinary overview using expert community approach. Journal of Environmental Management 310: 114725, 2022. (IF=8.910) DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114725
  • RAŠKA, P., WARACHOVSKA, W., SLAVÍKOVÁ, L., AUBRECHTOVÁ, T. (2020). Expectations, disappointments, and individual responses: Imbalances in multilevel flood risk governance revealed by public survey. Journal of Flood Risk Management, (IF=3.240). DOI: 10.1111/jfr3.12615
  • RAŠKA, P. (2019). Contextualizing community-based landslide risk reduction: an evolutionary perspective. Landslides, 16(9), s. 1747−1762, (IF=4.252).
  • RAŠKA, P., STEHLÍKOVÁ, M., RYBOVÁ, K., AUBRECHTOVÁ, T. (2019). Managing flood risk in shrinking cities: dilemmas for urban development from the Central European perspective. Water International, 44(5), (IF=1.885).
  • DOLEJŠ, M., NÁDVORNÍK, J., RAŠKA, P., RIEZNER, J. (2019). Frozen Histories or Narratives of Change? Contextualizing Land-Use Dynamics for Conservation of Historical Rural Landscapes. Environmental Management, 63(3), s. 352–365, (IF=2.376).
  • SLAVÍKOVÁ, L., RAŠKA, P., KOPÁČEK, M. (2019). Mayors and “their” land: revealing approaches to flood risk management in small municipalities. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 12(3), e12474, (IF=3.240).
  • http://www.researcherid.com/rid/H-9646-2016

Selected recent research projects

Membership

  • Czech Association of Geomorphologists (vice-president 2014-2017)
  • Czech Geographical Society
  • International Academic Association for Planning, Law, and Property Rights