The book Prostorové simulační modelování dopravní dostupnosti [Spatial Simulation Modeling of Transport Accessibility] by Jaroslav Burian of the Department of Geoinformatics has received Honorary Mention for a professional book published in 2019 and 2020, awarded by UP Rector Jaroslav Miller to 48 authors from the academic community for 41 publications.
“Writing professional literature is not very attractive in today’s ‘impacted’ world, and does not fit well into the publishing activities of science faculties. That’s why I’m truly happy about the award. Compiling such a book is extremely time-consuming. However, in the social sciences and humanities, it is a completely natural result of research that definitely makes sense. I therefore appreciate this award, which is a definite boost to my further work. We are already working with colleagues on another monograph,” said Burian.
The authors focus on the traffic behavior of specific groups of people in different regions from the perspective of public transport. “Transport accessibility is an important issue, one that concerns each of us, whether it means accessibility to schools, shops, or health services. Therefore, we deal in detail with all aspects related to transport accessibility from input data, through the description of classical methods of analysis to the interpretation of regional differences. In the publication, we also present a simulation model which can be used to calculate the complex transport accessibility of any territorial unit. We used the model for the Olomouc and Ostrava regions, then in detail for the cities of Olomouc and Ostrava. The book includes case studies in which we show the practical applicability of our results. It also contains many maps which show areas with worse or better transport accessibility,” described Burian.
The simulation model created within the project can take many details into account. “Thanks to those, we are able not only to say how fast we can get to the nearest store or doctor, but we can simultaneously evaluate how many times we have to transfer, how far away is a public transport stop, how much time we spend in waiting, how many times we have to transfer, or how many potential employers we have available within a certain distance or time from our place of residence. We can evaluate all this in the model for different regions, but also for different groups of people who have slightly different traffic behaviors. Such findings can help to identify localities with poor transport accessibility and subsequently to improve transport planning and public services,” added Burian.
The book is intended primarily for more advanced readers. “It is a scientific publication that seeks its readers mainly in academic circles and among students who deal with the issue of transport. We use selected parts of the book as additional sources of information for our teaching,” said Burian. Many employees of public administration who take care of ensuring transport accessibility have also shown interest in the book.
The book is one of the main publication results of the research project “Spatial Simulation Modeling of Accessibility” (Grant Agency of the Czech Republic), which was conducted in cooperation with the UP Faculty of Science Department of Geoinformatics, and the Faculty of Mining and Geology, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. “Nine authors, led by Jiří Horák from the Faculty of Mining and Geology, took part in its creation. The team included experienced academics as well as younger researchers and doctoral students. Master’s and Bachelor’s students were also involved in solving partial tasks connected especially with data collection and processing. During my career so far, I have participated in the creation of four books, and I have to say that my colleagues and I have devoted by far the most time and effort to this publication. I firmly believe that this also affected its quality,” added Burian. The professional publication was published by the Czech Geographical Society and is available for free download on the website of the Czech Geographical Society.
Rector’s Award and Honorary Mention winners for 2019/2020 (in Czech):
Rector’s Award for Best Student Works
Rector’s Award for Best Student Athletes
Honorary Mention for Authors of Professional Books