Impact story (i.e. Impact portrait) of Czech Republic[1]
My name is Petr Kupec. I work at Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology. I am the head of the Department of Landscape Management, which is primarily focused on water in the landscape. I am also the guarantor of the Master’s degree program Landscape Engineering and the Doctoral study program Landscape Management and Engineering. I am a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, the program commissions of the study programs Forestry, Landscaping and Landscape Engineering. I work in a number of associations focusing on Landscape management with a focus on water in the landscape. At the scientific level, I publish mainly articles in the field of forest hydrology and the influence of forest vegetation on the components of the water cycle in the landscape.
Due to my participation in the pilot PoVE project, my influence on my community has significantly increased, although not all of these achievements can solely be attributed to the pilot PovE Water Project, but it has certainly strengthened my influence and outreach to the water community within Brno’s regional water ecosystem. In addition to regular lectures as part of my academic teaching, I organize a number of excursions, seminars and workshops together with my colleagues. E.g. for the years 2020 and 2021, I have executed a lecture tour throughout the Czech Republic on the topic of the possibility of water retention in forests, numbering 12 full-day lecture blocks for the professional public.
I also cooperate with secondary schools, especially related to the topics forestry and construction (i.e. water management). Here I communicate with teachers of vocational subjects in order to harmonize their teaching with the requirements of university education. We organize excursions and lectures for secondary school students. In the field of research, in addition to basic research in forestry and landscape hydrology, I focus mainly on applied research projects in partnerships with companies. In this way I can also influence business. Together with my colleagues, I recently founded the CoVE WiL (Center for Vocational Education Water in Landscape), the aim of which is, among other things, to harmonize water education in landscape within the context of the so-called triple helix structure.
The PoVE Water pilot project has certainly enabled me to learn more about the functioning of such triple helix systems in other regions of Europe. I want to take this knowledge with me in the further development of WIL in our regional ecosystem in Brno. I have been dealing with the issue of water in the landscape professionally for almost 25 years, mainly at the academic level (educational and scientific research) and partly at the design level. The pilot PoVE Water project has further increased my interest in applied research, and I have gained a greater appreciation for the role that the VET water sector can play in the regional development of Brno.
[1] This entails a portrait impact portrait of Petr Kupec who recently founded the Center for Vocational Education Water in Landscape (WIL), a new partner in the upcoming new CoVE Water project in the Tsjech Republic
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