PRAGUE

By: Isabel Martínez García

PRAGUEPrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. It is also the historical

capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava River, the city is home to about 1.24 million people, while its larger urban zone is estimated to

have a population of nearly 2 million. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras only the capital of the Czech state, also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia.

Zones and Quarters

1. Stare Mesto2. Vinohrady3. Zizkov4. Podoli5. Smichov6. Dejvice7. Letna8. Florenc9. Cerny Most10. Vrsovice

Urban PlanStrategic Plan for Prague was formulated in 2001 providing a vision of what Prague plans to achieve in spatial planning in the next 10 years. The basic strategic aim in spatial planning of Prague is the change-over from a monocentric to a polycentric city. Prague emphasizes the need to alleviate the demand for city centre and make more balanced use. Spatial planning policy are:• Regulate the use of land and building.• Regulate the proportion between built-up and green areas.• Avoid intensive building work on slopes or valleys.• Cultivate green areas and integrate into the surroundings.• New construction projects (high architectonic standards) which are important to

the city's development.• Encourage the use of public places.

Type of buildingsPrague have a lot of history and culture and the city always have the same style of buildings depending on the period of time , as the romanesque, gothic , barroque…Now it has :high tech architecture developed in the 1970s, with other titles such as Late Modernism as well as Structural Expressionism. Characteristics of High Tech architecture include, glass walls, steel frames, prefabricated components, and a dominant presentation of technical and functional elements

Environmental issuesThe Czech Republic suffers from air, water, and land pollution caused by industry, mining, and agriculture. The nation had the world's highest industrial carbon dioxide emissions, totaling 135.6 million metric tons per year, a per capita level of 13.04 metric tons. The Czech Republic has had its air contaminated by sulfur dioxide emissions resulting largely from the use of lignite as an energy source in the former Czechoslovakia, which had the highest level of sulfur dioxide emissions in Europe, and instituted a program to reduce pollution in the late 80s. Western nations have offered $1 billion to spur environmental reforms, but the pressure to continue economic growth has postponed the push for environmental action. The Czech Republic has a total of 15 cu km of freshwater resources, of which 1% is used for farming and 57% is used for industry. Both urban and rural dwellers have access to safe drinking water. Airborne emissions in the form of acid rain, combined with air pollution from Poland have destroyed much of the forest in the northern part of the former Czechoslovakia. Land erosion caused by agricultural and mining practices is also a significant problem.

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