Application of selected standards for public infrastructure accessibility on the territory of Olomouc as a municipality with extended powers, by Oldřich Bittner and Jaroslav Burian
Accessibility within the public infrastructure is an important factor in the life of a society. Accessibility of public infrastructure institutions is the subject of Standards of Public Infrastructure Accessibility, a methodological document published by Maier et al. (2016) as part of a grant project assigned by the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic. Based on the needs of the staff of the municipality of Olomouc, this methodology was implemented for the administrative area of Olomouc as a municipality with extended powers. The main objective of this article is to present the results of the implementation of accessibility standards for five education institutions and one social-care institution. More results are described by Bittner (2020) in Analysis of the Accessibility of Public Infrastructure, a Bachelor’s degree thesis. For assessment of these standards, zones of accessibility were created by means of network analyses in ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap 10.6.1 software. The size of each zone was based on standard values as stated in the methodology. Each analysis was carried out over network layers, proceeding from line layers from the StreetNet CZE database, provided by CEDA Maps, and evaluated in relation to address points in respective areas. Network analysis was preferred over publicly available sources such as mapy.cz because it provides more precise results. The results presented in this article were evaluated with regard to individual car transportation and movement on foot. In terms of compliance with standards, the results differ for the different types of infrastructure, but most standards are met in the core areas of the city of Olomouc. While the standard for the social-care establishment (a day-care centre) does not comply in 90% of address points on the territory, the standards for the schooling institutions are met in more than 60% of address points. The results and outcomes obtained will facilitate creation and updating of documents of spatial analysis in Olomouc as a municipality with extended powers. Further implementation of standards is only possible if more data layers of public infrastructure are created. Nevertheless, this methodology provides coherent procedures applicable for decision-making in the current practice of spatial planning.
Advertising in historical settings? A manual for advertising in Žilina’s urban conservation area, by Lucia Streďanská
As an inseparable part of the urban interior, advertising strongly affects the impression towns and cities make on their inhabitants and visitors. In the Slovak city of Žilina, as n many other places, excessive concentration of advertising, which affects negatively the overall feel and attractiveness of urban settings, is subject to regulation efforts.
Advertising and the public space, by Dana Novotná
One of the problems of urbanized public space (and open landscapes too) is visual pollution caused by overuse of information panels and advertising boards, installations and objects. Some refer to this as ‘advertising smog’. An equally if not even more serious problem is how to clear this smog away. Although there are numerous methodological instructions and recommendations, it is immensely difficult to determine, implement and enforce efficient forms of regulation.
Advertising and the Building Act, by Martina Pavelková
Viewed in the broadest terms, advertising is any activity by which promotion takes place. This applies mostly for products and services but also for brand names and ideas. In the context of building law, advertising has to be understood materially as structures and installations by means of which promotion and branding are carried out. In the Building Act, advertising structures and installations constitute a specific category because their definition is based on the factual essence of the activities these objects facilitate rather than building and technical characteristics.
The trouble with advertising, by Vladimír Matuš
Advertising has become an integral part of urban settings, which is why it cannot be studied and evaluated as a separate artefact. However, the setting of cities such as Canberra, Brasilia and Islamabad, designed with the use of orthodox planning methods, is evidently unwelcoming and sterile. For this reason, we now try to understand cities as open and dynamic systems with developing ecologies. Like natural scientists, ecologists and economists, designers and urban planners have given up hoping that their proposals can lead to a balanced final state of things.
