Urban Geography and Real Estate Market

Urban geography has long been one of the main directions of research in our Department, which is currently being expanded to include research in the area of real estate markets. Cities and towns hold significant concentrations of population and provide the base for a range of functions such as transport, manufacturing, commerce, and culture. They can be considered as developed and built environments, i.e., places that have been gradually transformed by successive human generations to their own design. However, this gradual development brings along a number of problems, whereby a city built to suit the needs of previous generations may no longer meet the requirements of today’s or future generations.

Our research focuses on the sub-areas below:

  • Shrinking cities, causes and consequences of urban depopulation and possible solutions
  • Regeneration of urban centres and the quality of life of urban dwellers
  • Revitalisation of brownfield sites and reuse of industrial heritage
  • Urban marketing, strategic planning in different areas of urban development
  • Smart cities and the application of modern technologies for urban development
  • Sustainability of urban growth with respect to financial, transport, and environmental costs and the real estate market

Major grant projects

Selected publications

  • BOSÁK, V., SLACH, O., HÝLLOVÁ, L., NOVÁČEK, A., POHORSKÁ, B. (2023): Europeanisation mechanisms in context: metropolitan development through integrated territorial investments in Central and Eastern Europe. Regional Studies, 1-13.
  • BOSÁK, V., SLACH, O., PASZOVÁ, L., HÝLLOVÁ, L., MYKHNENKO, V., KRTIČKA, L., NOVÁČEK, A. (2023): Coping with peripheralization in small cities. What is the role of human agency? European Planning Studies.
  • RUDINCOVÁ, K. Ž., ŽENKA, J., BOSÁK, V., SLACH, O., ISTRATE, A., NOVÁČEK, A. (2023): Perception and preferred reuse of vegetated vacant lots along main streets in a shrinking city. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 127956.
  • HAASE, A., BONTJE, M., COUCH, C., MARCINCZAK, S., RINK, D., RUMPEL, P., & WOLFF, M. (2021): Factors driving the regrowth of European cities and the role of local and contextual impacts: A contrasting analysis of regrowing and shrinking cities. Cities, 108, 102942.
  • ISTRATE, A.-L., BOSÁK, V., NOVÁČEK, A., SLACH, O. (2020): How Attractive for Walking Are the Main Streets of a Shrinking City? Sustainability, 12(15), 1-20.
  • SLACH, O., NOVÁČEK, A., BOSÁK, V., KRTIČKA, L. (2020): Mega-retail-led regeneration in the shrinking city: Panacea or placebo? Cities, 104, 102799.
  • BOSÁK, V., SLACH, O., NOVÁČEK, A., KRTIČKA, L. (2020): Temporary use and brownfield regeneration in post-socialist context: from bottom-up governance to artists exploitation. European Planning Studies, 28(3), 604-626.
  • SLACH, O., BOSÁK, V., KRTIČKA, L., NOVÁČEK, A., RUMPEL, P. (2019): Urban Shrinkage and Sustainability: Assessing the Nexus between Population Density, Urban Structures and Urban Sustainability. Sustainability. 11(15), p. 1-22.
  • BOSÁK, V., NOVÁČEK, A., SLACH, O. (2018): Industrial culture as an asset, barrier and creative challenge for restructuring of old industrial cities: case study of Ostrava (Czechia). Geoscape, 12, p. 52-64.

Updated: 31. 05. 2023