Czechia is experiencing severe weather conditions on Saturday morning including heavy rains and flooding across multiple regions the country has been under intense rainfall The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) has issued extreme flood warnings for several areas as river levels continue to rise The weather is expected to persist with continued rainfall and strong winds precautionary measures against flooding are still underway and there have been multiple public transport disruptions Flooding has been reported in various parts of the country The most severe flooding is occurring in the Olomouc Region with 400 interventions reported by firefighters since Thursday with flood stages reaching critical levels The Bělá River has overflowed its banks in Mikulovice and Česká Ves resulting in road closures and the construction of sandbag dikes are actively involved in rescue operations and evacuations The ČHMÚ has identified extreme flood risks in regions such as Frydlant rainfall in the Jeseníky and Krkonoše mountains has been particularly intense with up to 164 millimeters recorded in some areas with the third and highest flood warning level in effect at several locations The severe weather has also led to widespread power outages Over 63,000 households across Czechia are without electricity The largest disruptions are in the Ústí Region where more than 20,000 households are affected followed by 13,000 households in the Liberec and Hradec Králové regions The outages are attributed to both fallen trees and wind damage Emergency crews are working to restore power across the affected areas Travel has been significantly impacted by the storm trains were halted on approximately ten routes due to fallen trees and safety concerns Firefighters have responded to 28 incidents on Czech railsways The most affected regions are Liberec and Hradec Králové Train services are expected to resume once conditions improve and safety checks are completed In Prague, heavy rainfall has led to the closure of the C Line entrances at the Muzeum metro station with passengers advised to make use of the A Line entrances at the station Contact me to schedule a free 30 minute phone or video consultation Prague Zoo has also announced that it will not open to the public this weekend. Operation of the Petřín cable car has been suspended until further notice, and numerous public transport lines have been affected; an updated list can be found here The Czech capital continues to implement flood defense measures on Saturday particularly in areas like Holešovice and Stromovka The Vltava River's water level is expected to rise significantly prompting the construction of flood barriers and the temporary suspension of river cruises The city's flood defenses are being bolstered in preparation for the anticipated peak of the river level expected to reach its highest point overnight from Saturday to Sunday Emergency services and local authorities are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating responses to mitigate the impact of the severe weather Prague's municipal info line (+420 800 100 000) will provide updates on flood measures between 9 a.m Your morning coffee deserves a great companion. Why not enjoy it with our daily newsletter? News from Czechia, curated insights, and inspiring stories in English. A beet farmer discovered an ornate Bronze Age gold belt on his land in the Czech Republic A beet farmer in the Czech Republic got the surprise of his life last month when he unearthed a thin crumpled sheet of gold that turned out to be nearly 2,500 years old The ornate object was covered in dirt but well preserved to send photos to archaeologists at the nearby Silesian Museum in Opava copper and iron — was likely the front of a leather belt "It is decorated with raised concentric circles and topped with rose-shaped clasps at the end," he said in an interview with RPI Conservator Tereza Alex Kilnar has started work on stabilizing and analyzing the belt at the Museum Bruntál she estimated that the gold belt dates to the middle to late Bronze Age Supported by subsistence farmers who grew wheat and barley and kept domesticated livestock with a hierarchy forming between the poor farmers and the wealthy political and economic elite Archaeological evidence points to people living in timber-frame houses early in the Bronze Age and transitioning to larger settlements by the middle of the time period Related: Face of wealthy Bronze-Age Bohemian woman revealed in stunning reconstruction But gold items also have been discovered in hoards in special suggesting a kind of gift exchange between the cultural elite and the supernatural. Not much else is known about the context of the gold belt yet since it was just recovered in late September "We can't truly say" if the object was part of a larger feature like a burial or hoard "because the belt was discovered on the surface." She suggested that "conducting some type of archaeological research is currently under consideration and we are discussing it with other institutions." Kilnar told RPI that the belt likely "belonged to someone in a high position in society because items of such value were rarely produced at the time." Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox —Facial reconstruction shows powerful Bronze Age woman's serene expression and huge earrings —The most amazing coin treasures uncovered in 2021 —Ancient Bronze Age city reemerges from Iraq river after extreme drought Australian National University archaeologist Catherine Frieman whose research specialty includes studies of metalworking in the European Bronze Age agreed that the owner of the gold belt was someone of high status The Bronze Age "saw a really extraordinary flourishing of metalworking practice and wide distribution of elaborate gold objects in central and western Europe," Frieman told Live Science in an email "Gold objects with circular motifs are often linked to Bronze Age cosmological systems believed to focus on solar cycles." While the decorative motifs have yet to be fully studied the importance of the gold belt is already clear "It's rare to find ornaments of this type and fragility this intact," Frieman said It is rare for special gold finds to emerge during excavation." "It is a really unique discovery," Kilnar told RPI but all over the Czech Republic." After the belt is studied and conserved Museum Bruntál plans to display it for the public Kristina KillgroveStaff writerKristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in anthropology and classical archaeology and was formerly a university professor and researcher She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing Ancient Egyptians drew the Milky Way on coffins and tombs Archaeologists discover hundreds of metal objects up to 3,400 years old on mysterious volcanic hilltop in Hungary Poland and Austria fear worst may yet be to come as thousands are evacuated to higher ground The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing, as authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic Poland and Austria and warned the worst may be to come The number of victims in Poland rose to five after a surgeon returning from work drowned in the south-western town of Nysa where the hospital was evacuated and patients rescued by raft Four more people had died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój In Austria, local media reported that two men aged 70 and 80 drowned after being trapped by rising flood water in their homes in the towns of Böheimkirchen and Sierndorf, both in the hard-hit north-eastern state of Lower Austria. told local radio a woman had drowned in a stream that overflowed its banks near Bruntál a town of about 15,000 people in the north-east of the country while seven more people were still unaccounted for knocked out electricity and in some places submerged whole neighbourhoods “I have lived here for 16 years and I have never seen such flooding,” one Austrian woman 1:15People evacuated via helicopters after catastrophic flooding in central Europe – videoSeven people died in Romania over the weekend as well as one in Poland and a firefighter in Austria The rain was expected to ease in many areas on Monday but with some rivers unlikely to reach peak water levels for days several major cities were preparing for potentially disastrous flooding Extreme rainfall is becoming more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk declared a state of emergency in the flooded areas and announced an emergency aid fund of 1bn zlotys (£200m) cancelled all his international engagements Flooding damage in Vápenná in north-east Czech Republic Photograph: Action Press/Rex/ShutterstockTusk said he was in touch with the leaders of other affected countries and that they would ask the EU for financial help losses linked to the flood – will be able to easily [claim funds],” he said More than 2,600 people were evacuated across Poland in the last 24 hours Standing in the town square of Lądek-Zdrój in south-western Poland described the destruction as “unimaginable … It’s a city like in an apocalypse… It’s a ghost town.” He added: “It literally ripped out everything because we don’t have a single bridge We are practically cut off from the world.” described images from the flooded areas in Austria Romania and Poland as “dramatic” and said Germany was “deeply saddened by the news of dead and missing people” and ready to help 1:19Torrential rain and flooding hits central and eastern Europe – video reportHungary’s capital was bracing for severe flooding as the Danube rose said efforts were focused on keeping the river and its tributaries within their banks and said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby while the 600,000 residents of Wrocław in Poland were told water levels might not peak before Wednesday said the situation in his country “continues to worsen” Free weekly newsletterThe planet's most important stories Get all the week's environment news - the good More than 10,000 relief workers had evacuated 1,100 houses in the state said people there were facing “difficult and dramatic hours … probably the most difficult hours of their lives” was completely cut off from the outside world So far 12 dams had broken and thousands of households were without electricity and water It stays dramatic.” She said there there was a high risk of more dams breaking and it was as yet too early to assess the scale of the damage urged people to “follow the instructions of mayors and firefighters” emergency services had dealt with 7,884 incidents and 119,000 households were without power At least 12,000 people had been evacuated from their homes across the country adding that although the rain had stopped in the most affected areas the situation would become critical for others as the storm moves westwards and rivers continue to rise Read moreThe rising Morava River put about 70% of the Czech city of Litovel shutting down schools and health facilities a power plant supplying heat and hot water was forced to shut down Thousands were evacuated from their homes in Krnov and Český Těšín up to 10,000 people out of a population of about 56,000 were asked to move to higher ground saying the situation was worse than during devastating floods in 1997 said the country would “clean up and see what can be salvaged” adding that compared with the worst recent flooding in 2013 “the amount of water was almost three times bigger” One resident of the Romanian village of Pechea told Agence France-Presse: “The water came into the house The climate emergency is causing more incidents of extreme rainfall because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe as a result such as flood defence planning and land use 2024•7 min read.css-1ht3mas{margin-block:40px;}.css-1abu0ph{text-align:right;font-size:12px;font-weight:var(--chakra-font-weights-bold);margin-top:0.5em;}Forest impacted by bark beeles in Bruntál Czech Republic captured by PlanetScope on September 12 Government agencies managing vast forests can now leverage satellite imagery to monitor forest health more effectively overcoming traditional challenges like limited resources and personnel Government agencies responsible for developing and implementing strategies to protect and restore forested lands face a difficult task With areas often exceeding millions of acreage or measure change efficiently or effectively However, always-on, up-to-date data derived from satellite imagery offers government agencies the advanced capability for forest health monitoring over broad and remote areas Rather than reactionary responses or infrequent satellite imagery empowers civil agencies to increase the efficiency of pest and disease monitoring We’ll explore how government agencies can draw on historical satellite data and task high-resolution imagery to detect early threats and support conservation efforts of our forests Governments around the globe rely on forest health monitoring to support stewardship and legislative initiatives This practice involves carefully managing and reporting on these initiatives Forest health monitoring includes responsibilities such as: proactive forest health monitoring proves crucial for effective protection and mitigation the more difficult management and remediation efforts become — especially in remote and vast environments Take wildfires. Some governments, like the Government of Canada, have adopted forest management strategies to improve mitigation Combining satellite data with other geospatial and behavioral indices help the government map burned areas Why Is Traditional Forest Health Monitoring So Difficult there’s too much forest to effectively or efficiently monitor all the acreage (even when there aren't enough forests) consider the following areas some countries must manage: and other resources the government has at its disposal for forest health monitoring the fact remains that they can’t be everywhere at once these agencies traditionally couldn’t gain the reliable visibility necessary to mitigate this disparity between capabilities and scope Improving Forest Health Monitoring With Broad Area Management Regularly viewing and analyzing near-real-time ground truth compiled from satellite imagery provides reliable early warning indicators Applying broad area management practices not only improves visibility but also reduces costs and accelerates decision-making capabilities Broad area management is the practice of monitoring and measuring change over large land areas These capabilities enable government agencies and commercial entities to monitor: Whether the geospatial analysis focused on these threats prompts immediate response or continued monitoring government agencies gain the visibility needed to make the right decision Satellite imagery supports all monitoring and response activities—from fighting wildfires to writing new public policies that help prevent them Brazil’s Federal Police began utilizing satellite imagery to monitor the Amazon Rainforest in pursuit of environmental protections potential trespassers and wildfire culprits In the Czech Republic, summers affected by climate change caused the bark beetle population to rapidly increase in the dry heat, causing the forest ecosystem to fall out of balance. The insects devastated Czech conifer forests, impacting 18 million m3 and putting 80% of the spruce growth at risk By leveraging Planet surface reflectance basemaps, the Czech Forest Management Institute (FMI) collaborated with various stakeholders to rapidly determine the affected areas which covered 16,000 hectares (valued at €200 million) Additional assessments helped inform landowners of the severe impacts with one out of every five unaware that forests on their property were affected As Peter Lukeš they can now mitigate the damage and provide data to the “Ministry of Agriculture so they can discern affected areas and decide where finances should be allocated for reforestation going forward.” If FMI had not leveraged satellite imagery (and basemaps) they may not have discovered the full extent of the bark beetle’s damage This would have caused the problem to persist if any affected forests or trees were overlooked and created a resurgence Given the unpredictability of climate change’s effects increased visibility and monitoring are paramount GIS platforms provide the best tools for accessing Esri’s ArcGIS and the open-source Q-GIS typically receive the highest praise from users Depending on which commercial satellite imagery provider organizations partner with they may access various integration methods These connect the provided image library to the organization’s GIS implementation (and potentially other software platforms) organizations partnering with Planet gain access to the following integrations: Although remote sensing technology was not considered until roughly the 1980s today’s forestry and forest health monitoring professionals leverage it alongside satellite imagery to achieve new levels of visibility and insight Future trends will likely see continued adoption of satellite imagery and more efforts to incorporate various intelligence sources like drones and LiDAR These augmentations to remote sensing and satellite imagery will only help create a more comprehensive understanding Planet has already been busy working toward facilitating sustainable forest management for a decade we’re helping governments and commercial entities—from gradually monitoring reforestation growth over time to receiving prompt notice about trespassers Organizations tasked with forest monitoring and inventory management need visibility to be effective And no one provides visibility like Planet Contact us to learn more We'll help you find the right products and pricing for your needs About . Contact . Donation The golden belt had been lying underground for thousands of years before being discovered by a farmer while harvesting beetroots The founder discovered the ancient garment at the end of September and immediately contacted archaeologists from Opava’s Silesian Museum The first hypothesis was that the thin golden sheet of metal was a tiara worn by the ruling elite as a symbol of power researchers now suggest that the object is an ornate belt dating from the Urnfield culture period which lasted from around 1300 to 750 BCE head of the museum’s archaeology department which is mostly gold but also contains some silver and traces of copper and iron is decorated with raised concentric circles and is topped with rose-shaped clasps at the ends The style suggests it dates to the late Bronze Age “Belts at the time were made of leather and this was strapped to its front part probably as a result of agricultural activity so it is a miracle it has been so well preserved Silesian archaeologist Jiri Juelka told Czech Radio: “The belt must have belonged to someone from high society as this style of production was not common it must have been owned by someone respected.” The belt has been sent to the Bruntal museum for conservation and will go on display at the end of next year and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()) Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page 2022•5 min read.css-1ht3mas{margin-block:40px;}.css-1abu0ph{text-align:right;font-size:12px;font-weight:var(--chakra-font-weights-bold);margin-top:0.5em;}Forest impacted by bark beeles in Bruntál and data from the national aerial inventory FMI was able to create a public portal for forest stakeholders to see which trees were recently removed due to bark beetle activity and which were standing deadwood due to bark beetle infestations FMI was able to determine that $200 million worth of timber and over 90% of 55 selected plots were confirmed to be at risk of further disease spreading FMI more recently noted that between 2015 and 2021 approximately 200,000 hectares of forest were impacted by bark beetles making it the largest bark beetle calamity in the history of the Czech Republic This work supported efforts by the Ministry of Agriculture to propose new legislation to rezone forests to minimize the spread of the disease and optimize healthy timber harvesting Planet imagery from 2018 showing the dead standing wood and recent forest removal due to the bark beetle calamity FMI has expanded their work with Planet in order to deliver objective yet robust forest data across the entire territory of the Czech Republic It was important to FMI to have a dataset with high update frequency that would not require the processing of individual source images – a very computationally and storage intensive activity Our PlanetScope product provided an affordable tool to FMI and offered the right capabilities for forest monitoring FMI conducted visual interpretations of aerially collected RGB photos but this was operator subjective and time-consuming FMI employed a diversity of digital data sources to evaluate tree heights and forest change Using 3D information from LiDAR-collected data they were able to generate automated detection of clearcuts and evaluate full forest mosaics the revisit time of the aerial campaign was once every two years they could only receive three cloud-free mosaics a year at a 20 meter resolution These infrequent collections limited FMI’s insights regarding the country’s forests As forest dynamics were changing at unprecedented rates due to climate change FMI wanted continuous insights with increased spatial detail and high temporal resolution PlanetScope’s daily imagery enabled FMI to round-out their data sources and conduct their analyses in reduced timeframes “Planet is an integral part of our remote sensing information source A kind of bridge between very detailed (20cm pixel) 3D aerial imagery with poor temporal resolution and the Sentinel-2 satellite images with great spectral bands and limited spatial resolutions,” said Filip Hájek Head of FMI’s Remote Sensing Department FMI was able to get high quality mosaics of large areas with low cloud coverage at an interval that they could well define This has allowed the institute to interpret the state of forest stands across the country supporting change detection products looking at clearcutting and forest borders with reasonable computational power “What makes our analysis more flexible is the significantly smaller volume of data to process We get a straight seamless nearly-cloudless mosaic of our country with Planet which has an order of magnitude less data volume compared to aerial data,” said Hájek PlanetScope’s spectral bands also offer FMI the ability to distinguish subtle changes happening on the ground With Planet’s near-infrared (NIR) and Red edge bands FMI was able to detect standing land and logging in their forests our bands have helped FMI identify forest species phenology allowing them to distinguish different tree species from each other based on their different evolution over time we have developed a process line for interpreting diverse data to accurately map the species composition of our forests Satellite observations at different stages of the growing season within a year are a great added value for us to refine the species classification,” said Hájek “The inclusion of Planet data will allow us to make the latest version of the tree species map even more accurate with more time slices and better spatial resolution.” Following on from their early work with Planet FMI is now using PlanetScope data to map the restoration of forests damaged from the epidemic “Here we are dealing with practically the opposite problem [from before] we will assess the trends of ‘greening’ of the clearcuts,” said Petr Lukeš but we firmly believe that the combination of the relatively high spatial detail of the Planet data together with the presence of the Red edge band and the assessment within a single year and across years will help us monitor trends in the regeneration of our forests.” To learn more about their work with us in the past, read our previous blog on the bark beetle calamity Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.