The Green Spine of Vestec - Official Site of the Municipality of Vestec

The green backbone of Vestec

The green spine is a multifunctional element that will support the ecosystem services of the territory, strengthen the territorial system of ecological stability, improve the retention capacity of the landscape, create space for human recreation, and create a basic system of settlement greenery. It is part of the 2014 landscape plan and was incorporated into the 2018 master plan.

It's just another part of the work we need to do to restore the landscape. It is an outline of other ways we can improve the landscape we live in and our children will live in.

"The territory is always best known by those who live in the territory." Ing. Klára Salzmann, Ph.D.

A public presentation of the current situation and an explanation of the principles of possible solutions for the entire Olšanský Brook catchment area in Vestec took place on Wednesday 15 February 2023 in the BIOCEV hall.

Update and revision of the content of the Green Spine of Vestec as of December 2022

Interview with Ing. Klára Salzmann, Ph.D., author of Landscape Plan (2014) and Green Spine

Video recordings of the interview with Ing. Klára Salzmann, Ph.D. (April 2022):

Chapter 1 - What to expect from a public presentation

... and why come? Come and discuss your expectations and ideas about the Green Spine. (2:12)

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Chapter 2: What makes Green Spine unique

A unique and systemic solution for residents and nature. (1:17)

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Chapter 3: What to think of as the Green Spine

Functional wide strip of greenery naturally following the flow of the Olšanský brook and its advantages. (4:06)

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Chapter 4: Large retention basin for water management.

A "fish tank" with a natural meadow and a place with permanent waterlogging in the large meadow below the nursery. (5:57)

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Chapter 5: Revitalisation of the Olšanský Brook

Wild creek with bays and willows also as protection against flash floods. (2:25)

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Chapter 6: From Vestecký Pond across the meadow to the original retention pond

An aquatic wetland paradise full of life accessible to residents. (1:53)

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Chapter 7: From Vestec to the Vltava

The green spine in Vestec as an inspiration for Prague and its streams. (1:35)

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Important analyses from the Landscape Plan (K. Salzmann et al., 2014)

Territorial system of ecological stability

ÚSES, whose constituent elements (biocentres and biocorridors) should form the backbone of the ecological stability of the landscape - an interconnected network of close to nature and natural areas allowing the long-term existence and migration of many native species of plants and animals is in its current form (2014) in the area of. Vestec is not functional. Compiled by three local biocentres and four local biocorridors. However, all of the defined biocentres are functional only to a small extent and most of the area they cover is now used as arable land. Similarly, although all four of the designated biocorridors run along watercourses or grasslands, their width falls far short of the minimum parameters for these types of biocorridors to enable them to function effectively in the landscape.

Natural elements

At present (2014) the area of natural and close-to-nature elements in the landscape of k. ú. Vestec is very small to insignificant and the elements that are there may lose their residual value, function and significance with any further anthropogenic load. The individual nature features are currently isolated from each other and do not form any interconnected whole. However, the proposed landscape plan supports and enhances these natural features so that they too small "patches of nature" in the midst of an industrialised, built-up and heavily human-altered and intensively used landscape have great potential become small centres of biodiversity and ecological stability for the whole area of interest and the wider surroundings.

Water retention in the landscape

The area has virtually zero natural capacity to retain and store surface water. The basic idea of the current (2014) stormwater solution in the study area is to divert all the water that falls here to the lower part of the watershed without regard to further downstream impacts.

The new landscape plan, which proposes to create retention basins at the centre of the future green spine, should help address this. The reservoirs would be used to retain water in the landscape and create the setting of a generous landscaped park that would be lined with mature vegetation, with meadows and water features inside as a retention basin, which would not be used for swimming but rather to create a new aquatic habitat full of vegetation and animals.