How is the INSTRUMENT applied to solve environmental problems in the City ?

Also in 1997 real estate developers in Prague were preparing and working on projects requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment (hereinafter EIA) in accordance with Act No. 244/1992 Coll., on environmental impact assessments. The Department of Environment of the Prague City Hall, being the authority of jurisdiction in this respect according to the Article 20 of the Act, received just four notices of projects subject to the EIA process in 1997 but the number of reports started to increase again in the beginning of 1998. The highest number of notices and of the EIA processes initiated by them will be attained in 1998.

EIAs falling into the purview of the Department of Environment of the Prague City Hall by the project type (as of August 31, 1998)

Infrastructure - total, including:	44	71.0 %
commercial and warehousing facilities	39
water management buildings and facilities	3
transportation projects   (ring-road motorway around Prague)	1
camping sites	1
Printing industry - printing houses	7	11.3 %
Power generation - heat-generation plants	2	3.2 %
Miscellaneous	9	14.5 %
Total	62	100.0 %

Source: O?P MHMP

EIA-subject projects are predominantly infrastructure-related, represented mainly by commercial and warehousing facilities which account for more than 70 % of all the EIA projects. Lately there have been an increased number of projects which also play some complementary roles in the area being developed such as leisure centers (cultural, physical training/workout, or educational facilities situated under the same roof as commercial centres). These multifunctional buildings place increased requirements on transportation network in the area in question, which sometimes brings about problems, especially in terms of growing pollution.

EIAs falling into the purview of the Department of Environment of the Prague City Hall by the project location (as of August 31, 1998)

Prague 4	5 projects
Prague 5	8 projects
Prague 6	10 projects
Prague 7	1 project
Prague 8	1 project
Prague 9	4 projects
Prague 10	8 projects
Prague 11	3 projects
Prague 12	1 project
Prague 13	7 projects
Prague 14	8 projects
Prague 15	6 projects

Source: O?P MHMP

Compared with previous years there has not been any major change in the project locating trend. We can still expect that the projects will be situated mainly in suburban easy-to-access parts of the city. As to the city centre EIA-subject projects are located mainly in the fifth district, in Smíchov.