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Showing posts from May, 2012

Ethnopedology: the study of local soil knowledge

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“There is a need to integrate science and local knowledge. Both are vital and can be brought together only by participation” emphasized Prof. Dr. Franz Heidhues in his concluding remarks during the International Scientific Conference on Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountain Areas held at the University of Hohenheim, Germany on 16-18 April 2012. As can be seen from the figure below, scientific knowledge becomes more relevant when it is combined with local knowledge (Barrios and Trejo, 2003). Precision & relevance of scientific and local knowledge   Ethnopedology is the study of the local knowledge on soil and land systems of rural populations, from the most traditional to the modern. Ethnopedological research covers a wide diversity of topics centered around four main issues: (1) the formalization of local soil and land knowledge into classification schemes; (2) the comparison of local and technical soil classifications; (3) the analysis of local land evaluation sys

Masaryk University and geology in the beautiful historic city of Brno (Czech Republic)

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Brno's city center If you have the chance to travel to the Czech Republic, you should not forget to include in your itinerary a visit to the city of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Located south of Prague (about 2 hours by train), Brno is the historical capital city of Moravia of the South Moravian Region, one of 14 regions of the country. Brno is among the most beautiful European cities that I have visited. According to Wikipedia, the city has hundreds of historical sights, including one designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and the second largest historic preservation zone in the Czech Republic next to Prague. It is a university city and boasts of several top universities (total student population of about 90,000) one of which is Masaryk University. Masaryk University Masaryk University, named in honor of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk the first president of Czechoslovakia, is the second-largest public university in the Czech Republic and the leading university