Territorial assessment of environmental and economic aspects of planned Czech high-speed rail construction

Anotace: The aim of this article is to present the results of the evaluation of selected aspects of the construction of high-speed railway routes (HSR) in the Czech Republic through stimulation and sustainability criteria. The first criterion is focused on assessing potential conflicts of the proposed routes with protected areas of European importance and territorial systems of ecological stability of the landscape of supraregional importance, and the second criterion on assessing the degree of their connection to the territorial systems of centres and axes of development affecting the regional quality of the business environment. The explanatory power of these criteria is guaranteed by their theoretical framing of the original integration theory of sustainable regional development, connecting territorial systems of socio-economic development with territorial systems of ecological stability of the landscape. The acquired knowledge can be used practically for evidence-based identification of the importance of individual HSR routes and optimization of their localization.