About us

• Building B on the university campus – houses the main facilities for scientific work and teaching. The Department’s offices are located on the 4th floor, while the classrooms can be found on the 4th and 6th floors.
• The Soil Mechanics Laboratory, located on the 4th floor, provides facilities for testing required to classify soils for construction purposes, from index tests required for the design of landscaping structures to mechanical property (deformation and strength) tests required for the design of linear and civil structures.
• The Masaryk Forest Living Lab (School Forest Enterprise Křtiny; near the town of Křtiny) aims to become part of a European network of Living Labs established under the European Union’s Horizon Project ‘Water4All’. The laboratory focusses on all aspects of forest water retention, with a main mission to provide accurate data on rainfall-runoff processes and the hydrological balance of forests and to test potential elements that serve to retain water in forests.

• As the Department is application and design oriented, cooperation with commercial and external institutions has become an integral part of its activities. Experts from commercial and cooperating institutions regularly take part in practical classes and excursions, are members of various teaching advisory bodies and participate in projects. International cooperation takes place primarily through scientific research collaboration, with members of the Department publishing, submitting projects and participating in conferences with foreign colleagues.

Professional and assessment activities

• The Department’s staff have range of expertise in forestry, water management and the environment (forensic expertise) and are regularly called upon to carry out professional assessment activities in the fields of water management, landscape engineering, suburban forestry, spatial planning and development, recreology and construction materials engineering.

• The Department of Landscape Management is one of the founding departments of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology at Mendel University in Brno. Historically, it has been focusing on forest engineering, forest transportation networks, forest reclamation and torrent control. In recent times, it has expanded beyond forested areas, emphasizing multifunctional use of landscape biotechnics.
• The department was founded in 1920 as one of four core departments of the newly formed Department of Forestry at the University of Agriculture in Brno. One of the founding members was Professor Ferdinand Müller, an expert in forest engineering and torrent control. Initially, the department focused on teaching road construction, forest engineering, and torrent control.
• From the very beginning, the department focused not only on scientific and educational activities but also on project-based work. Practically immediately after the incorporation of the University Forest Estate into the organizational structure of the University of Agriculture in 1923, the department began designing forest transport networks and forestry structures, as well as addressing stream regulation and identifying suitable sites for small water reservoirs.
• Prof. Dr. Ing. Leo Skatula, a graduate of the Vienna Hochschule für Bodenkultur and a proponent of the Alpine school of torrent control, built upon the concept of the Department of Forest Structures, which was successfully led by Professor Müller until 1945. Professor Skatula headed the department until 1961. During this time, the department had three key sections: Forest Transportation and Torrent Control, Forest and Agricultural Civil Engineering, and Soil, Water, and Climate Protection.
• In 1950, the department was renamed the Department of Forest Structures and Land Reclamation, and these sections became independent departments. Prof. Skatula introduced the concept of combining biological and technical (biotechnical) measures, which remains a guiding principle for all forest-engineering practices in small catchment areas. The aforementioned comprehensive concept of biotechnical measures in forest engineering, forest land reclamation, and torrent control remains valid to this day.
• In 1961, Prof. Ing. Otakar Riedl became the head of the department, and partly due to his expertise, the department was renamed the Department of Forest Structures, Land Reclamation, and Torrent Control. The main focus of the department’s activities during this period was primarily on addressing tasks in applied forest hydrology, forest land reclamation, and torrent control.
• In 1971, Prof. Ing. Jiří Beneš took over the leadership of the department and headed it until 1986, when the department was dissolved. Its staff members were then reassigned based on their expertise to the Department of Forest Mechanization and Repair and the Department of Forest Protection. Given Prof. Beneš’s expertise, the focus of the department during the period of 1971–1986 shifted more towards the area of forest accessibility, specifically the optimization of the forest road network within the context of the forest management units of that time.

• The Department of Forest Constructions and Land Reclamation was re-established on February 1, 1990, and Prof. Ing. Jiří Krešl became its head. Prof. Krešl led the department only until 1991, when he was elected the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology. In April 1991, the Department of Forest Constructions and Land Reclamation was transferred to the Department of Forest Constructions and Land Reclamation (an organizational change within the then University of Agriculture).
• In 1991, Prof. Ing. Jaroslav Herynek, despite his expertise in forest reclamation, took over as head of the department and re-established a balance between the department’s main fields.
• In 1998, Prof. Ing. Václav Tlapák, a student of Prof. Skatula, who successfully led the department until 2004, became the head of the department. Prof. Tlapák was instrumental in establishing the Landscape Engineering programme at the FFWT, mainly as a response to the declining interest in “traditional” forest construction at that time. During this period, the dominant theme of the department was the complex solution of landscape biotechnics, i.e., the application of principles formulated by Prof. Skatula in the requirements of current forest and landscape engineering practice.
• From 2004 to 2008, Prof. Ing. Ilja Vyskot headed the department. Due to his expertise, he initiated the change of the department’s name to the Department of Landscape Conservation and Management. With the change of the department’s name, Prof. Vyskot shifted the department’s focus towards the integrated utilization of landscape space and away from the department’s original specializations.
• With the appointment of Prof. Dr. Ing. Miloslav Šlezinger as head of the department in 2008, the balance of the department’s specializations was restored, and in 2012, the department was renamed to its current name: The Department of Landscape Management.
• In 2013, Assoc. Prof. Ing. Petr Kupec, Ph.D., assumed the position of head of the department. His professional focus aligns with the concept of multifunctional use of landscape biotechnics, building on the department’s traditional expertise in engineering structures, forest reclamation, and torrent control. Under his leadership, the department has expanded its focus beyond classical forestry and landscape applications of landscape biotechnics to include its use in cultural and social contexts. The department currently places strong emphasis on scientific research, internationalization, and cooperation with partner institutions not only in Europe but also in Southeast Asia.