As the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague, in comparison with other cities in the country, in many ways occupies a unique position. With regard to transport, its exceptional nature stems mainly from the fact that it features the strongest demands on transport, owing to the high number of inhabitants in the city and also the specific social structure of Prague, which is determined by the high concentration of political and economic management institutions in the capital city. More than 130 000 motor vehicles enter the city of Prague daily. When this is combined with the needs of the city's inhabitants, the existing network of roads does not have the capacity to cope with this level of traffic.

The impassability of the city has a negative impact on the environment. The intensity of motor vehicle traffic achieved on the main roads in many sections of the city far surpasses that experienced on the most frequented sections of the motorways and expressways throughout the Czech Republic.

The possibilities for addressing the traffic problems of Prague on the basis of the principles of operational organisation have been practically exhausted, and new capacities for the road network are being sought in the construction of a new network of quality roads, especially a ring road around the city, covered by the city, and a Prague belt highway, covered by the Ministry of Transport CR. The tempo of construction of these roads to date, limited by the city's financial resources, is completely insufficient and does not meet the needs of the growth in traffic. If the construction of the ring road and the main radial roads in the sections between the Prague belt and the city ring were to continue to around 2005 at the current speed, the maintenance of an acceptable standard would become untenable. For this reason, the putting off of the construction of the network of main roads in Prague can no longer be permitted.

The floods that occurred in August 2002 - an event, or rather catastrophe, that in its parameters exceeded without question any such phenomena observed thus far, but also surpassed the imagination of both professionals and the general public. Particularly in the second half of last year it filled the pages of newspapers and magazines in a direct follow up to ongoing events. The water resources officers who were most affected by the events are however only now beginning to have more time and more comprehensive materials for serious analyses, discussions, and detailed studies of what exactly happened, the impacts the floods had, and especially the implementation of corrective measures.

The impact of the flow of the floods on the built-up areas, infrastructure, engineering networks, flow ducts, and the much discussed handling of it, have already been presented and analysed in the recent period. What is less well known is how the critical situation last year in August took its course in some of the more important waterworks, how the waterworks influenced the flows and, conversely, what impact the floods had on the state of these sites.

In the article, the course of the flooding is presented from the perspective of the operations of some selected water works. The reader is familiarised with three key waterworks in the Vltava cascades - Lipno, Orlík, and Slapy - and another three strategically placed waterworks - Římov, Hracholusky, and Husinec.

Determining and describing the actual shape of the surface of the land, the spatial lie and shape of, both existing and planned, natural and artificial objects and phenomena on the land, and doing so with the necessary precision (to within a centimetre or millimetre) is the primary task of surveyors and the scientific field of geodesy and cartography. Maps of various measure, different content and function, and geometric and other plans, specific drawings (for example, layouts for or actually built constructions) and other similar outcomes from surveying, measuring, digital processing, and the spread of geometric parameters and related data (geoinformation, geodata) are, in today's electronically integrated world, values of economic, political and strategic force and provide users with basic data essential for the effective administration and development of the land.

A series of several articles in this journal has two aims:

• to refresh for some readers something of what they earlier learned from their teachers at school and in their higher education in the field of construction, and
• to assist in their practical, professional coexistence with surveyors in their capacity in administrative offices, planning offices, or building companies.

The series of articles deliberately begins with geometric plans and instructions on how to use them. It is these surveying products, compiled for the administration of the land register, that today again have a clear goal. This goal was, in the forty-year rule of 'socialist collective property', suppressed to the level of a not always significant technical document in the former records of the property (often reflected in the level of the document's quality), as private ownership of property, with an unambiguously defined lot in the terrain and in maps, was tolerated by law only to a very minimal extent, so that it was possible to maintain an image of democracy on the outside.

In the upcoming articles we will look at the issue of legal geodetic functions and practices in the preparation, planning, and documentation of constructions and territorial administration.