This initial construction had the primary intent of draining the area, particularly swamps which had expanded due to deforestation, in order to make available additional arable land, with aquaculture being a secondary goal.

[1] This process was initially slow, but it intensified from the late 14th century, when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV commanded the construction of fishponds "so that the kingdom would abound in fish and mist".

[1] The next major period of development occurred in the late 16th century under Jakub Krčín working for the prominent Bohemian Rosenberg family.

[4] From their beginning as an effort to drain the swamps in order to obtain farm land, the ponds have served a wide variety of functions.

These issues are exacerbated by the choice to harvest fish from April to June, as this coincides and disrupts the bird breeding season.

[1] The broader fishpond system has a water catchment across the entirety of the Lužnice River, including both the Czech and Austrian portions, resulting in a total catchment size of 1,700 square kilometres (660 sq mi), and when this region experiences floods the ponds perform a secondary function of water management during floods.