The changes that occurred in land cover in postcommunist countries in Central Europe

Authors

  • Dušan Romportl Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague
  • Petr Kuna Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14712/23361964.2017.4

Abstract

Central European landscape has undergone dramatic changes during the last decades. Big changes in the political and economic systems resulted in a large-scale transformation in land use, especially in the agricultural and silvicultural sectors. At the same time, significant changes in urban regions were recorded. In order to quantify and compare the most important processes in land cover changes, we analyzed so-called land cover flows within four post-communist countries in Central Europe – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – using CORINE Land Cover databases for 1990, 2000 and 2006. Contradictory processes in landscape change were recorded such as large scale agricultural extensification vs. intensification, or afforestation vs. deforestation. Moreover, there are significant regional differences in the changes in spatial patterns.

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Published

2017-06-13

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

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