Land cover changes in the Visegrád Group between 1990 and 2012
Date
2017
Authors
Lennert, József
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Abstract
The countries of the Visegrad group share many common traits in their historical development. During the socialist era the countries followed a largely similar development path, and the subsequent social and economic transformation also involved similar processes, which had a great impact on the land cover. Extensive
suburbanisation and greenfield investments became the driving force of a rapid urban sprawl, the disintegration of Comecon and loss of protected markets led to agricultural abandonment and fallow lands, while the EU integration and access to CAP support again altered the circumstances for agricultural activity. The aim of my paper is to analyse the land cover change processes in the Visegrad Group following the political and economic transition. To identify the similarities and differences between the countries, the analysis was carried out for the whole group and also for each country. The analysis was based on Corine Land Cover raster datasets with 100-meter resolution for 1990 and 2012. The high number of the original categories (34 for the whole Visegrad Group) was reduced by merging them into the following categories: artificial surfaces, arable land, vineyards and fruit cultivations, grasslands, complex cultivation patterns, forests, wetlands and other natural areas and water bodies. For the analysis, the Terrset Land Change Modeller and ArcGIS software were used. The results indicate that even in the case of the most general land cover change trends, which are common in country-level (increase in the share of artificial surfaces and forests, loss of arable land), there are big differences in the spatial patterns of the change. The expanse of arable land of the Polish eastern periphery and the decrease in the Czech periphery clearly illustrates the effect of region- and country-specific factors. The limitations of the Corine Land Cover database are also observable through the false increase of artificial surfaces in Poland.
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Keywords
visegrádi országok , Corine adatbázis , tájökológia , földrajzi információs rendszer , mezőgazdasági térség , rendszerváltás , gazdasági átalakulás , mesterséges felszín
Citation
Columella: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 4: (1 (Suppl.)) pp. 199-204. (2017) 16th Alps-Adria Workshop – Synergism in science. Konferencia helye, ideje: Opatija, Horvátország: 2017.04.03-2017.04.08.