Central and Eastern Europe has experienced fundamental land use changes since the collapse of socialism around 1990. We analyzed the patterns and determinants of agricultural land abandonment and recultivation in Slovakia during the transition from a state-controlled economy to an open-market economy (1986 to 2000) and the subsequent accession to the European Union (2000 to 2010). We quantified agricultural land-use change based on available maps derived from 30-m multi-seasonal Landsat imagery and analyzed the socioeconomic and biophysical determinants of the observed agricultural land-use changes using boosted regression trees. We used a scenario-based approach to assess future agricultural land abandonment and recultivation until 2060. The maps of agricultural land use analysis reveal that cropland abandonment was the dominant land use process on 11% of agricultural land from 1986 to 2000, and on 6% of the agricultural land from 2000 to 2010. Recultivation occurred on approximately 2% of agricultural land in both periods. Although most abandoned land was located in the plains, the rate of abandonment was twice as high in the mountainous landscapes. The likelihood of abandonment increased with increased distance from the national capital (Bratislava), decreased with an increase of annual mean temperatures and was higher in proximity to forest edges and on steeper slopes. Recultivation was largely determined by the opposite effects. The scenario for 2060 suggests that future agricultural land abandonment and recultivation may largely be determined by climate and terrain conditions and, to a lesser extent, by proximity to economic centers. Our study underscores the value of synergetic use of satellite data and land-use modeling to provide the input for land planning, and to anticipate the potential effects of changing environmental and policy conditions.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/224468/1/Pazur_2020_agricultural_lands_Slovakia.pdf

Abandonment and Recultivation of Agricultural Lands in Slovakia—Patterns and Determinants from the Past to the Future

Land use changes and dynamics over the last century around churches of Moldavia, Bukovina, Northern Romania – Challenges and future perspectives

The chapter provides the analysis and assessment of three cultural ES: C1, Recreation and Tourism: Physical Use of Nature and Landscape; C2, Landscape Aesthetics: Aesthetic Values; and C3, Natural and Cultural Heritage: Intellectual and Scientific Values. All ES are described in the unified structure: definition and brief characteristics, methods used for identification and assessment, main types of landscape and ecosystems providing given ES, the importance of ES in terms of nature and landscape protection and ES assessment for the territory of Slovakia. Spatial assessment is provided as a map of the landscape capacity for a given ES provision. For all ES, short conclusions and overview of input data for further assessment of the ES capacity, demand and flow are also given.

Cultural Ecosystem Services

Vegetation response to grazing management in a herbaceous community of calcareous grassland.

Landscape pattern analysis is a popular topic in global change research, and appropriate grain size is the basis for accurate landscape pattern analyses. In this study, methods based on landscape metrics and spatial autocorrelation are used to determine the optimal grain size of the study area. Based on a grain size of 20 m, the landscape pattern of the core of the Zhengzhou and Kaifeng integration area was analyzed at class and landscape levels from 2005-15. The results show that over the study period, the landscape fragmentation of the study area increased by approximately 32.38%, the distribution of landscape types was homogenized gradually, and human impact was the main reason for the changes in landscape pattern. Additionally, cultivated land was the predominant landscape type, and the area percentage of cultivated land decreased from 79.01% to 60.01%. The patch number and total area of forests increased, the percentage of construction land increased by approximately 1.5 times, and the area and patch number of unused land gradually decreased. This research provides useful information for land use policy-making.

http://www.pjoes.com/pdf-76913-24345?filename=Landscape Pattern.pdf

Landscape Pattern Analysis Based on OptimalGrain Size in the Core of the Zhengzhouand Kaifeng Integration Area

This paper analyses the effectiveness of self-evacuation activities of population by private vehicle transport from flood hazard areas, aimed at minimising the negative effects of flooding.. The paper relies on a four-step traffic model which is based, inter alia, on the results of questionnaire studies. Moreover, the model takes into account the entirety of national traffic, which allows the methodological problems related to the border effect to be overcome. As shown in the study, the shortest or the fastest routes achievable in the pre-flood period are not always most optimal when the flood has already occurred. In such a case, evacuation planning will increase the efficiency of the process. Thus, inadequate designation of evacuation routes may adversely affect the process of relocating people to places of safety. Therefore, it is important to create plans that provide information on evacuation zones, routes and destinations. 

Emergency management of self-evacuation from flood hazard areas in Poland

Abstract Socio-political changes in the countries of Easternand Central Europe in the era of socialism had significant effects on agricultural landscape. Collectivisation(1950 - 1970) lost almost all of traditional agricultural landscapes.On the other hand, the phenomenon of agriculturalabandonment started to be significant after 1989. Inthe model area (part of The Polana Biosphere Reserve)these two processes that formed the agricultural landscapestructure were analysed. The analyses were carriedout using orthophotos that represented the landscapestructure in 1949, 1986 and 2006. It was found that almostcomplete extinction of the traditional agricultural landscaperepresented by a mosaic of narrow fields and permanentgrasslands occurred during the period. At the sametime, increasing trend of abandonment processes was observed.In 2006, non-forestwoody vegetation covered 48%of agricultural land.Natural reforestation as the final stageof agricultural abandonment extended to 46% on the formeragricultural land in 2006. Abandonment processeswere the most significant already in the period of socialistagriculture. To describe the changes, landscape metricssuch as Number of patches (NP), Mean patch size (MPS),Patch size standard deviation (PSSD) and Mean shape index(MSI) were used.

Multi-temporal analysis of an agricultural landscape transformation and abandonment (Lubietová, Central Slovakia)

Abstract Agricultural land in many post-socialist countries passed through a similar scenario of eminent changes in the past decades. One of the important milestones was the process of collectivisation (in 1950−1970), transformation to market-oriented economy (after 1989) and the following integration into the European Union. These changes were often attended by the process of agricultural abandonment. This paper presents an approach to the evaluation of agricultural abandonment by analysis of land use change in chosen terrain attributes (slope levels and altitude levels) context. It studies the area of a northern part of the Poľana UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Biosphere reserve that represents mountain agricultural landscape. All of the analyses were realised in GIS (geographic information systems), based on the orthophotos that represented the land use structure in 1949, 1986 and 2006. Dramatic decrease in real usage of agricultural areas attended by the process of secondary succession was observed especially in steep slopes and higher altitude levels. To quantify the changes, landscape metrics such as class area (CA), number of patches (NP) and mean patch size (MPS) were used. Changes in landscape classes had an influence on landscape diversity. It was expressed by decrease in Shannon‘s diversity index (SDI) and Shannon‘s evenness index (SEI).

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Agricultural Abandonment in Chosen Terrain Attributes Context – Case Study from the Poľana Unesco Biosphere Reserve (Central Slovakia)

UAV-based photogrammetry has many applications today. Measuring of snow depth using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) techniques is one of them. Determining the depth of snow is very important for a wide range of scientific research activities. In the alpine environment, this information is crucial, especially in the sphere of risk management (snow avalanches). The main aim of this study is to test the applicability of fixed-wing UAV with RTK technology in real alpine conditions to determine snow depth. The territory in West Tatras as a part of Tatra Mountains (Western Carpathians) in the northern part of Slovakia was analyzed. The study area covers more than 1.2 km2 with an elevation of almost 900 m and it is characterized by frequent occurrence of snow avalanches. It was found that the use of different filtering modes (at the level point cloud generation) had no distinct (statistically significant) effect on the result. On the other hand, the significant influence of vegetation characteristics was confirmed. Determination of snow depth based on seasonal digital surface model subtraction can be affected by the process of vegetation compression. The results also point on the importance of RTK methods when mapping areas where it is not possible to place ground control points.

Application of Fixed-Wing UAV-Based Photogrammetry Data for Snow Depth Mapping in Alpine Conditions

Protected mountain areas are attractive tourist destinations, and the number of visitors to these areas is increasing. 'e extension of cable car operations into the summer season is a challenge for some protected areas. Our study focuses on visitor profiles and is based on the characteristics of socio-demographic and spatial behavior of cable car users of the Chopok area (Slovakia). 'e methods used involve recording visitors’ itineraries through the use of GPS loggers and conducting post-trip interviews with the study participants. In order to better understand visitors’ spatial behavior, the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and trip itinerary parameters was analyzed. Additionally, three distinct visitor profiles based on cluster analysis were found in the investigated sample. 'e results can be used to enrich our knowledge concerning the spatial behavior of tourists in mountain environments, and more directly, for the management of cable car destinations located within protected areas. key words GPS-tracking – tourism – outdoor recreation – visitor profile – spatial behavior – Low Tatras National Park – cable car švajda, j., masný, m., koróny, s., mezei, a., machar, i., taczanowska, k. (2018): Visitor profiling using characteristics of socio-demographic and spatial behavior as tools to support the management of protected mountain areas. Geografie, 123, 4, 461–478. Received February 2018, accepted November 2018. © Česká geografická společnost, z. s., 2018 462 geografie 123/4 (2018) / švajda, masný, koróny, mezei, machar, taczanowska

/pdf/visitor-profiling-using-characteristics-of-socio-demographic-3cc9z8qo8u.pdf

Matej Masný

Papers

Emergency management of self-evacuation from flood hazard areas in Poland

Multi-temporal analysis of an agricultural landscape transformation and abandonment (Lubietová, Central Slovakia)

Agricultural Abandonment in Chosen Terrain Attributes Context – Case Study from the Poľana Unesco Biosphere Reserve (Central Slovakia)

Application of Fixed-Wing UAV-Based Photogrammetry Data for Snow Depth Mapping in Alpine Conditions

Visitor profiling using characteristics of socio-demographic and spatial behavior as tools to support the management of protected mountain areas