Changes Of A Rural Landscape In Czech Areas Of Different Types

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with the macrostructural and microstructural landscape changes in six selected microregions in Moravia and eastern Bohemia. Changes of the landscape macrostructure were evaluated based on the statistical data from 1845, 1948, 1990 and 2013. Changes of the landscape microstructure were compared on the base of old maps, aerial images and field experiences. According to the available data the area of an arable land was the largest in 1845. Since then it has been decreasing – more in mountain areas, less in lowland ones where it was replaced by forests, grasslands and urban areas, depending on the vegetation period, physical character and vicinity of urban centres. Results show that the microstructure recorded great changes during the communist period: large expanses of fields, irrigation and drainage measures, windbreaks, non-rural buildings in the countryside. Contemporary changes are connected mostly with urbanisation of the landscape.