Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Depopulated Areas of Mediterranean Europe: A Case Study in Two Inland Provinces of Spain

Abstract

Depopulation often leads to the abandonment of agricultural land and the resulting process of afforestation and reforestation. In this paper, we study the land use changes between 2000 and 2018 in two Spanish provinces, Soria and Teruel. The provinces chosen as case studies are of particular interest because they have some of the lowest population densities in Europe and continue to suffer depopulation processes that have been ongoing since the mid-20th century. The reasons for this are not immediately clear given that unlike other European regions with similar population density values, for example in Northern Scandinavia, they are not exposed to extreme climatic conditions, nor are they located in isolated mountain regions. Using the CORINE Land Cover database, we observed that in both provinces, there has been an expansion in shrub and forest land uses and a decline in agriculture due largely to the fact that certain areas have been abandoned by their inhabitants, although in other parts of these provinces, the amount of land used for agriculture has increased. Urban growth over this period has been minimal. In the coming years, it seems likely that the population of these areas will continue to fall, given that the policies carried out over decades to try to revert this trend have not been successful.