Land Use Has Changed through the Last 200 Years in Various Production Areas of South Bohemia

Abstract

This article focuses on land use changes in the area of interest in the southern part of the Czech Republic (South Bohemia Region). Land use changes have been assessed at several time levels over nearly two centuries. Unlike similar studies, two types of materials were used as source data and compared. Specifically, these are historical maps or aerial photographs and the Corine Land Cover database. The evolution of land use was examined on a representative set of sixty cadastral areas, which evenly cover the territory of three different production areas of the South Bohemia Region. Each production area was then evaluated both as a whole and separately. The paper’s results confirm the trend of decreasing the share of intensively used agricultural land (arable land), especially in worse natural conditions, like in other countries of the Central European region. An essential result of the publication was also the demonstration of the unique development of the post-1948 period when there was a significant difference in land use development between the border forage production areas and the rest of the agriculturally used parts of the region.