Overview of Changes in Land Use

and Land Cover in Eastern Europe

Jan Feranec, Tomas Soukup, Gregory N. Taff, Premysl Stych

and Ivan Bicik

Abstract This chapter presents an analysis of land cover changes in Eastern

Europe between 1990 and 2006, assessed using CORINE (Co-ORdination of
INformation on the Environment) Land Cover (CLC) datasets. The plethora of
potential land cover change categories were condensed into seven categories of
major land use change processes: urbanization, agricultural intensification, agri-
cultural extensification, afforestation, deforestation, construction and management
of water bodies, and other changes. The amounts of each change category and their
spatial distributions are summarized, and the change categories were also mapped
to show the relative amounts of change (per 3  3 km2) between 1990 and 2000
and between 2000 and 2006. The results showed that while more afforestation than
deforestation was observed in the first period, the reverse was true in the second
period, when deforestation outpaced afforestation. Urbanization and suburbaniza-
tion were major processes in Eastern Europe, particularly around existing major
cities, and the speed of this process generally increased from the first to the second
period. Both the intensification and extensification of agriculture were common

J. Feranec (&)
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Bratislava, Slovakia
e-mail: [email protected]
T. Soukup
GISAT, Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
G.N. Taff
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Ås, Norway
e-mail: [email protected]
P. Stych
Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography, Faculty of Science,
Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]
I. Bicik
Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science,
Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 13

G. Gutman and V. Radeloff (eds.), Land-Cover and Land-Use Changes
in Eastern Europe after the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42638-9_2
14 J. Feranec et al.

during both periods, but a larger effect was observed in the first period. Overall,
land use changes were highest in central Europe and the Baltic countries and lowest
in southeast Europe.

1 Introduction

The collapse of socialism in 1989 caused massive socio-economic and institutional

changes (Prishchepov et al. 2013). This event has affected landscapes throughout
Russia and Central and East European satellite states. This chapter addresses land
cover (LC) changes in Eastern Europe between 1990 and 2006. First, a brief
overview of previous studies on LC changes in Eastern Europe is provided here.
The landscape of Eastern Europe has experienced significant changes in grass-
land cover. Cremene et al. (2005) reported a significant recent reduction in
Steppe-like grasslands in Eastern Europe. In Central Eastern Europe, including the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic, the main types of
landscape changes were urbanization/industrialization, intensification of agricul-
ture, extensification of agriculture, afforestation, deforestation, enlargement of areas
of extraction (exhaustion) of natural resources, and other anthropogenic changes
according to an analysis overlaying CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data with Landsat
MSS (Multispectral Scanner) imagery corresponding to the late 1970s and visually
observing the differences between CLC1990 and the 1970s imagery (Feranec et al.
2000). However, at the local scale, certain processes dominated. For example, along
the Czech Republic-Austria border, afforestation prevailed from 1990 to 2000
(Kupkova et al. 2013). In the Czech Republic, the increase in forest areas is rela-
tively permanent (an increase of 5 % during the 20th century), occurring in areas
that are not as well suited for agriculture, i.e., in sub-mountain and mountain areas
(Bičík et al. 2010).
While forest degradation, i.e., the partial extraction of timber and other goods
from forests, was a common process in East Europe during the post-Soviet period,
afforestation was generally widespread throughout the majority of the region since
the fall of socialism (Taff et al. 2010). One major reason for afforestation was the
abandonment of farmland, which was common throughout Central and Eastern
Europe, according to an analysis of 250-m MODIS 8-day NDVI composites
(Alcantara et al. 2013). Similarly, high rates of land abandonment were observed in
northeastern Europe between 1990 and 2000, according to an analysis of
Landsat TM data (Prishchepov et al. 2012). Baumann et al. (2012) used a com-
bination of summer and winter Landsat images to analyze forest changes in
European Russia and observed substantial regional variation, with an overall forest
loss between 1990 and 1995 and an overall forest gain between 2005 and 2010.
However, there were significant differences between countries in Eastern Europe in
terms of their abandonment rates after the collapse of the Soviet Union
(Prishchepov et al. 2012; Alcantara et al. 2013), indicating a strong influence of
state-level institutional factors. Kuemmerle et al. (2006) also observed significant
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 15

differences in land use (LU) changes between some countries within the Carpathian
Mountains (Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine). Kuemmerle et al. (2008) observed that
drivers of LU changes also considerably varied between neighboring countries in
the Carpathian region. Kozak (2003); Kozak et al. (2007a, b) investigated the main
trends and drivers of LU/LC changes in the Carpathian Basin; afforestation and a
decrease of arable land were the main long-term trends observed in these studies.
In addition to documenting the patterns of LU changes in general, it is partic-
ularly important to understand the drivers and consequences of recent LU and LC
changes in this region resulting from the massive socio-economic perturbations that
occurred after the fall of socialism (Prishchepov et al. 2010; Hostert et al. 2011).
Key drivers of changes in LU patterns in former socialist countries included
(1) country-specific land policies relating to the legal attitude towards private land
ownership, (2) transferability of land, and (3) land allocation/redistribution strate-
gies (Lerman et al. 2004). Macours and Swinnen (2000) investigated the changes in
agriculture production and associated causes in Central and Eastern Europe during
the transition period and observed that the primary involves deterioration in the
terms of agriculture trade, transition uncertainties, and extreme weather events.
During the period from 1990 to 2004, the Czech Republic experienced a significant
increase in grassland areas, a process deeply influenced by the termination of
significant subsidies given by the socialist state, which ended at the beginning of the
1990s (Bičík et al. 2010).
This chapter presents an overview of landscape changes (spatial distribution and
intensity) in Eastern European countries based on CLC during the periods from
1990–2000 to 2000–2006 and describes a useful a mapping methodology for
presenting landscape changes on a macro-scale.

2 Methodology

We quantified basic input information concerning recent LC changes in Central and

Eastern Europe for 17 countries: Albania (AL), Bosnia/Herzegovina (BA), Bulgaria
(BG), Croatia (HR), Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EE), Hungary (HU), Kosovo (KV),
Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Macedonia FYR (MK), Monte Negro (ME), Poland (PL),
Romania (RO), Serbia (RS), Slovakia (SK) and Slovenia (SI). We considered two time
periods, 1990–2000 and 2000–2006, and analyzed the changes based on the CLC
database. The change data layers CLC1990–2000 and 2000–2006 are available at
http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gis/, and details concerning these data are provided in
Nunes de Lima (2005) and Feranec et al. (2007). A summary of the LC classes
included in the change databases CLC1990/2000 and 2000/2006 is shown in Table 1.
We derived the main landscape changes for the second level of CLC classes after
applying the conversion table (Table 2). This conversion table, i.e., the “matrix of
changes”, groups LC changes of the same type. There are 15  14 = 210 possible
combinations of one-to-one changes between the 15 CLC classes at the second
level (Feranec et al. 2010).
16 J. Feranec et al.

Table 1 CLC nomenclature (Heymann et al. 1994; Bossard et al. 2000)

Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 17

Table 2 Conversion table (Feranec et al. 2010) for all of Eastern and Central Europe
2000 classes
1990 classes 11 12 13 14 21 22 23 24 31 32 33 41 42 51 52
11 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
12 7 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
13 7 7 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 7
14 7 7 7 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 7
21 1 1 1 1 0 2 3 3 4 4 7 7 7 6 7
22 1 1 1 1 3 0 3 3 4 4 7 7 7 6 7
23 1 1 1 1 2 2 0 2 4 4 7 7 7 6 7
24 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 0 4 4 7 7 7 6 7
31 1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 0 5 5 5 7 6 7
32 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 0 5 7 7 6 7
33 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 0 7 7 6 7
41 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 7 0 7 6 7
42 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 7 7 0 6 7
51 1 1 1 1 7 7 7 7 4 4 7 7 7 0 7
52 1 1 1 1 7 7 7 7 4 4 7 7 7 7 0
1—urbanization (industrialisation), 2—intensification of agriculture, 3—extensification of
agriculture, 4—afforestation, 5—deforestation, 6—water bodies construction and management,
7—other changes (recultivation, dump sites, unclassified changes, etc.)

We grouped these 210 potential land use/cover change (LUCC) classes into
seven major LU change processes:
– Urbanization: represents changes in agriculture (CLC classes 21, 22 and 23;
codes are explained in Table 1), forest lands (classes 31, 32, and 33), wetlands
(classes 41 and 42) and water bodies (51 and 52) into urbanized land (the
construction of buildings designed for living, education, health care, recreation
and sport) and industrialized land (the construction of facilities for production,
all forms of transportation and electric power generation).
– Intensification of agriculture: represents the transition of LC types associated
with lower intensity use (e.g., from natural areas—classes 32, 33, except forest
class 31 and wetland class 4) into higher intensity agricultural use (classes 21
and 22).
– Extensification of agriculture: represents the transition of LC types from a
higher intensity agricultural use (classes 21 and 22) to a lower intensity agri-
cultural use (classes 23 and 24).
– Afforestation: represents forest regeneration, i.e., the establishment of forests by
planting and/or natural regeneration in other natural areas or agricultural lands
(change of classes 21, 22, 23, 24, 33, 41, and 42 into classes 31 and 32).
– Deforestation: involving forestland (class 31) changes into another LC or
damaged forest (classes 21, 22, 23, 24, 32, 33 and 41).
18 J. Feranec et al.

– Construction and management of water bodies (abbreviated: Water bodies

construction): involving the change of mainly agricultural (classes 21, 22, 23
and 24) and forest land (classes 31 and 32) into water bodies and the conse-
quences of the management of water resources and the water surface area of
reservoirs (Haines-Young and Weber 2006).
– Other changes: includes changes resulting from various anthropogenic activities,
such as the recultivation of former mining areas, dump sites, unclassified
changes, etc. More detailed characteristics of these changes are listed in Feranec
et al. (2010).
The size of the changed area is generally too small to present on a map showing
all of Central Europe (e.g., the smallest identified change area in the frame of the
CLC mapping is 5 ha.). A practical solution for how to “visualize” such small areas
of change is the presentation of the intensity/rate using a regular grid pattern.
Consistent with Feranec et al. (2010), we used a 3  3 km grid as a compromise
between the actual spatial distribution of the seven above-mentioned changes and
their presentations on the Central European level at a meaningful scale. To this end,
we first defined the mean LUCC value for the region for each of the seven LUCC
types. For each LUCC type, the mean LUCC value represents the mean percent area
of each 3  3 km2 square covered by that LUCC type, taken only among
3  3 km2 squares in which the LUCC type occurred. For each LUCC type, the
mean LUCC value utilized in the map represents a ratio of the area of that LUCC
type (in the whole study area) to the summed area of all squares of the 3  3 km
grid in which such changes occurred (i.e., the denominator is 9 km2  the number
of squares in which that LUCC type exists). The mean value of each LUCC type in
both periods is listed in Table 3.
We mapped each of the seven types of changes in each of the two time periods
(between 1990–2000 and 2000–2006) to show how these changes differed. We
compared the LUCC types between the two time periods for each square. We
assigned each square a red color when the percentage of the changed region
remained steady or increased between the two time periods or a blue color when the
percentage of the changed region decreased between the two time periods (Figs. 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) as follows:

Table 3 Mean values of 1990–2000 (%) 2000–2006 (%)

each LUCC type in both
periods Urbanization 1.7 2.0
Intensification 3.5 2.9
Extensification 5.0 3.7
Afforestation 1.7 2.0
Deforestation 3.5 2.5
Water bodies construction 2.2 1.6
Other changes 3.1 2.4
Note these means are defined as the mean percent area of each
3  3 km2 square covered by that LUCC type, taken only among
3  3 km2 squares in which that LUCC type occurred
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 19

Fig. 1 Spatial distribution of urbanization in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
20 J. Feranec et al.

Fig. 2 Spatial distribution of intensification in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 21

Fig. 3 Spatial distribution of extensification in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
22 J. Feranec et al.

Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of afforestation in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 23

Fig. 5 Spatial distribution of deforestation in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
24 J. Feranec et al.

Fig. 6 Spatial distribution of the construction and management of water bodies in Central Europe
for the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 25

Fig. 7 Spatial distribution of other changes in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and
2000–2006
26 J. Feranec et al.

G1—G2: LUCC above mean value—LUCC above mean value

S1—G2: LUCC below mean value—LUCC above mean value
N1—G2: Without LUCC—LUCC above mean value
S1—S2: LUCC below mean value—LUCC below mean value
N1—S2: Without LUCC—LUCC below mean value
G1—S2: LUCC above mean value—LUCC below mean value
G1—N2: LUCC above mean value—Without LUCC
S1—N2: LUCC below mean value—Without LUCC
N1—N2 Without LUCC—Without LUCC
G—value is greater than the “mean value of LUCC”, S—value is smaller than
the “mean value of LUCC”, 1—time horizon 1990–2000, 2—time horizon 2000–
2006, N—without LUCC identification (Feranec and Soukup 2013).
For Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia, LC data are only
available for 2000–2006, and we used a dark magenta color (G2) for an
above-mean LUCC value and a light magenta color (S2) for below-mean LUCC
value.

3 Results

3.1 Urbanization

Urbanization represents the expansion of artificial surfaces, including the construction

of residential buildings, industrial areas, road and railway communications, etc.
(Table 2). The results presented in Table 4 and Fig. 1 suggest increasing amounts of
construction between the two time periods, particularly in the suburban areas of large
cities, such as Budapest (Fig. 1), the northern and northeastern parts of Prague,
northeastern Tallinn, northern and western Vilnius, western Warsaw, western
Bucharest, and northeastern Bratislava. Major cities in the northern, southern and
eastern parts of the study area were not as affected by the intensive urban and suburban
processes compared with the changes that occurred in the cities in the central region.
The construction of motorways dominated the western part of Croatia, central Poland,
southwest of Hungary, and north of Slovakia. Additionally, a minor decline in the
construction rate in 2000–2006 (relative to 1990–2000) occurred in several parts of
Slovakia (Fig. 1), east and southeast of Warsaw, in the surrounding areas of Zagreb,
western Prague (where some suburbs were created on abandoned agricultural lands,
and the population increased 30–50 % during 2000–2010), west and east of Krakow,
north of Serbia, and east of Bucharest (for a detailed analysis of the LU changes in
Southern Romania see Kuemmerle et al. 2009b). In places where only the data for the
period from 2000 to 2006 are available, urbanization occurred in the northern, central
and southern regions of Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo and the northern and south-
western parts of Macedonia. A high rate of construction/urbanization occurred in the
western part of Albania from 2000 to 2006.
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 27

Table 4 LUCC types in Central Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006
1990–2000 2000–2006
Total area Mean Mean Total area Mean Mean
(ha) yearly yearly (ha) yearly yearly
increase change of increase change of
in the total in the total
period LUCC period LUCC
(ha) area (%) (ha) area (%)
Urbanisation 70,377 7037.7 3.2 131,143 21,857.2 9.5
Intensification 381,648 38,164.8 17.4 114,785 19,130.8 8.3
Extensification 486,275 48,627.5 22.1 93,115 15,519.2 6.7
Afforestation 619,346 61,934.6 28.1 344,569 57,428.2 24.9
Deforestation 580,318 58,031.8 26.4 652,129 108,688.2 47.1
Water bodies 17,204 1720.4 0.8 10,283 1713.8 0.7
construction
Other changes 41,855 4185.5 1.9 39,715 6619.2 2.9
Total LUCC 2,197,023 219,702.3 – 1,385,739 230,956.5 –
area
Total study 122,375,321 – 134,022,612 –
area
Countries where LUCC data available for 1990–2000 period: BG, CZ, EE, HR, HU, LT, LV, ME,
PL, RO, RS, SI, SK
Countries where LUCC data available for 2000–2006 period: AL, BA, BG, CZ, EE, HR, HU, KV,
LT, LV, ME, MK, PL, RO, RS, SI, SK

In total, from 1990 to 2000, an average of 7037.7 ha (3.2 %) of the total area
experiencing LC changes (2,197,023 ha) occurred annually as urbanization
(Table 4). During the six-year period between 2000 and 2006, 21,857.2 ha (9.5 %)
of the total mean annual changes (230,956.5 ha) corresponded to urbanization.
A comparison of the sizes of all types of changes showed that urbanization ranks
fifth in the first period and third in the second period.

3.2 Intensification of Agriculture

The intensification of agriculture was widespread from 1990 to 2000; but from
2000 to 2006, it declined in all countries (Fig. 2). We observed a particularly strong
decline in the intensification of agriculture in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia,
the Czech Republic and Hungary and a lesser effect in southern Poland, north-
eastern Romania, northern Bulgaria and central Serbia. Some degree of intensifi-
cation of agriculture (changes of arable land into vineyards and orchards) was
observed in northeastern and central Hungary, western Croatia and southeastern
Czech Republic. A common occurrence of the transfer of agricultural lands into
28 J. Feranec et al.

non-agricultural use was observed in Less Favored Areas (LFA) with poor soils and
in the areas surrounding larger towns (for more details see Jelecek et al. 2012).
The share of intensification of agriculture (change of grassland into arable land
and arable land into orchards and vineyards, etc.) was 38,164.8 ha (17.4 %), i.e.,
the fourth most extensive change (Table 4) in the first period. In the second period,
the intensification of agriculture declined to 19,130.8 ha (8.3 %). The extent of
these changes makes agricultural intensification the 4th most common LC change
occurring in both time periods.

3.3 Extensification of Agriculture

The extensification of agriculture was primarily observed in areas the northeast of

Croatia; the central regions of Serbia and the central part of Bulgaria; the northern,
western and southern regions of the Czech Republic; areas north of Slovakia; areas
north and center of Hungary; the eastern region of Lithuania; the southeastern
region of Latvia; and the northern and central regions of Estonia. Muller et al.
(2009) also documented an increase in agriculture land abandonment in central and
northeastern regions of Romania.
The mean annual extent of the extensification of agriculture was 48,627.5 ha,
(22.1 % of total changes, i.e., the third most extensive change in the first period;
Table 4). This type of change decreased in the second period to 15,519.2 ha per
year (6.7 %), representing the 5th most widespread change (Table 4).

3.4 Afforestation

In the first period, the mean annual changes totaled 61,934.6 ha (28.1 %) of
afforestation, representing the most extensive change in the first period.
Afforestation ranked second in the second period (Table 4), with a mean annual size
of 57,428.2 ha (24.9 %; Table 4). The largest afforestation during both time periods
was observed in the northeastern and central regions of Hungary, the northeastern
region of the Czech Republic, and in Lithuania and Estonia. A lack of afforestation
was detected in western, southern and central Czech Republic; central Slovakia;
western, northwestern and northern Hungary; central and eastern Romania; central
Bulgaria and southeastern Serbia. Below average values of afforestation were also
evident in Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia (Fig. 4).

3.5 Deforestation

The most extensive areas of deforestation occurred in Latvia, Estonia and

Lithuania; in western, central and northeastern Hungary; the northeastern Romania
and northern Slovakia. Less conspicuous signs of deforestation were also detected
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 29

in the western, central and northern regions of Poland, northern Bulgaria and
northeastern Croatia. A decline in the deforestation rate in 2000–2006 (relative to
1990–2000) was evident in the north, northeastern and eastern regions of the Czech
Republic (Fig. 5). A high deforestation rate from 2000 to 2006 occurred in
northeastern Albania and central Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Deforestation was the second most common LC change in the 1990s, reaching
an average of 58,031.8 ha per year (26.4 %; Table 4). In the second period,
deforestation was the biggest land cover change in Eastern Europe, reaching
108,688.2 ha per year (47.1 %; Table 4).

3.6 New Construction of Water Bodies

Changes of agricultural and forest landscapes into water bodies were sporadic,
occurring in southern Poland, northeastern Hungary, and northern Serbia (Table 2;
Fig. 6).
The increase in water bodies was the least widespread land use change in both
time periods, comprising only 1720.4 ha (0.8 %) and 1713.8 ha (0.7 %; Table 4) in
the first and second periods, respectively.

3.7 Other Land Use/Cover Changes

The re-cultivation of areas following the extraction of raw materials, landfills, and
unclassified changes (Table 2) primarily occurred in northern Estonia, showing the
widespread re-cultivation of areas where combustible shale had previously been
mined, including southeastern Latvia, southern and southwestern Poland, north-
eastern Czech Republic (where the former “Black Triangle” mining landscape is
being re-cultivated), and in the surrounding areas of Budapest and northwestern
Croatia (Fig. 7).
These “other” changes were second-to-last in terms of size. In the first and the
second periods, these changes amounted annually to 4185.5 ha (1.9 %) and
6619.2 ha (2.9 %; Table 4), respectively.

4 Conclusions

The area of LUCC that we identified was approximately 21,970 km2 in 1990–2000
and approximately 13,860 km2 in 2000–2006 among 17 Central European coun-
tries, comprising a total area of approximately 1,340,000 km2. The greatest changes
were afforestation and deforestation, totaling 54.5 % of the total LUCC area in
1990–2000 and 72.0 % of the total LUCC area in 2000–2006 (Table 4).
30 J. Feranec et al.

This study showed that while the areas of afforestation were slightly larger than
deforestation in the first period (1990–2000), deforestation far outpaced afforesta-
tion in the second period (2000–2006). This finding interestingly contrasts with Taff
et al. (2010), who showed that the overall forest area increased in almost all Central
and Eastern European countries between 2000 and 2005 using an analysis based on
data obtained from national statistics and summarized by the UN-FAO (FAO
2006). This assessment of LU/LC changes, based on CLC data (which is based
mostly upon satellite image analyses), questions the validity of national datasets on
forest areas, suggesting that differing country definitions of forest land (or possibly
the distinction between forest land and standing forest) might significantly affect
these analyses. The causes of afforestation in the region likely reflect agriculture
abandonment (Taff et al. 2010), while primary causes of deforestation are more
numerous. Significant forest disturbances occurred in the Šumava Mountains in
Germany and the Czech Republic, reflecting the calamitous outbreak of spruce bark
beetle in the Šumava Mountains resulting from windbreak renovations of forest
stands (Hais et al. 2008). Land ownership types influenced differences in forest
changes in Poland after socialism (state vs. private), according to Kuemmerle et al.
(2009a). Landowners occasionally practiced unsustainable clear-cutting on lands in
Latvia in the early years (late 1990s and early 2000s) after post-Soviet land resti-
tution (Taff 2005).
Significant changes occurred on the agricultural lands in the study region. Two
antagonistic trends, extensification and intensification, were documented.
Extensification (primarily over-grassing) was a prominent trend, particularly in
Central Europe (the north, western, southwestern and northeastern region of the
Czech Republic, and the northwestern region of Slovakia, Fig. 3) and in the Baltic
states in the first period (1990–2000). These changes are also shown in Fig. 3.
A particularly significant increase in grasslands was observed on arable lands in the
Czech Republic in the period since 1990, which is the first period since the middle
of the 19th century where grasslands have rapidly increased in the Czech Republic
(Bičík et al. 2010). The abandonment of arable land accompanied grassing over
during the transition of the agricultural sector in the Czech Republic in the early
2000s. Official government estimations reported that ca. 300 thousand hectares
(10 % of the total area of arable land in the Czech Republic) were fallowed in the
year 2003 (due to the Agricultural Policy Strategy for the period after accession to
the EU 2004–2013). Part of this fallow arable land was re-cultivated after the
accession of the Czech Republic into the EU when farmers obtained EU subsidies
for agricultural production; however, a significant part of the fallow arable land has
successively changed into grasslands or forests. This process particularly occurs in
unfavorable areas with low-quality soils (Bičík and Jančák 2003). The intensifi-
cation of agriculture was a more dominant trend on agricultural land during the
period from 2000 to 2006, with a concentration in Central European areas with
favorable conditions for arable land, including new vineyards and orchards.
Generally both extensification and intensification decreased in area in the second
period. Approximately 40 % of the total LUCC area led to agricultural land (either
Overview of Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in Eastern Europe 31

intensification or extensification) in 1990–2000, and 15 % of the total LUCC area

led to agricultural land in 2000–2006.
The intensity of urbanization was three times higher in 2000–2006 than in the
first period. Urbanization was concentrated in the largest core population areas (big
cities) into which the main flows of investment were aimed. Urbanization was the
third most common trend, in terms of area, in the second period with approximately
10 % of the total LUCC area. The smallest LUCC category (construction and
management of water bodies) covered only 0.8 and 0.7 % of the total LUCC area in
1990–2000 and 2000–2006, respectively.
Territorial differences in LUCC trends were observed in the study area.
Countries in the central part of the study area were affected by more intense changes
and a wider spectrum of changes (often antagonistic: intensification and urban-
ization and land abandonment and afforestation). The second most intensive
changes occurred in the Baltic states, particularly on agricultural and forestlands.
However, the southern countries (e.g., Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Monte
Negro), Slovenia and the central parts of Poland and Romania experienced an
overall lower intensity of changes. This phenomenon is likely associated with the
different conditions of these countries during the communist period. The Baltic
states and former Czechoslovakia were more affected by the collectivization of
agriculture, with radical changes on agricultural land. These processes were not
introduced with respect to natural and market conditions. Areas with unfavorable
conditions were often covered by agricultural land because the agricultural sector
was highly subsidized. The Balkan countries and Poland maintained traditional
agriculture, based on small private farms. After the collapse of socialism, LU in the
Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic states reverted back to more sustainable
structures from the point of view of environmental and market factors. Transitional
processes evoked intensive changes. Countries in the central region of the study
area and the Baltic states joined the EU more quickly than other countries, in the
first accession wave in 2004. The economy of these countries had to adopt EU
markets and agricultural policies in a short period. These factors were important
drivers of changes that increased the polarization between north-central countries
and southern regions of the study area.
The observed trends showed a long-term tendency of transition from a local
scale of societal organization into a regional, state and most recently, a global scale.
Similar structures and trends of LUCC were observed in large regions with specific
functions (residential, agricultural, recreation…). Thus, typological regions with
specific function(s) and LUCC trends can be delimited in Central Europe.
Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to document major LUCC
trends in Central Europe during the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006. Further
analyses of territorial differentiation and the evaluation of driving forces could be
developed based on the obtained results and LUCC maps. A detailed review of
smaller LUCC case studies and comparisons of changes and drivers would also be
useful for future research.
32 J. Feranec et al.

Acknowledgments This paper is one output of the project VEGA Grant Agency No 2/0006/13,
Changes of cultural landscape: analysis of extension of urban fabric and farmland abandonment
processes applying land cover databases, “pursued at the Institute of Geography of the Slovak
Academy of Sciences” and “The Historical Geography Research Centre”, Excellence grant project
of Czech Science Foundation, GACR P410/12/G113.” We also want to thank Hana Contrerasova
for thorough reading of this paper in English.

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