Land-use and land-cover changes in rural areas during different political systems: A case study of Slovakia from 1782 to 2006

The paper analyses the period from 1782 to 2006 divided according to the existing political systems in three rural study sites of Slovakia. Two long, monarchy (I.LMP) and revolutionary (II.LRP), and one short new age (III.SNP) periods are compared. The magnitude of land-use and cover changes induced by related driving forces during the different historical periods are also analysed. Three different study sites were selected: cadastre of Kráľov Brod (KB), mountain cadastres: Očová and Dúbravy (OD), Liptovská Teplička (LT). Spatial data derived from historical maps were used in comparison to recent data obtained using Remote Sensing technology. The results showed that the landscape of all three sites has undergone significant changes in land-use and cover during the 224 years. From the long-term point of view there two main trends were observed. The first was significant permanent grassland conversion into arable land at KB where permanent grasslands decreased from 52.7% in 1782 to 0.7% in 2006. Gradual afforestation and permanent grassland conversion to forest land was observed at LT where forest land increased from 67.7% in 1782 to 83.7% in 2006. During the I.LMP period, demographic trends and settlement pattern supported by effective land-use policy were the dominant driving forces. Similarly these driving forces were identified as the most important also for the III.SNP period. But contrary to the I.LMP, driving forces of the III.SNP caused more negative effects (land abandonment) in mountain rural LT region where the current land-use policy seems to be insufficient. Land-use changes during the II.LRP were mostly due to technological development.