Changing rural landscapes along the border of Austria and the Czech Republic between 1952 and 2009: Roles of political, socioeconomic and environmental factors

• We studied land cover changes on both sides of the Austrian–Czech border (1952–2009).
• Two dissimilar political and socioeconomic systems led to different landscape patterns.
• Environmental conditions had a similar influence in the two countries.
• Study presents a markedly more homogenous landscape pattern in the Czech Republic.

Cross-border research enables studying the importance of broad-scale political and socioeconomic factors on land-cover changes. Our plot-based study using GIS analysis of interpreted aerial photographs evaluates changes in rural landscape patterns on both sides of the Austrian–Czech border during 1952–2009. The method compares 20 pairs of 1 × 1 km unit square samples distributed along the entire common border and equally divided into four growing regions. Our findings confirm the key significance of historically dissimilar political and socioeconomic systems in the two countries that led to the occurrence of decidedly different farmland and landscape patterns in similar environmental conditions. Broad-scale political and socioeconomic factors also markedly affected the rates of change and direction of trends in landscape development during the examined period. The variability of environmental conditions had a similar influence in the two countries on the proportions of farmland and of permanent elements. We did not, however, confirm an influence of the environmental factors on heterogeneity of the landscapes. Overall, the study presents a markedly more homogenous landscape pattern in the Czech Republic than in Austria. While between 1952 and 2009 the agricultural landscapes increased in homogeneity in both countries, this occurred more so in the Czech Republic than in Austria.