Abstract
Abstract This study analyzed the temporal and spatial changes in land use taking place in two adjacent river valleys, located within the Polish Carpathians. The land use in 1977 and 2009 was presented for selected areas. In one of the valleys, a dam has been operating since 1994 along with a retention reservoir, which is an additional factor influencing the direction and scale of the land use changes. An analysis using GIS techniques showed that the general directions of transformation in both valleys in the land use structure are similar but with different intensity. In studied valleys a decrease of area with agricultural land and gradual increase in the forested area have been observed. In the valley with the reservoir few more changes were noticed. The decrease of the forested area by 5.5% and farmland by 8.2% on the areas submerged by reservoir was observed. The strip fields pattern has been changed into more dispersed. The road network development was also observed, as well as the change of nature of residential/agricultural buildings into residential/recreational.
Highlights
The socio-economic transformations taking place in the Polish Carpathians in recent decades have led to significant changes in the structure of land use
The analysis land use changes in two Carpathians valleys in the period 1977–2009 showed the following regularities: Changes in land use occurring in the Biała river valley in the 30-year period in question are especially in the areas at higher altitudes and on steep slopes; grasslands (11.7%) and forest (1.5%) areas emerged in place of arable land
In both 1977 and in 2009, about 66% of the study area was used in the same manner, and the overall structure is still dominated by agricultural land, which constitutes 46.5% of the study area
Summary
The socio-economic transformations taking place in the Polish Carpathians in recent decades have led to significant changes in the structure of land use. The changes occurring in the Polish Carpathians correspond with an earlier trend found in other mountainous regions in Europe, namely the declining proportion of cultivated land and the increasing area of forests In addition to general socio-economic transformations, changes in the structure of local land use are compounded by additional factors, e.g. the construction of dams. 130 Łukasz Wiejaczka, Jan Romuald Olędzki, Anna Bucała-Hrabia, Małgorzata Kijowska-Strugała. Research into the changes in land use around the reservoirs (in the literature cited above) in different areas of the world show a general increase of nonagricultural land use (forest, bare ground, residential/other development) and a decrease in agricultural land use (pasture/grassland and cultivated areas) observed after the creation of water reservoirs
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