Analysis of spatiotemporal changes of agricultural land after the Second World War in Czechia

Vít Zelinka,Jan Skaloš,Johana Zacharová

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-91946-1

Abstract

The term Sudetenland refers to large regions of the former Czechoslovakia that had been dominated by Germans. German population was expelled directly after the Second World War, between 1945 and 1947. Almost three million people left large areas in less than two years. This population change led to a break in the relationship between the people and the landscape. The aim of the study is to compare the trajectories of these changes in agricultural landscapes in lower and higher altitudes, both in depopulated areas and areas with preserved populations. This study included ten sites in the region of Northern Bohemia in Czechia (18,000 ha in total). Five of these sites represent depopulated areas, and the other five areas where populations remained preserved. Changes in the landscape were assessed through a bi-temporal analysis of land use change by using aerial photograph data from time hoirzons of 2018 and 1953. Land use changes from the 1950s to the present are corroborated in the studied depopulated and preserved areas mainly by the trajectory of agricultural land to forest. The results prove that both population displacement and landscape type are important factors that affect landscape changes, especially in agricultural landscapes.

Highlights

The term Sudetenland refers to large regions of the former Czechoslovakia that had been dominated by Germans
The polarisation of the land uses between either intensification or abandonment directly in recent decades[15], urban sprawl followed by growth of infrastructures and accompanied by losses of visual values of rural areas[16] were frequently cited as reasons for landscape changes
This applies to the comparison of the landscape types in a given area where the depopulated and preserved areas fall under the highlands landscape type, which manifest a substantially higher percentage of agricultural land transformed into forest land

Summary

Introduction

The aim of the study is to compare the trajectories of these changes in agricultural landscapes in lower and higher altitudes, both in depopulated areas and areas with preserved populations. Land use changes from the 1950s to the present are corroborated in the studied depopulated and preserved areas mainly by the trajectory of agricultural land to forest. In Czechia, the trend of land abandonment is relevant in the areas from which the German population was expelled directly after the Second World War, between 1945 and 1947. These population fluxes were concentrated in regions that had been dominated by German speaking popullation, called the Sudetenland. Vast border regions became suddenly uninhabited, resulting in a significant decrease in arable land and the transition of land cover into forests, meadows, and pastures[17]

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Conclusion