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Abstract
Changes in forest landscapes have been connected with human activity for centuries and can be considered one of the main driving forces of change from a global perspective. The spatial distribution of forests changes along with the geopolitical situation, demographic changes, intensification of agriculture, urbanization, or changes in land use policy. However, due to the limited availability of historical data, the driving forces of changes in forest landscapes are most often considered in relation to recent decades, without taking long-term analyses into account. The aim of this paper is to determine the level and types of landscape changes and make preliminary study on natural and socio-economic factors on changes in forest landscapes within the protected area, Ślęża Landscape Park, and its buffer zone using long-term analyses covering a period of 140 years (1883–2013). A comparison of historical and current maps and demographic data related to three consecutive periods of time as well as natural and location factors by using the ArcGIS software allows the selected driving forces of forest landscape transformations to be analyzed. We took into account natural factors such as the elevation, slope, and exposure of the hillside and socio-economic drivers like population changes, distances to centers of municipalities, main roads, and built-up areas.
Highlights
On a global scale, human beings have been the main driving force for the transformation of the Earth’s surface for several hundred years [1]
When we look at the types of changes, it can be observed that transformations within forest areas dominated at 300–350 m a.s.l., while a larger percentage of forest landscape transformations into non-forest ones was recorded at lower elevations, from 200 to 250 m a.s.l
The analyses showed that the level of change in forest-covered areas was the highest in 1883(89)–1936(38) and in 1977–2013 for non-forest areas
Summary
Human beings have been the main driving force for the transformation of the Earth’s surface for several hundred years [1]. Changes resulting from the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 have been analyzed [6] Both traditional agricultural landscapes [7,8,9], urban and industrial [10,11,12,13], have undergone strong transformations, as well as landscapes with high value for tourists [14,15]. The land use policy of local authorities is a frequent driving force of landscape change [27] This often leads to the degradation of historically shaped landscapes that are part of the local cultural heritage which should be protected elements in the land use policy [28]
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