Lake regions under human pressure in the context of socio-economic transition in Central-Eastern Europe: The case study of Olsztyn Lakeland, Poland

Abstract

Changes in land use and land cover (LU/LC) are one of the main contributors to global change. The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 resulted in massive socio-economic and institutional transformations that triggered changes in the LU/LC. The paper analyses the processes of land use/cover change in the shore zone of 145 lakes of the Olsztyn Lakeland in north-eastern Poland based on GIS data sets over a period of 30 years. This is a new approach aimed at analysing qualitative, quantitative and spatial changes in the shore zone of lakes related to socio-economic transformation in Poland. A very large decrease in agricultural land area was noted, which is currently an economically marginal class of land use in the shore zone of lakes. The decrease in the agricultural land area was related to a significant increase in the residential construction development and the process of afforestation. While the conversion of agricultural land was a positive phenomenon from the environmental point of view, the main threat to the shore zone of lakes was the expansion of settlement. Our results also showed a negative correlation between the surface of urban areas and the surface occupied by tourist accommodation facilities. This fact indicates a cross functional conflict between the settlement and tourism functions of the area in the lake shore zone. The results also indicate that the changes in the tourist accommodation base were mainly of a qualitative and spatial nature. This is probably due to a change in tourist preferences in terms of accommodation standards.