Strengthening the Mitigation of Climate Change Impacts in Slovakia through the Disaggregation of Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

This article presents the results of research on the possibilities of fragmentation of cultural, and especially agricultural, landscapes in a selected locality in eastern Slovakia, which is currently characterized by a high proportion of large-scale soil units used for growing cereals and crops subsequently used as energy sources (maize and oilseed rape, among others). Slovakia, as the country with the largest average field area in the European Union (EU), is facing a process of fragmentation of these units to counter climate change and increase the resilience of the landscape to erosion, soil fertility, and biodiversity loss. This paper presents a fragmentation method based on the restoration of former dividing lines, mainly formed by dirt roads, based on the historical mapping. The results show that in this way it is possible to achieve denser landscape fragmentation, to create dividing green belts, to increase the resilience of the environment to water and wind erosion, and to create an environment for pollinator resources and a background for plants and animals in the landscape, while respecting the ergometric routing of the dividing lines and the ownership relations of the land. Last but not least, benefits have been quantified in the form of carbon capture, as well as in the construction of a network of recreational or hiking trails.