Zmiany pokrycia terenu na pograniczu polsko-słowackim na przykładzie Małych Pienin

Abstract

This paper discusses the post-1930 directions to land-cover changes in the Male Pieniny Mts. located in the central part of the northern Carpathians. This environmentally homogenous area was divided by the Polish-Slovakian state border after World War I, having previously been also culturally homogenous, with Ruthenians inhabitants living in both northern and southern parts. After World War II, a resettlement of Ruthenians out of the Polish part of the mountains took place. From the 1950s onwards, the Polish part became increasingly important as a sheep-grazing region. In contrast, on the Slovakian side, the area experienced gradual post-war depopulation and an abandonment of agricultural land, the communist-inspired development of industrialization having induced out-migration. While collectivization did take place in Slovakia after World War II, an increase in the area of agricultural land in mountainous regions was impeded by the local environmental conditions. The research conducted based itself upon information on archival 1:100 000-scale topographic maps, a contemporary SPOT 5 (2004) panchromatic image and an SRTM digital elevation model. Three land-cover classes were defined by means of visual interpretation and on-screen digitization, i.e. forests, agricultural land and built-up areas. Analysis for the period 1936–2004 revealed an increase in the area of forest on both the Polish and Slovakian sides, as combined with a decrease in the area of agricultural land. The share of agricultural land decreased from 74% to 44% on the Polish side and from 82% to 54% on the Slovakian. At the same time the share accounted by forests increased from 23% to 54% in Poland and from 16% to 45% in Slovakia. A slight decrease in the built-up area was to be observed on both sides of the border. The annual rate of forest-cover change reached 1.26% in the case of the Polish part, 1.47% for the Slovakian. Although Ruthenians were only resettled out of the Polish part, the directions to long-term land-cover changes were similar on both sides of the border. However, landcover changes triggered by the resettlement action are visibly less dependent on environmental conditions (slope and elevation). Thus, the changes associated with a gradual depopulation in Slovakia, as connected with the abandonment of agricultural land, were of a more selective nature, occurring at higher elevations and on steeper slopes.