National Level Land-Use Changes in Functional Urban Areas in Poland, Slovakia, and Czechia

Abstract

Land-use and cover change (LUCC) impacts global environmental changes. Therefore, it is crucial to obtain cross-national level LUCC data that represents past and actual LUCC. As urban areas exhibit the most significant dynamics of the changes, accompanied by such processes as urban sprawl, it seems desirable to take into account LUCC information from such areas to acquire national level information. The paper analyses land-use changes (LUCs) in urban areas in Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia. The analysis is based on functional urban area (FUA) data from the European Urban Atlas project for 2006 and 2012. The area of urbanised land grew at the expense of agricultural areas, semi-natural areas, and wetlands over the investigated period in all three countries. The authors determined LUC direction models in urban areas based on the identified land-use change. The proposed LUC direction models for the investigated period and area should offer national level LUC data for such purposes as modelling of future changes or can be the point of reference for planning analyses. The paper proposes the following models: mean model, median model, weighted mean model where the weight is the urbanised to vegetated area ratio, and weighted mean model where the weight is the share of urbanised areas. According to the proposed LUC models, areas considered as urbanised grow in FUAs on average in six years by 5.5900‰ in Czechia, 7.5936‰ in Poland, and 4.0769‰ in Slovakia. Additionally, the change models facilitated determination of a LUC dynamics ratio in each country. It reached the highest values in Poland and the lowest in Slovakia.

Modeling and Prediction of Land Use Land Cover Change Dynamics Based on Land Change Modeler (LCM) in Nashe Watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

“…According to the authors of [61], LULC map accuracy is quantified by creating an error matrix or a confusion matrix, which compares the classified map with a reference classification map. The results of the study is consistent with some other studies conducted by the authors of [41] in Dera District, of [36] in Borena Woreda, of [10] in Blue Nile basin, of [9] in Gumera, of [62] in Portugal, of [11] in Poland, Slovakia, and Czechia, and of [63] in India. The accuracy of this study shows that the result is within the range of accuracies, in which Land Change Modeler and Landsat images were used [55,63].…”

“…The findings of the study show that urban area increase was consistent with other research findings in Africa [8] and Ethiopia [9,10]. The studies in some parts of Europe, for example, [13] in Slovakia, [62] in Portugal, and [11] in Poland, Slovakia, and Czechia, reported an increase in urban areas at the expense of agricultural land. Similarly, a study in China reported that the urban built-up land expansion from conversion of cultivated land [68].…”

“…In Africa, the expansion of agricultural land influenced by rapid population growth has been recognized as a primary driver of LUC. Many developed countries including Europe and the United states practiced massive deforestation because of agricultural expansion and industrialization until the early 19th century [11]. Urbanization dynamics and urban growth are usually linked to demographic factors mostly in developing countries [12].…”

“…In Africa, the expansion of agriculture influenced by population growth has been recognized as a primary driver of land use land cover change (LULCC). The landscape has been intensely changed due to socio-economic and political changes that occurred in the first half of the 19th century in Europe [11]. The decrease in agricultural land at the expenditure of increased urban areas and water bodies in Europe is another strong trend [13].…”

Photovoltaic Solar Energy from Urban Sprawl: Potential for Poland

“…On the other hand, the results of many contemporary research studies point to the possible positive economic effects of urban sprawl [11][12][13]. The problem of urban sprawl has also been discussed in Poland [14][15][16]. In addition, attention has been given to differences in the impact of urban sprawl in Poland and other countries.…”