Spatial Trends of Grassland Changes Based on Hungarian Local Studies After 1990 with a Macro-Regional Perspective

Abstract

Grasslands contribute to the ecological diversity of our cultural landscapes. In the last centuries, the most important trend was a constant loss of this valuable asset due to urbanization and the intensification of cultivation. Studies focusing on grasslands are not so abundant, and especially analyses on the spatial trends of grasslands in Eastern-Central Europe are scarce. Focusing on Hungarian local studies, we analyze our results from a macro-regional perspective, with a draft study of the V4 countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland). The authors employed GIS and statistical methods to analyze data to explore trends of changes of grasslands in V4 countries, Hungary, and in three micro-regions of different landscape character. These include an open landscape, partly intensively cultivated (micro-region of Csorna), and two more diverse landscapes with different proportion of forests (micro-regions of Gönc and Veszprém). Our results show that very complex, sometimes opposite processes influence the area of grasslands. In spite of the fact that an increase in the area of grasslands is witnessed at both the national and the international level in absolute values, recently, unfavorable processes have started, and there are certain landscapes where grasslands are threatened especially natural grassland by forestation and grasslands where soil conditions are suitable for crop production. Our results showed that despite the different landscape conditions, the majority of grassland has been turned into arable land and into shrubs and forest area. The loss of pastures due to urban sprawl is a dominant process just around the built-up area of city of Veszprém in the most urbanized study area.

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Grasslands Using the Landsat Archive

“…Unfortunately, the degradation and conversion of grasslands is putting pressure on the provision of these important ecosystem services [2,3,6,10]. In the EU-6, approximately 7.1 million ha (or 30% of the 1967 level) of long-term grasslands disappeared between 1967 and 2007 [11].…”

“…In the EU-6, approximately 7.1 million ha (or 30% of the 1967 level) of long-term grasslands disappeared between 1967 and 2007 [11]. The driving forces of grassland loss are agricultural intensification, land abandonment leading to succession and forestation, and the expansion of human settlements into agricultural land [10,11]. To prevent further loss of grassland in agricultural areas, the European Union implemented the cross-compliance regulation in 2003, which requires farmers receiving support under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to maintain grasslands of at least 5 years old, referred to in the CAP as permanent grassland [6,11].…”