The main processes responsible for landscape transformation in post-industrial urban areas in Central Europe

Abstract

In recent years, the dynamic of spatial change has been increasing, influenced by processes linked to the transformation of traditional industrial regions into metropolitan areas. This is related to changes in function and administrative status, but above all to spatial changes. Examples of cities experiencing dynamic landscape changes from coal mining cities to modern metropolises can be found in the former coal basins of Central Europe – the Upper Silesian Metropolis in Poland and the Ostrava-Karviná Region in the Czechia. This study analysed the transformation of the landscape on the basis of land cover data from the years 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018. The index of landscape change and the index of change of individual cover types were calculated, and on the basis of these indices the main processes responsible for the transformation of the landscape were determined. In the two study areas, similar changes in the landscape are taking place but at different rates. The main processes changing the landscape are suburbanization, reindustrialization and agricultural land abandonment. In space, they are manifested in an increase in the areas of residential, commercial and service development, the densification of the road network, and an increase in land allocated for new industrial plants. At the same time, the acreage of agricultural land (mainly arable fields, orchards and plantations but also open landscapes) is decreasing.