Conclusions

Abstract

This chapter presents synthesis of the land use research covering the last 175 years and discusses the main findings. During this period, modernization trends and new forms of spatial organization have much altered the existing functions, including land use patterns. Major land use changes in different periods of time are presented. The first phase covered by the research (1845–1896) brought the peak of extensive farming; land use structure was rather similar regardless of different natural, social, and economic conditions. During the second period (1896–1948), though it included crucial political and economic events (World War I and II, independence), no major changes of land use patterns were recorded. On the contrary, the Communist period (1948–1990) brought fundamental changes. The transfer of ethnic Germans, transition to a centrally planned economy, and technological modernization were among the crucial driving forces of land use changes. Regarding the most recent period (from 1990 onwards), a number of different concepts have been enforced (restitution of property seized by the Communists, privatization, etc.) and these have profound effects on land use patterns. Regional differences in land use classes as well as major landscape processes in Czechia 1845–2010 are shown in maps and tables. In the very end, an outlook for future landscape changes in Czechia is given. These are likely to be affected especially by external factors that include EU Agricultural Policy, global food prices, and climatic changes. Though fertile regions will probably be intensively farmed also in the future, land use trends in uplands and highlands remain uncertain.