The land use/ land cover considerably changed in Europe in the last decades, either by intensification or extensification. Diverse trends can be observed at national, regional or local levels. In the last 30 years, Central and Eastern European countries experienced a transition from a centralised to a market economy, the political context linked to the restitution of land, privatization and change in population dynamics in rural areas have various consequences, as for example decreasing the land management intensity, cropland decline or increased (sub)urbanization and deep transformation of the agricultural sector. Western European countries experienced more stable cropland use, higher land management intensity, based on stable and long-term access to subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU. Good understanding of land-use / land cover change is essential to assess the human interaction with the environment. Deep knowledge on the dynamics of land-use/land cover change and its underlying factors, together with an assessment of the effectiveness of different land management practices at various scales in providing sustainable solutions represent important base to deal with climate change and biodiversity challenges. It can also enable estimates of future development and lead to the proposal of strategies contributing for sustainable development.
The goal of the study will be to address past and current land use/ land cover change and trajectories on the territory of Czechia and wider Central Europe based on remote sensing imagery, VHR Copernicus layers and other LULC datasets, and create a typology of LULC changes based on statistical analysis of change trends and their drivers. Further task will be to propose a set of indicators of LULC change and sustainable development. The study can deal also with modelling of future expected LULC patterns and scenarios in accordance with sustainable development.
Deadline is closed
