The structure of agricultural plots and types of relief - parameters of land use and the cultural landscape in Austria

Four thematic maps are being presented. They are intended to contribute to the research frontier of cultural landscape research. Various landscape dat a are visualized on the polygon-level of the boundaries of Austria's commun es. In the maps satellite image data are analysed by interpretative methods . The size of agricultural plots combined with information on the agrotechn ical modernisation process helps to distinguish between modern and traditio nal regions, an information that will have an impact on future EU policies concerning agriculture. The maps display disparities as to the size of agro -plots, the areas of modernisation, the recent and historical structure of the plots, and a typology of the Austrian communes according to different c lasses of the natural relief.