Land-use changes and their social driving forces in Czechia in the 19th and 20th centuries

This paper is an overview of the major land-use changes in Czechia over the past 150 years. with a focus on the social forces driving these changes. S ources of land-use data are also discussed. Though economic development is seen as the key impact on land use before 1945, under communism(1948-89), t he importance of political decisions was crucial. The post-war period is an alysed in greater detail as this was the era of the most significant landsc ape changes. The most recent period encompassed a return to market conditio ns. resulting in environmentally favourable land-use changes. (C) 2001 Publ ished by Elsevier Science Ltd.