1. Landcape changes in selected suburban areas of Bratislava (Slovakia) and Wroclaw (Poland) Piotr Krajewski Department of Land Management 17th International Symposium of Landscape Ecology 27-29.05.2015, Nitra

2. Introduction The reasons of starting the study: 1.Intensification of landscape changes in last 10 years after Polish accession to UE mainly as a result of politicial and socio-economic driving forces. 2.Increase of built-up area around big cities especially those parts which are located near protected landscapes. 3.Still growing number of landscape conflicts around protected areas. 4.Need for implementation of European Landscape Convention which indicates the necessity of analyzing landscape changes.

3. Objectives of the studies Main objective: 1.Define from the local case studies of Bratislava and Wroclaw the scale and types of changes in the landscape of selected suburban area located near protected landscapes in last ten years (from 2004 to 2014). a)determine landscape changes indicator (LCI) which shows the scale of landscape changes in two 5-year periods of time (2004-2009 and 2009-2014); b)identify the types and subtypes of landscape changes observed in selected suburban areas in last ten years.

4. Study areas The criteria for selecting study areas: 1.Diverisfied landscape structure 2.Still growing population 3.Similar landscape structure of study areas

5. Study areas Figure 1. Location of study area in Slovakia

6. Study areas Figure 2. Location of study area in Poland

7. Study areas Name of study areaArea [ha]Number of inhabitants% of protected landscape area Landscape character Zahorska Bystrica3229,78 2321 (2004) 3071 (2009) 3999 (2014) 42,9% Protected Landscape Area “Male Karpaty” Eastern part – mountainous and forested; central part – building area, western part – flat arable land Sobótka – urban area3221,506729 (2004) 6906 (2009) 7050 (2014) 75,27% Ślężański Landscape Park Southern and central part – mountainous – and forested, northern part – building area surrounded by meadowsa and arable land Table 1. Comparison of basic informations of study areas Photo: Piotr Krajewski

8. Assessment of landscape changes indicator Landscape changes indicator helped to answer the question which period of time was crucial for landscape changes of study areas. The method of assessing landscape changes indicator based on method of relative data deviation. It is divided into 4 phases: First phase – the creation of the maps of past and current spatial structure of three different periods of time (2004, 2009 and 2014) Second phase – the creation of databases concerning the area of each element of spatial structure in each analyzed time interval Third phase – to determine the level of percetage deviation between reference value and data from next time interval for each component (eg. reference value for data from 2009 was data from 2004) The last phase – summing the percentage deviation of each element for each time period under the assumption that both increase and decrease of the values create the landscape changes

9. Assessment of landscape changes indicator For both study areas and for each time interval were prepared maps and databases with area of each component of spatial structure.

10. Assessment of landscape changes indicator Zahorska Bystrica 1st time period – from 2004 to 2009: significantly decrease of old orchards, small arable land and meadows area increase of single-housing, multi-housing and service area and local roads Landscape changes indicator – 6,18 2nd time period – from 2009 to 2014 – much less changes: decrease of old orchards and large arable land area Increase of single-housing area and highways and expressways Landscape changes indicator – 1,67

11. Assessment of landscape changes indicator Sobótka 1st time period – from 2004 to 2009: significantly decrease of meadows area increase of single-housing area and local roads Landscape changes indicator – 5,25 2nd time period – from 2009 to 2014 – less changes: decrease of meadows and large arable land area Increase of single-housing and service area Landscape changes indicator – 1,45

12. Assessment of landscape changes character Landscape changes Transformations of transport system (code T) Transformations inside built-up area (code I) Increase of service and industry area (code C) Transformations of forested area (code F) Transformations of argicultural land (code A) Increase of housing area (code H)

13. Assessment of landscape changes character Types of landscape changes were divided into 6 groups: 1.transformations inside built-up area (code I); I1 – transformation from sport and leisure area to multi-housing area; I2 – transformation from single-housing area to multi-housing area. 2.increase of housing area (code H); H1 – transformation from large arable land to single-housing area; H2 – transformation from small arable land to multi-housing area; H3 – transformation from small arable land to single-housing area; H4 – transformation from meadows and pastures to single-housing area; H5 – transformation from meadows and pastures to multi-housing area; H6 – transformation from old orchards to single-housing area; H7 – transformation from allotment gardens to single-housing area. 3.increase of service and industry area (code C); C1 – transformation from large arable land to service area; C2 – transformation from meadows and pastures to service area; C3 - transformation from large arable land to industry area. 4.transformations of agricultural land (code A); A1 – transformation from large arable land to meadows and pastures; A2 – transformation from small arable land to meadows and pastures; A3 – transformation from old orchards to meadows and pastures; A4 – transformation from small arable land to large arable land; 5.transformations of forested area (code F); F1 – transformation from meadows and pastures to forest and forest succession area. 6.transformations of transport system (code T). T1 – increase of highways and expressways; T2 – increase of main and local roads.

14. Assessment of landscape changes character Zahorska Bystrica The most frequenlty observed changes in analyzed period of time are transformations from meadows and pastures and small arable land to single-housing area (H4, H3) and from large arable land to meadows and pastures (A4) but the biggest area of change is represented by transformations from old orchards to meadows and pastures (A3) and from meadows and pastures to area of forest succession process (F1). New elements of transport system was also created especially expressway and many local roads. Type of changeArea of change [ha]% of study areaNumber of polygons I1,290,042 H53,031,6421 C18,990,594 A82,822,5613 F46,731,454 T11,190,3579

15. Assessment of landscape changes character Sobótka The most frequenly observed changes in analyzed period of time are transformations from large arable land to meadows and pastures (A4) and from meadows and pastures to single-housing area (H4). The biggest area of change is represented by transformations from large arable land to meadows and pastures (A4) and from large arable land to industry area (C3) – new area of granite exploitation. There are no highways and expressway, main and local roads don’t increase so much as in Zahorska Bystrica. Type of changeArea of change [ha]% of study areaNumber of polygons I0,780,021 H35,201,0912 C23,120,715 A103,133,2020 F1,731,454 T4,780,1534

16. Conclusions 1.The presented case studies identify a level of changes in two 5-year periods of time – from 2004 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2014. Transformations scale of analyzed components of spatial structure is quite similar in both cases. The landscape changes indicator is bigger in first time interval – from 2004 to 2009. 2.Types and subtypes of landscape changes are also similar in both case studies. Diferences can be observed especially in transformations of transport system and in increasing of service and industry area. 3.Landscape changes indicator gives only general information about level of landscape changes but doesn’t give any information about quality of changes. Only identification of types and subtypes of landscape transformations allows to assess changes from this point of view. 4.Knowledge about level and character of landscape transformations is especially important for decision-making of local authorities. It should be a part of planning of future landscapes from the point of view of European Landscape Convention implementation.

17. Thank you for your attention. Piotr Krajewski piotr.krajewski@up.wroc.pl