Multiscale analysis of land cover changes in the Czech Republic after the fall of communism

Direct and indirect factors both influence land cover. One of the most important indirect factors influencing the arrangement land cover changes in the Czech Republic in the 20th and 21st centuries was the fall of the communist regime and the subsequent political, legislative, socio-cultural and institutional changes. Using the CORINE database, differences and similarities in land cover changes in formal and functional regions in the years 1990, 2000 and 2006 were finded. Through cluster analysis and principal component analysis, it is possible to analyse land cover changes in different spatial scales and in different types of spatial classifications. Various spatial levels and types of spatial classifications show different results, which are often complementary or more precise. All, however, correspond to the growing variability of land cover both within the types themselves and among other types. The landscape of the Czech Republic is moving in the direction of greater variability in the land cover changes. The greatest land cover change is the shift from arable land to pastures mainly in less favourable areas. Artificial areas are growing in connection with new highways and motorways construction and satellite towns building. The aims of the paper are pursued at three levels: a) theoretical - seeking the regularities of the development in formal and nodal regions at two spatial scales - macro- and meso- regional, b) methodological - finding the regionalisation in order to optimize the land cover changes assessment, c) empirical - assessment of territorial differentiation in the land cover development after the year 1990.