Confluence of the Morava and Dyje Rivers: a century of landscape changes in maps

<p>The area of the Morava and Dyje Rivers confluence is one of the most biologically diverse localities in the Czech Republic, recognised under many international forms of nature protection. In this paper we analyse and present land use/land cover (LULC) changes that took place over the last century. Using aerial photographs from the years 1938, 1953, 1976 and 2009, we differentiate 24 categories of LULC with a special focus on forest management. The most important detected changes are (i) closure of open/structured woodlands, (ii) change from an agricultural mosaic into large-field arable land, (iii) regulation of water courses, (iv) decrease in grassland area and (v) increase in forest logging intensity. LULC trends in this area differ significantly from the general LULC development within the Czech Republic. The results are presented in six map sheets showing LULC in (a–d) the studied years, (e) processes of LULC changes and (f) LULC change intensity. The thematic maps are accompanied by aerial photographs selected to show characteristic features of landscape structure in a certain period and by graphs including those visualising landscape metrics.