Land Cover Changes in connection with the Iron Curtain using Corine Land Cover Database

This master's thesis focuses on land use and land cover changes in relation to the Iron Curtain and its fall. The area of concern was delimited with a buffer zone of 15 km from the Iron Curtain (both sides). The space was created according to the administrative structure consistent with the year 1989. Different processes in the economy of the countries involved has had an undoubtedly significant influence on land cover and land use structure and its changes. Agronomic politics in European democratic states was more market oriented and that was mirrored in land use structures. On the other hand, soil in countries under soviet influence was cultivated on infertile grounds, which was untenable after 1990. The fall of the Warsaw Treaty stood for radical changes in the society of states that were directly influenced by the Soviet Union. Based on this fact we can presume more intensive land cover changes on the side of the former East in comparison with the Western countries. This expectation was confirmed using CORINE Land Cover dataset. The former East has undergone changes nearly five times more in comparison with the opposite side of the Iron Curtain boundary between 1990 and 2000. Essential variance was also remarkable amidst individual zones separated by administrative boundaries. The most stable..