Land use analysis in terms of farmland protection in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The agricultural land acreage in Central Europe, including the Czech Republic, rapidly decreases. This study presents the trends of agricultural land acreage reduction in the period 1966-2013, with respect to the 1990 milestone (political changes triggering a rapid loss of agricultural land for construction purposes). The analysis is based on the cadastral register data. Particularly serious is the rapid reduction of arable land - 25 ha per day. Furthermore, the actual built up area seems to be larger than show the records on the construction land in the cadastral register. There is an obvious discrepancy between the real state and the cadastral data, so the actual reduction of arable land in the Czech Republic may be even greater. Unfortunately, some municipalities responsible for the urban planning process are obviously not interested in land protection. Based on their quality, the Czech land protection law classifies the soils into 5 protection classes. The areas with the first and second class soils should not be used for construction purposes. However, the study revealed the law is frequently neglected from the part of municipalities and the areas of best quality soils have often been sealed by construction. The present study also attempted to enumerate the financial losses from crop production associated with the land take. The ineffective land protection is a very serious Europe-wide problem.

Keywords

• agricultural land management
• agricultural land protection
• land take
• land use change
• rapid reduction of farmland
• soil sealing
• cadastral register
• urbanization