The study of the transformation of urban landscapes has both a scientific and an applied purpose. Learning about currently occurring processes gives the opportunity to forecast future changes and prevent their negative effects in space in the future. PhD Katarzyna Pukowiec-Kurda in research, using the mathematical indices of the Index of Landscape Change (ICh) and the Index of Changes in Landscape Types (IRCh), determined the currently occurring changes in the area of landscapes of the Upper Silesian Metropolis (GZM) and the Ostrava-Karviná Region (OKR) in the Czechia. The author studied the directions of transformation, the dynamics of the landscape and diagnosed the processes that are responsible for its transformation. It was established that the processes that have the greatest impact on the formation of the landscape are: suburbanization, re-industrialization and abandonment of agricultural. This is a typical phenomenon for Central Europe, but rare for urban areas, yet common in the GZM. If the processes taking place do not change or slow down in the future, we can expect the development of current agricultural areas and open landscapes through developer estates, warehouse halls or their eventual transformation into wasteland.
The research was funded by the Small Project implemented in 2022 under the title: Agricultural land abandonment as one of the contemporary processes of landscape transformation
Reference: https://www.landscape-online.org/index.php/lo/article/view/LO.2023.1116/LO.2023.1116
