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The infiltration of water into the soil is a necessary parameter for irrigation systems design. Characterizing its spatial behavior allows a site-specific management of water according to soil conditions and crop requirements. The aim of this study is to establish the spatial distribution of infiltration in an Andisol by means of two geostatistical approaches: on the one hand by means of functional kriging, taking as input infiltration curves (obtained after a smoothing stage), and on the other hand by using classical ordinary kriging on the parameters of the Kostiakov and Phillip models. The comparison between these methodologies is carried out taking as a criterion the sum of squared errors of a leave-one-out cross-validation analysis. The results show a high correlation between observations and predictions (R 2 values around 99%), which indicates that the use of functional geostatistics in this context could be a good alternative. Moreover, from a descriptive point of view, we can point out that the contour maps of basic infiltration (BI), cumulative infiltration (Ci), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and sorptivity (S) obtained with the observed data, as well as the predictions by functional geostatistics, show a very similar behavior, which empirically validates the use of this methodology.

The authors focused on the analysis of landscape changes that took place in the central part of the Ostrava-Karviná Mining District (northeastern part of the Czech Republic) from the first half of the 19 th century to the beginning of the 21 st century. Land cover and land cover changes were mapped in detail in the observed cadastral areas (Lazy near Orlová, Karviná-Doly, and Darkov). With regard to the existing data sources, the years 1836, 1947, and 2003 were selected as significant time milestones. Land cover was derived from cadastral maps (year 1836) and aerial photos (years 1947 and 2003). Land cover interpretation was carried out at a scale of 1:5,000. A 1:25,000 scale map shows land cover of studied cadastral territories in each monitored year. Land cover changes are presented in three 1:30,000 scale thematic maps: (1) Number of land cover changes, (2) Same-type land cover preservation, and (3) Landscape processes. Land cover change maps are complemented with tables and graphs. The tables contain numerical data on total areas of change (or identical land cover) and their percentage representation in the total area of the studied territory. Area comparisons are given in the graphs.

In the last seventy years aerial images have represented an important source of information on land cover on a detailed scale. The paper deals with the usage of aerial photographs in the study of landscape changes produced by deep coal mining. The authors show the possibilities of multitemporal land cover analysis in the Ostrava-Karviná mining district analysing a series of aerial photographs covering the period from the second half of the 20 th century to the beginning of the 21 st century. The paper highlights not only the specific features of deep coal mining displays on aerial images, but it also points to the necessity of understanding the fundamental processes that are related to the land cover changes. On the base of the multitemporal analysis the authors defined seven basic processes that reflect the trends in the landscape changes in the area of interest.

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