An Assessment of Changes in Ecological Stability and Landscape Management Practices over the Last Centuries: A Case Study from Vrbovce, Slovakia

Abstract

The landscape is an open system influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors that in a long-run fundamentally affect its state and development. A comprehensive understanding and assessment of the anthropogenic impacts on the environment is a key prerequisite to maintain its good ecological state. However, as the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the environment are omnipresent, necessary measures for their mitigation should be addressed to improve the landscape ecological stability. In Slovakia, agricultural activities on large blocks of land are considered as one of the main anthropogenic factors negatively influencing the landscape ecological stability, which however could be eliminated by effective landscape management activities. This study assesses the ecological stability of the cadastral area of the village of Vrbovce in both historical and current contexts and suggests several “green” measures aiming at improving its ecological stability. The information about the land types and structures were obtained by manual vectorization of historical and current topographical maps. Based on this information analysis of land utilization and its development was carried out for a period of more than 250 years. For each historical period, a coefficient of ecological stability was evaluated to assign a degree of ecological stability for each period. Moreover, an analysis of positive and negative landscape-ecological impacts was also performed to identify the problematic areas within the cadastral area that need to be addressed by mitigation measures. Based on these analyses several mitigation measures were suggested to improve the ecological stability of the area. Most of them were related to the agricultural land, which makes up a significant part of the area and represents its less ecologically stable part. The proposed measures respect the original rural character of the area and its specific scenery which is a result of centuries of man-land interaction. The measures are mostly focused on transforming some of the less ecologically stable areas into natural grasslands which would be used for ecological cattle and sheep breeding as these activities were historically the primary source of living in this area.

Land use and ecological stability coefficient on the territory of the Republic of Moldova

“…Thus, the ecological stability coefficient values can vary from 0 to 1.0 (Tabel 1). Values from 0 to 0.33 characterize areas with ecologically unstable land, from 0.34 to 0.50 are communes with the uncertain stability, from 0.51 -0.66 -those with average stability and, in the conditions when the value of the coefficient exceeds 0.67, we have ecologically stable communes (Bejan, 2010;Chromčák, et al, 2021;Dousa, 2021;Muchova and Tarnikova, 2018;Vyleta, 2019).…”

Public recreation and landscape protection - with environment hand in hand…

“…Changes in land use may cause land degradation, defined as the temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land while the soil completely loses its productive capacity . Agricultural activities on large blocks of land are considered as one of the main anthropogenic factors negatively influencing soil erosion and the landscape ecological stability, which however could be eliminated by effective landscape management activities (Výleta et al, 2019). Climate change is causing an increased incidence of forest fires and changes in forest communities (Abram et al, 2021;Venäläinen et al, 2020).…”

“…In previous research (Výleta et al, 2019), we assessed the ecological stability of the whole cadastral area of the village of Vrbovce in both historical and current contexts using similar methods to Ivan et al (2014) and Valent et al (2016). From the analysis of land use from the history to the present, there is a tendency for the arable land to decline and to increase the vegetation and grassland areas.…”