Is the Obligation to Monitor Land Use Change in Poland Complied With?

Abstract

The paper focuses on issues related to the monitoring of changes in land use, which is a statutory obligation of voivodeship marshals in Poland. The analysis involved responses to author's inquiries received from 16 marshal offices. The paper analysed whether and how marshals fulfil this obligation. At the second stage, the official replies were juxtaposed with relevant information from marshal offices' websites. The results suggest that not all marshals fulfil the obligation to monitor land use change. In most cases, the actions taken currently involve comparison of the current land use structure to the one of the previous year. This approach does not lead to proper conclusions from analyses and hinders taking appropriate decisions.

Land Use versus Land Cover: Geo-Analysis of National Roads and Synchronisation Algorithms

“…Causes for changes in the LU-LC are sought in a global approach; it is pointed out that they result from a population increase and intensive land use [13][14][15]. Such studies often take land use as equivalent to land cover, because land cover is a consequence of the way in which people use it [16,17]. Monitoring the LU-LC is of key importance in this aspect on the local, regional and global scale [18].…”