Reconstructing of historical land cover based on contemporary cartographical materials

Bibliographic Data

ID11907458
AuthorsMichał Sobala (0000-0002-1870-8096, University of Silesia in Katowice, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume84
Pages14-26
Publication date2024-04-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Historical Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7488 • E-ISSN: 1095-8614
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.jhg.2024.03.011
OpenAlexW4394018410
LanguageEN
Citations received2

Historical land use reconstructions help to assess climate change, interactions between ecosystems and human and strengthen the knowledge about these interactions. They are conducted on the basis of historical maps that only cover certain areas. Hence, there is a need to seek other maps enabling historical land use to be reconstructed. The aim of study is to assess the suitability of contemporary maps for reconstructing a historical non-forest area range in the Western Carpathians. The content of contemporary maps was compared with that of historical maps, including the number of glades, their area and the length of their boundaries. Over 60% of glades were reconstructed, which is 90% of the glade area inventoried based on historical maps. Over 50% glades with an area of less than 1ha were not reconstructed. However, the area they occupy does not account for 2% of the total glade area. Thus, it has no significant impact on the total area of the reconstructed glades. As much as 90% of the boundaries' length was reconstructed. The study shows that contemporary maps may be useful in reconstructing the forest and glades range and may be an additional source of information to verify the content of historical maps

Archaeology · Biology · Cover (algebra · Geography · Land cover · Land use · Engineering · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Historical Geography and Cartography · History · Ecology

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