The changing face of the Czech rural landscape

Land use and landscape structure changes were investigated using the example of an agricultural landscape in central Bohemia. Attention was paid particularly to the great changes which occurred during the 40 years of socialist collectivism. The analysis of landscape development shows that statistics about land use can give only general information about landscape macrostructure and cannot provide a perfect idea of the actual spatial composition of landscape elements. Landscape microstructure expressed in spatial arrangements, shape, size, quality and connectivity of patches, lines and small interactive elements plays the main role in landscape dynamics and is the principal influence in landscape stability.