Introduction -- Land use research -- Influence of natural conditions on land use -- Influence of socio-economic conditions on land use -- Data sources and research methods -- Land use changes in Czechia 1845–2010 -- Land use changes 1845–2010 in selected model areas -- Conclusions.

The objective of this book is to analyze changes in the landscape of  Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic since the first half of the 19th century. The text focuses not only on describing these considerable changes by means of statistical and spatial data, but also on explaining the processes, societal, economic, political and institutional forces that drive them. Drawing on more than two decades of experience with land use research, the authors have combined methods and approaches from the fields of human geography, cartography, landscape ecology, historical geography and environmental history. The authors understand land use research as a way of analyzing nature-society interactions, their development, spatial aspects, causes and impacts. Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic serves as an example, combining general processes occurring in landscapes of developed countries with the results of regionally specific driving forces, most of them political  (world wars, communism, return to market economy etc.).