Railway network of Galicia and Austrian Silesia (1847-1914)

We describe and share reconstructed data of the historical railway network of Galicia and Austrian Silesia – two regions of the Habsburg Empire that covered more than 80 000 km2 that are currently divided among Czechia, Poland and Ukraine. The network dataset includes the times of railway appearance and of the most dynamic development until 1914, which marked the outbreak of the First World War. Most of the lines were reconstructed based on OpenStreetMap data, and the lines, which were closed down between 1914 and 2019 and are no longer available in spatial datasets, were reconstructed based on high-resolution satellite imagery and historical maps. Altogether, the network dataset covers nearly 5000 km on 127 lines. The data are accompanied by a set of attributes, i.e. the year of construction, length, starting point, finish point, and type (normal, narrow-gauge, etc.), and are available for download in the shp format

Impact of future land use change on large carnivores connectivity in the Polish Carpathians

The Polish Carpathians, like many mountain areas in Europe, are currently facing dynamic land use changes that will shape their future landscapes. As there are many different possible scenarios of potential change, we compared three different land use scenarios up until the year 2060 and assessed their impact on the potential habitat connectivity of two large carnivores—wolf (Canis lupus) and lynx (Lynx lynx). We first analysed the main directions of change within and outside the pan-European wildlife corridor located in the western part of the Polish Carpathians. Then we calculated and compared least-cost paths among randomly selected points for each land use scenario separately. Our results showed that the main direction of change—forest cover increase—may positively influence habitat connectivity for both wolf and lynx. However, due to the future spread of settlements, this positive impact might be locally limited. Therefore, to realise the potential conservation opportunities resulting from on-going land use changes, adequate orientation of spatial planning towards habitat connectivity is crucial

Mid-19th century road network dataset for Galicia and Austrian Silesia, Habsburg Empire

In this paper, we present the vector dataset of the historical road network of Galicia and Austrian Silesia (>80 000 km^{2}) in the mid-19th century - two regions of the former Habsburg Empire, located in Central Europe. The data were acquired manually from 455 map sheets of the Austrian second military survey map (1:28,800) for the four main road categories, according to the map legend. All the road categories present the roads passable at any time of the year, which was strategic information from the military point of view and build a network of 15 461 km. Currently, the data can be used by various researchers studying migrations, regional development, but also human impact on the environment, like land use change, invasive species introduction or landscape fragmentation. The dataset presents the times just before the most dynamic economic changes of the 19th century, which had a great impact on the region. On the other hand, the road network presented here was developed in the conditions of one country, the Habsburg Empire, which collapsed after the First World War, triggering the rise of new states and remodelling the transport network connections in Central Europe. Additionally, the data are accompanied by the layer of towns and villages with more than 2000 inhabitants, based on the 1857 Austrian census data

Mid-19th-century building structure locations in Galicia and Austrian Silesia under the Habsburg Monarchy

We produced a reconstruction of mid-19th-century building structure locations in former Galicia and Austrian Silesia (parts of the Habsburg Monarchy), which are located in present-day Czechia, Poland, and Ukraine and cover more than 80 000 km2. Our reconstruction was based on a homogeneous series of detailed Second Military Survey maps (1:28 800) that were the result of a cadastral mapping (1:2880) generalization. The dataset consists of two types of building structures based on the original map legend - residential and outbuildings (mainly farm-related buildings). The dataset's accuracy was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively by using independent data sources and may serve as an important input in studying long-term socioeconomic processes and human-environmental interactions or as a valuable reference for continental settlement reconstructions. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.17632/md8jp9ny9z.2 (Kaim et al., 2020a)

Legacies, socio-economic and biophysical processes and drivers : the case of future forest cover expansion in the Polish Carpathians and Swiss Alps

Mountain forest areas are key for providing a wide range of ecosystem services and are hot spots for land use change processes, in particular, increase in forest cover at the expense of mountain pastures and meadows. Mountain forest systems in eastern and western Europe have likely similar future socio-economic situations but significantly different socio-economic history. Using a scenario-based land use modelling approach (Dyna-CLUE framework) we model three scenarios (trend, liberalisation and self-sufficiency) of future land use in the Polish Carpathians and the Swiss Alps, focussing on forest cover change. We find that forest cover increase can be expected to continue in European mountainous regions under all likely scenarios, limited only by relatively strict policy interventions. Biophysical factors, rather than socio-eco- nomic ones, are key for defining the suitability for, and therefore likely locations of future forest cover, but land use legacy plays a very important role in the spatial pat- terns of future forest cover, particularly in eastern Europe

Long-term changes of the Wildland-Urban Interface in the Polish Carpathians

The Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) is the area where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, which causes many environmental problems. The current WUI is widespread in many regions, but it is unclear how the WUI evolved, especially in regions where both houses and forest cover have increased. Here we compared WUI change in the Polish Carpathians for 1860 and 2013 in two study areas with different land use history. Our western study area experienced gradual forest increase and housing growth over time, while the eastern study area was subject to a shock due to post-war resettlements, which triggered rapid reforestation. We found that in both study areas WUI extent increased from 1860 to 2013 (41.3 to 54.6%, and 12.2 to 33.3%, in the west and east, respectively). However the causes of WUI growth were very different. In the western study area new houses were the main cause for new WUI, while in the eastern study area forest cover increase was more important. Our results highlight that regions with similar current WUI cover have evolved very differently, and that the WUI has grown rapidly and is widespread in the Polish Carpathians

Impact of modifiable areal unit problem on land cover change modeling results

Problem zmiennej jednostki odniesienia (MAUP) wynika z rozmieszczenia na ciągłym zjawisku geograficznym sztucznych, arbitralnych jednostek odniesienia, których wielkość i kształt determinuje wyniki przeprowadzanych analiz. Zmienna jednostka odniesienia ma istotne znaczenie w problematyce modelowania zmian pokrycia terenu, zarówno na etapie analizy wyników modelowania, jak i samego działania modelu.W oparciu o koncepcję przejścia leśnego Mathera (1998) skonstruowano model zmian pokrycia terenu, odwzorowujący drugą fazę przejścia leśnego (zalesianie), którego parametrem jest zmienna jednostka odniesienia. Zmiany wielkości tego parametru mają wpływ na charakter uzyskiwanych przez model wyników (wynikowa powierzchnia lasów, tempo wzrostu). Za pomocą szeregu symulacji wykazano, że istnieje wprost proporcjonalna zależność pomiędzy wielkością jednostki odniesienia (parametrem działania modelu) a finalną lesistością wyników modelowania. Zmiana parametru jednostki odniesienia prowadzi także do zmian struktury przestrzennej uzyskiwanych wyników. Analiza wyników modelowania wykazuje, że wraz ze wzrostem wielkości jednostki odniesienia, w jakiej agregowane są dane, przestrzenne zróżnicowanie zjawiska ulega zatarciu.MAUP (modifiable areal unit problem) results from the imposition of artificial, arbitral units of spatial aggregation on continuous geographical surface. Size and shape of those units determines the results of geographical analyses. MAUP plays a significant role in land use modeling, both in the phase of aggregating the modeling results and in the phase of model construction.On a basis of the forest transition concept formulated by Mather (1998) a land cover change model of the second phase of forest transition (forest expansion) was created. Arbitrary areal units are one of the model parameters. Changes of areal unit sizes lead to changes of the modeling results (forest area, expansion rate). Several simulations showed that size of areal units is proportional to the final forest cover of the modeling results. Changes of that parameter lead also to significant variations of spatial pattern of forest cover. In addition increasing areal units contribute to the decrease of spatial variation of the studied phenomena