The article analyzes land use changes and their influence on landscape development in Czechia during the complex period of transition after 1990 to a democratic system with a capitalist economy. To analyze the database of cadastral data on land use of about 13,000 comparable basic territorial units (CTU) and their regional differentiation the typology method (the establishment of types of changes in CTUs and their portion of all CTUs) was used above all. At the same time tables follow the periods which formed over the long-term the preceding land use situation in Czechia at the start of the transition (1845–1948 and 1948–1990). Ascertained changes and trends in land use changes are then interpreted on the basis of searching out and explaining the main political, economic and social factors (or societal driving forces) that caused them. Their interaction with natural conditions is taken into account as well.

Changes in the cultural landscape provide essential evidence about the manner and intensity of the interactions between humans and nature. Czechia has a specific location in Central Europe. It is positioned at the crossroads of European landscape changes. These changes can be documented based on a unique database that shows the development of land use since the middle of the 19th century. In this study, we aimed to address the major processes of landscape change that occurred during four periods over the past 165 years, at the cadastral level on the territory of present-day Czechia. Further we identify and discuss proximate and underlying driving forces of the landscape changes. We used land use data from the year 1845, 1896, 1948, 1990, and 2010 that correspond to key events in Czech history. The major processes and intensity of landscape change were evaluated based on calculations of increases and decreases in land use classes between the first and last year of each examined period. The period 1845–1896 was the only period in which arable land increased, and the most recent period, 1990–2010, was the only period during which a grassing over process was recorded. Afforestation was recorded in all periods. The communist period was characterized by unified changes—urbanization, afforestation, arable land decrease, and landscape devastation. The post-communist period was, in some respects, beneficial to the landscape (e.g., grassing over and afforestation, particularly in mountain areas), but it also led to negative processes, such as strong urbanization and land abandonment. Such changes lead to landscape polarization. The landscape changes in Czechia during the period 1845–2010 reflect many important historical events in Europe. In our analysis, we demonstrate the essential impact of underlying drivers and also identify driving forces specific to the development of the Czech territory.

The article analyses land cover changes along the Iron Curtain in the period 1990–2006. CORINE land cover state and land cover change datasets are used to evaluate differences in land cover structure in 1990 and in land cover changes between the eastern (from former German Democratic Republic to Hungary) and western (former Federal Republic of Germany and Austria) border sections along the Iron Curtain. The results confirm different representation of individual land cover categories on the eastern and western sides. Different intensity of changes at the eastern and western border sections has been confirmed, too. More intense land cover changes were detected in the “East” after 1990. The highest intensity of changes was recorded at the Czech border sections where rather strong process of afforestation took place, together with retreat of intensive agriculture (changes on more than 8% of the area between 1990 and 2000). On the contrary, the Austrian border section was the most stable area (changes only on 0.13% of the area).

The paper describes the Czech agriculture in the transformation period after 1990. It analyses the basic changes, which has occurred in Czechia since the end of the totalitarian period. Attention is also paid to the development of the system of subsidies, to the changes in the intensity of agricultural production, to the changes in alimentary consumption and especially to regional impacts of the transformation processes in the Czech agriculture. The SWOT analysis of the Czech agriculture is also discussed.

Detailed information about land use is available from the mid-nineteenth century onward for the countries of the former Habsburg Monarchy. For Slovenia and Czechia, databases have been created that make it possible to analyze the period from the first half of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The processes of changing land use were comparable during the period examined. Nonetheless, the cultural landscape in Czechia was significantly more transformed. Because of the nationalization of land after the Second World War and the establishment of state-owned collective farms and cooperatives, today large complexes of farmland predominate, whereas in Slovenia fragmented properties still predominate, and the cultural landscape therefore preserves many more elements from the nineteenth century.

Land registers, or cadasters, contain information on land use because this is vital for land assessment and taxation. Some European countries produced land registers covering their entire territories as early as the nineteenth century. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Habsburg Monarchy produced the Franciscean Cadaster, also known as the Stable Cadaster, which shows the traditional preindustrial cultural landscape and makes it possible to analyze land-use changes or the transformation of the traditional cultural landscape. This special issue is the result of collaboration between Slovenian and Czech geographers, and it features six articles covering land-use changes from the perspective of natural geography, political geography, ecosystems, farms, and metrics. The articles, which explore the processes of changes at the national and regional levels, are based on the textual part of the Franciscan Cadaster, and the local studies are based on the cartographic part of the cadaster.