Environmental Stressors as an Integrative Approach to Landscape Assessment - Landscape Modelling: Geographical Space, Transformation and Future Scenarios - page 30

We have tested this methodological approach in the region in question in the
period spanning the second half of the twentieth century, which we divided into five
time intervals. This period has a number of valid data sources available. Around
1950 the final phase of the industrial period in the Czech Republic had begun -
the so-called totalitarian phase. The influence of anthropogenic stressors intensified
significantly during this period. The following two time intervals (beginning in 1970
and 1980, respectively) point to the dynamic changes in the environmental system
during the totalitarian period (communism). 1990 saw the beginning of the post-
industrial period, while 2005 represents the start of a phase in which the influence of
stressors in the post-industrial period was attenuated. Overall, we are thus focusing
on the final phase of the industrial society in the Czech Republic (the totalitarian
period) and on the post-industrial phase, where fundamental changes in ecological
and social stress in our study regions can be documented.
In spatial terms, the methodology was tested on typologically differing study
regions (Fig. 3.1). Four specific pairs were selected, representing varying geo-
graphical types of spatial units at a choric level (Balej et al., 2004): border
region (Petrovice) vs. inner region (Trebenice), periphery (Vernerice) vs. core area
(Benešov), labile region (Bílinsko) vs. stable region (Libcevesko) and mountainous
region (Vejprtsko) vs. lowland region (Klášterecko). However, the stress moni-
tored in the regions indicates the influence of stressors originating not only within
those regions but also outside them. The negative effect of stressors of course
does not respect administrative boundaries. The influence of larger (pan-regional
or province-wide) stressors outside the borders of the study areas thus manifests
itself.
All eight study regions lie within the Ústí Region (5.335 km 2 , 6.8% of the area
of the Czech Republic), which is a region marked by the highest levels of environ-
mental stress in the whole of the country as well as the presence of the greatest
Fig. 3.1 Geographical position of the north-west of the Czech Republic