Environmental Stressors as an Integrative Approach to Landscape Assessment - Landscape Modelling: Geographical Space, Transformation and Future Scenarios - page 33

namely high migration turnover. The core towns below the Ore Mountains expanded
the most dynamically, to some extent at the expense of the surrounding rural areas.
Because of the frequently conflicting tendencies of the individual aspects of social
stress, its levels changed comparatively moderately and gradually between 1950 and
1970. The level of social stress did not rise until the period of 1970-1990. The post-
1990 period is characterised by a sharp drop in social stress, back to the level of
1950. Analogously to ecological stress, social stress also shows an increasing spa-
tial differentiation - which almost doubled in 1950-1990, as it did for ecological
stress.
The set of indicators designated as spatial mobility indicators showed a positive
trend. The trend confirms increasing population stability and its gradual “merging”
with the landscape that the people inhabit. A contrasting tendency is revealed in
the “population change” set of indicators as well as in the set relating to “family
ties”. In the post-industrial period the demographic characteristics follow the trends
prevailing in Europe: the birth rate is decreasing (from 20 to 10%), while mean
life expectancy is on the rise, as is the percentage of children born out of wedlock.
From an economic perspective, there is rising unemployment (above 10%), which
was officially non-existent during the communist period for ideological reasons.
The rise of the education index is a positive trend, as are the stabilising tendencies
in the settlement system - with the percentage of natives rising, migration turnover
decreasing and the migration balance registering positive values. Spatial mobility
of the population shows marked differentiation. The peripheral locations of the Ústí
region show dynamic, positive changes, whereas the core locations do not register
marked changes until after 1990. There is an unequivocal trend from polarisation to
levelling.
Using the Pearson correlation coefficient we can ensure the correct selection of
environmental stress indicators, or even the existence of potential statistical rela-
tions between individual indicators or sets of indicators. (Tables 3.3 and 3.4). There
are comparatively strong correlations (bonds) between the indicator sets quantify-
ing ecological stress. This is because of the high degree of interdependence of the
individual landscape elements, the high degree of interconnectedness within the
ecological subsystem. Disturbed relief has a negative impact on water, biota and
consequently air quality. Industrial operations, especially mining and the related
power industries, impact on all the components of the ecological subsystem in the
Ústí region. In the case of biota, there is, logically, a correlation of medium closeness
( r > 0.3), as other factors come into play (e.g. agricultural and forestry activi-
ties). Of the individual indicators, the closest pair correlations can be detected in
the degree of anthropogenic relief transformation with legacy environmental issues
( r = 0.708), in the high quality of surface water ( r = 0.658), and in the indica-

tor measuring the damage disturbance to forest cover ( r 0.760).The disturbance

of forest cover is closely correlated with the anthropogenic transformation of the
relief, the legacy environmental issues ( r

=

= 0.731), the quality of surface waters

( r = 0.709). Surprisingly, the correlation with air pollution is only moderately close

( r 0.384 and 0.406, respectively). It becomes apparent that disturbance of forest

cover tends to linger and remains high long after the air quality has improved. The

=