Geographia Technica, Vol. 14, Issue 2, 2019, pp 84 to 96 DEVELOPMENT OF THE RURAL LANDSCAPE: THE DAČICE REGION CASE STUDY, CZECHIA Jiří SCHNEIDER 1 , Aleš RUDA 1 , Michaela VENZLŮ 2 DOI: 10.21163/GT_2019.142.08 ABSTRACT: The traditional agricultural landscape of the Czech Republic, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, began to change slowly into an urban and industrial landscape. However, the biggest changes in the landscape character occurred in the period of world wars, in the post-war period and finally in the transformation of the economy after 1990. The importance of agricultural production in the Czech Republic is decreasing. However, in some rural areas, its position is still a tradition. The aim of the paper is to evaluate changes in the development of land use in the cadastral areas of the Dačice region in 1845, 1948, 2001 and 2014. Land use records were provided by the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre and Cadastral Office in Dačice. Previous land use categories were regrouped into seven specific categories according to classification in 2014 - arable land, gardens, permanent grassland, forests, water bodies, built-up areas, and other areas and for each category, the proportional changes were computed, explained and visualized. During the monitored period, a loss of arable land in the area was found, which is gradually grassed. The area of coniferous forests is further expanding during. From the urban point of view, there is no intensive development but some evidence of new built-up areas mainly located on the open area was identified. Based on our findings we can state that results practically copy the national development of cultivated land. Key-words: Landscape management, CORINE, Land use, Land cover, Rural region. 1. INTRODUCTION Land use represents a specific demonstration of human activity in time and space (Olah et al., 2006) and it is clear that the landscape is a faithful reflection of the state and the development of a society (Lipský, 2011). The changes taking place just in the society can be distinguished according to their technological, demographic, economic, political or social character. They also reflect the way of using an arrangement of the landscape, both cultural and natural. The reasons for variable landscape researches are primarily given by serious problems in the environment, e.g. land’s degradation and erosion (Bürgi, Hersperger & Schneeberger, 2004). Different driving forces (economic factors, social factors, and general public) cause changes in the landscape and influence processes in an evolutional trajectory of the landscape itself (Bürgi, Hersperger & Schneeberger, 2004; Bičík et al., 2001). These factors create a coherent system in relation to their mutual interaction and feedback on various levels of time and space. In the last century, land use has been especially influenced by continuing differences between cores and peripheries. 1 Department of Environmentalistics and Natural Resources, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, tř. Generála Píky 2005/7, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic; jiri.schneider@mendelu.cz; ales.ruda@mendelu.cz 2 Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 3, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic; venzlu.m@seznam.cz