Patterns and drivers of post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine
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Patterns and drivers of post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine. / Baumann, Matthias; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Elbakidze, Marine; Ozdogan, Mutlu; Radeloff, Volker C.; Keuler, Nicholas S.; Prishchepov, Alexander; Kruhlov, Ivan; Hostert, Patrick.
In: Land Use Policy, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2011, p. 552-562.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Patterns and drivers of post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine
AU - Baumann, Matthias
AU - Kuemmerle, Tobias
AU - Elbakidze, Marine
AU - Ozdogan, Mutlu
AU - Radeloff, Volker C.
AU - Keuler, Nicholas S.
AU - Prishchepov, Alexander
AU - Kruhlov, Ivan
AU - Hostert, Patrick
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Farmland abandonment restructures rural landscapes in many regions worldwide in response to gradual industrialization and urbanization. In contrast, the political breakdown in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union triggered rapid and widespread farmland abandonment, but the spatial patterns of abandonment and its drivers are not well understood. Our goal was to map post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine using Landsat images from 1986 to 2008, and to identify spatial determinants of abandonment using a combination of best-subsets linear regression models and hierarchical partitioning. Our results suggest that farmland abandonment was widespread in the study region, with abandonment rates of up to 56%. In total, 6600km2 (30%) of the farmland used during socialism was abandoned after 1991. Topography, soil type, and population variables were the most important predictors to explain substantial spatial variation in abandonment rates. However, many of our a priori hypotheses about the direction of variable influence were rejected. Most importantly, abandonment rates were higher in the plains and lower in marginal areas. The growing importance of subsistence farming in the transition period, as well as off-farm income and remittances likely explain these patterns. The breakdown of socialism appears to have resulted in fundamentally different abandonment patterns in the Western Ukraine, where abandonment was a result of the institutional and economic shock, compared to those in Europe's West, where abandonment resulted from long-term socio-economic transformation such as urbanization and industrialization.
AB - Farmland abandonment restructures rural landscapes in many regions worldwide in response to gradual industrialization and urbanization. In contrast, the political breakdown in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union triggered rapid and widespread farmland abandonment, but the spatial patterns of abandonment and its drivers are not well understood. Our goal was to map post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine using Landsat images from 1986 to 2008, and to identify spatial determinants of abandonment using a combination of best-subsets linear regression models and hierarchical partitioning. Our results suggest that farmland abandonment was widespread in the study region, with abandonment rates of up to 56%. In total, 6600km2 (30%) of the farmland used during socialism was abandoned after 1991. Topography, soil type, and population variables were the most important predictors to explain substantial spatial variation in abandonment rates. However, many of our a priori hypotheses about the direction of variable influence were rejected. Most importantly, abandonment rates were higher in the plains and lower in marginal areas. The growing importance of subsistence farming in the transition period, as well as off-farm income and remittances likely explain these patterns. The breakdown of socialism appears to have resulted in fundamentally different abandonment patterns in the Western Ukraine, where abandonment was a result of the institutional and economic shock, compared to those in Europe's West, where abandonment resulted from long-term socio-economic transformation such as urbanization and industrialization.
KW - Carpathians
KW - Fallow fields
KW - Land-use transitions
KW - Regression analysis
KW - Remote sensing
KW - Support Vector Machines
U2 - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2010.11.003
DO - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2010.11.003
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:78751636535
VL - 28
SP - 552
EP - 562
JO - Land Use Policy
JF - Land Use Policy
SN - 0264-8377
IS - 3
ER -
ID: 138855370