Land use changes in the Mała Wisła Valley in the western part of the Oświęcim Basin from the 18th to modern time

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reconstruct land use on the floodplain of the changes in the valley was based on archival materials, such as the plan of the Wisła valley from the mid-18th c., and the Prussian and Austrian topographical maps from the 1860s. As the analysis of land use changes in the floodplain of the Mała Wisła valley indicates, in the years 1754-1860 the biggest change referred to the area of forests and shelterbelts, because in a hundred years it decreased three times, i.e. from 3.18 km2 to 1.05 km2. Other big changes include a diminished number and area of fish ponds, as well as smaller surface of the hydrographic network. The layout and area of low density dwellings remained almost unchanged, as a reported increase in the surface area of this form of land use was only by about 0.4%. Significant changes in the surface of ponds and water reservoirs took place in the 1950s, when a dam reservoir was built in Goczałkowice. Its caused an increase the ponds and reservoirs surface to 23.45 km2, which is over 64.7% of the grounds.