ABSTRACT

Major socio-economic changes occurring in the late 20th century and the early 2000s in Europe increased the land use demands in rural and peri-urban areas, resulting in increasing land uses interactions in all European regions. Land uses are both impacting and impacted by regional development. The main useful database to study land use and land use changes in Europe is the Corine Land Cover Code. The land use system in Europe is affected by serious changes and evolutions, partly due to global driving forces. Land use changes are long-term processes which evolve according to several distinct factors. In Austria, rural and peri-urban land uses are mainly reshaped by artificialization processes, mostly due to the creation of new economic activity sites or new infrastructures, and to urban sprawl in a minor way. In terms of land use dynamics, the main feature is a significant process of artificialization of land, cultivated as well as forested or semi-natural.