Typical land use pattern in upland - part of Horna Orava region; 1 : 35 000, 3 map fragments

The region of Horna Orava with its dissected relief represents an upland landscape. The land use pattern was mapped on the administrative territory of the villages of Oravske Vesele and Mutne in two periods (1956 and 2000). By the end of the 1950's agricultural use intensified. It particularly meant removal of balks and shrubs, small plots were connected into large fields. The changes of property relationships as of 1990 in turn, meant diversification of landscape structure. The landscape changes in two temporal horizons can be characterised as 1st antrophogenic (change of small-blocks of arable land and permanent grassland to re-cultivated meadows and large-block arable land); 2. successive (reduced grazing causes overgrowing of pastures and change of shrubs to forests). In spite of intensification of farming activities a relatively high share of natural vegetation structures still exists in the economically used upland landscape of this region. (author)