Land cover accounting in the Czech Republic

This paper presents the methodological basis and the empirical results of Land cover accounting in the Czech Republic. Land cover accounting comprises two types of accounts: core accounts and supplementary accounts. Core accounts provide information on land cover composition. However, for accounting purposes what really matters is the land cover change resulting from anthropogenic impacts rather than the state of land cover. Supplementary accounts are constructed for exploring and establishing a relationship between environmental and economic statistics. Core accounts identified significant changes in the Czech Republic in forest quality, an increase in built-up areas and mining and quarrying areas. Supplementary accounts allowed to build a coefficient matrix which specifies the share of each economic activity type for a particular land cover category. These coefficients were set with the help of expert judgement and the experience of the German Statistical Office. In the future, scenario modelling will allow simulation of trends.