Land cover changes over the past 30 years in the Demänovka river catchment

Land cover changes over the past 30 years in the Demänovka river catchment Many protected areas in Slovakia are under increasing pressure of deforestation and urbanisation. The Demänovka river catchment is one of the most affected. The river valley is famous for its largest cave system in the Carpathians, as a critical drinking water resource and nature values of international significance. In the past 30 years, the catchment's land cover has changed significantly, which has resulted in instability, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity loss. In this study, we evaluated land cover changes for the periods 1992, 2003, and 2021 using visual interpretation from ortho-photo maps to 18 CORINE Land Cover (CLC) standard classes. Area metrics such as class area (CA), number of patches (NP) and mean patch size (MPS) were employed in the analysis. Additionally, coefficients of anthropic impact (CAI) and ecological stability (CES) were computed to further evaluate the changes. The most significant change was related to deforestation. In 1992, coniferous forests represented 53.02% of the study area, but in 2021, it was 39.94%. It is related mainly to the increase of a transitional woodland/shrub class (change from 1.18% in 1992 to 14.08% in 2021). In addition, the area of new construction sites, sports, and leisure facilities was increased. Other changes concerned the decrease in alpine meadows or pastures were observed. Our results propose further trends and underpin the utmost importance for the sustainable management and protection of this unique catchment.