Haritava maa mahajätmine Tartu maakonnas

Land abandonment studies have drawn scientists’ attention for more than a decade. Under the conditions of a growing world population and pressure to preserve the environment, there are still areas which are abandoned. Land abandonment occurs also in Estonia. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of the arable land plot features on the probability that land abandonment will occur on those plots. The occurrence of the brushwood on the arable land plots was used as the indicator that some areas of those plots are abandoned. The area of the plot, compactness, soil productivity, ratio of ameliorated land, roughness of land and the distance to the different objects were used for the description of the arable land plots. The study area covered Tartu County in Estonia and was based on the combination of the Estonian National Topographic Database vector data and land cover height model raster data provided by the Estonian Land Board. The study period covered the timeframe from 2011 to 2017 and consisted of 6,604 agricultural plots. The plots were divided into two groups (without and with brushwood) and the mean values of the indicators describing the features of the arable land plots were calculated for the groups. The binominal logistic regression analysis was also used to assess the potential (probability) of plots to be abandoned. Results of the study showed that the features of the arable land plots have an impact on the probability that land abandonment will occur on those plots.