Analysis of historical change using cadastral materials in the carpathian foothills

Historical cadastral materials can provide the means to study land use changes. In this paper we describe a cadastral-based analysis of land use changes over a150-year period in a village located in the southeastern portion of Poland, known as Galicia, located in the Carpathian foothills. For this analysis, we rely on Austrian-Hungarian cadastral material from the mid-nineteenth and recent cadastral information. We describe the gridded, spatial analysis methods developed for this study. Contrary to expectations, the study discovered a surprising stability in the parcel boundaries during the 150-year period. These specific methods are valuable for studies in areas where Franciscan cadastral materials from the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires were created. Although distinct from land cover-based studies of land cover changes, these techniques and their application are also relevant in other areas of the world where historical cadastral materials can be found.