ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DRIVERS OF LAND-USE/LAND-COVER CHANGES ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL: THE CASE OF SERBIA

In-depth knowledge about land-use/land-cover changes, drivers and the driver's importance is necessary both for understanding change processes in the environment, economy and society as a whole and further research, modelling and decision-making related to land-use/land-cover changes. The study assesses the importance of two biophysical and five socio-economic drivers of land-use/land-cover changes for six land-use/land cover change processes during the 2000-2018 period in Serbia using mixed methods, GIS and machine learning. The results indicate that socio-economic drivers, especially the distance from roads, water and protected areas, are more important for national land-use/land cover change processes than biophysical drivers. The study gives insights into the drivers' usefulness for modelling future land-use/land-cover change processes on the national level in Serbia. Furthermore, it could be observed as one of the initial steps in the future analysis of the effects of land-use/land-cover changes on landscape diversity, further development of the land - use/land-cover changes research and related decision-making processes.