LANDSCAPE CHANGES IN THE NORTH-WEST BOHEMIA AND THEIR VISUALIZATION

North-West Bohemia (Usti nad Labem region) is one the most affected areas in the Czech Republic regarding to landscape changes. This region suffered from three main activities during last 100 years. First, the area contains large brown coal basin, and such area has changed much during heavy mining industry. Next activity, also connected with open-pit mines is creation of large water dams. Here, part of the landscape disappeared under the water. Last but not least, the Usti region suffered from the settlement extinction caused by the political situation in Czechoslovakia after World War 2. Our project is focused on processing of maps, photographs and related material for reconstruction of the landscape before three main activities mentioned above, and on visualization of changes in the landscape during last 100 years. The work is supported by the Czech ministry of culture by the program of National Cultural Identity. Project "Landscape reconstruction and vanished municipalities database for preserving the cultural heritage in the region of Usti nad Labem" is planned to be solved in 2012-2015, and first outputs of the research are available now. Processing of old maps was the first step of the project. Historical topographic maps were collected and properly georeferenced. For all topographic map series published in the last 200 years and covering the whole area of Usti region we created seamless map in current reference coordinate system. Maps of the higher scale (e.g. cadastral maps) were georeferenced selectively because of enormous number of map sheets. All maps are prepared to be used in geographical information systems and are the main inputs for the landscape analysis. Old aerial photographs were processed and georeferenced as well. The process of landscape reconstruction can vary in techniques used during the work. The first analysis was based on the changes of land use within selected areas. The changes are identified for time intervals based on interval of publishing of maps. Using aerial photographs or contour maps is another option. Here the reconstruction of the landscape in 3D is performed. In detail, if appropriate plans or photographs are available, it is possible to reconstruct vanished settlements and the individual buildings. All outputs of the project (georeferenced maps, vector data models of land use, 3D models of landscape, buildings reconstruction) are easily accessible by the internet application.