Anna DOBOS¹, Richárd NAGY² & Ádám MOLEK^3
1Eszterházy Károly College, Department of Environmental Sciences, H-3300 Eger, Leányka út 6., Hungary, e-mail: dobosa@ektf.hu
²University of Debrecen, Department of Landscape Protection and Environmental Geography, H-4032 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., Hungary, e-mail: nagy.richard@science.unideb.hu
³Eszterházy Károly College, Department of Environmental Sciences, Landscape Research and Nature Conservation Scientific Talent’s Workshop, H-3300 Eger, Leányka út 6., Hungary, e-mail: molekadam91@gmail.com

LAND USE CHANGES IN A HISTORIC WINE REGION AND THEIR CONNECTIONS WITH OPTIMAL LAND-USE: A CASE STUDY OF NAGY-EGED HILL, NORTHERN HUNGARY

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Several parts of the historical wine regions in Hungary are adjacent to foothill areas of mountains of medium height. In the present paper, the land-use changes of Nagy-Eged Hill, characterized by vineyards situated on the highest hill slopes in Hungary, are investigated using the First and Second Military Survey Maps (1782-1785, 1819-1869), topographic maps on scale of 1:10 000 published in 1990, and an aerial survey map made in 2012. This study area has natural conditions favourable for viticulture. There were significant land-use changes here from the 18^th century onward. These land-use changes were conditioned by changes of natural conditions, the spreading of the phylloxera disaster, World Wars I. and II. and the modification of social demands. Our aim was to map and describe land-use changes in different historical times and to analyse their effects. It has come to light that 45-60 % of the territory of Nagy-Eged Hill was continously covered by forests. During a thousand years of viticulture here, vineyards appeared in greatest numbers between 1782 and 1785. After that the territory of vineyards decreased and about 90% of vineyards were abolished during the 1888 phylloxera disaster. 17.34% of the study area are vineyards today as a result of re-plantation and vineyard reconstruction. The study area has been affected by intensive soil erosion and land degradation. Nagy-Eged Hill is situated on the boundary of the Bükk National Park, which is why these areas could be integrated into the protected territory and the thousand-year-old viticulture and the landscape values protected under the Nature Conservation and Environmental Management Plan of the Bükk National Park.