CHANGES IN LAND COVER AND LAND USE IN THE KARST AREA OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
UDK 631.4:551.435.8(497.6) Natural characteristics of karst areas (lack of water on the surface, scarce soil and vegetation) are rather specific and because of them they are often viewed as unsuitable for human habitation. They are often described as inhospitable and passive areas, and Aley (1992) states that karst areas in America are correlated with areas of rural poverty. A large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of karst areas (karst land extending northwest-southeast) which on average are quite sparsely populated. The scarcity of nature, and especially of soil functions in terms of agriculture, as well as the previous period of industrial development caused depopulation which became particularly apparent after the recent war. This contributed to the fact that in some karst areas population has been drastically reduced, in some places by more than 60%, which affects the condition of land cover and land use as well as change in functions of soil in the ecosystem. Given the fact that the soil formation process on karst terrain is very slow (these are mainly shallow and skeletal soils) and in view of the importance of soil and its multi- functionality, this paper is aimed at analyzing the extent and nature of changes which occurred in land cover and in land use in this part of BiH, namely at analyzing the causes and effects. In order to be able to make such analysis, we used land cover databases, aerial photographs as well as orthophoto maps of the terrain.