Jovanovska, D. & Melovski, Lj. (2013). Land cover succession as a result of changing land use practices in
Northeast Macedonia. Proceedings of the 4th Congress of Ecologists of Macedonia with International Participation,
Ohrid, 12-15 October 2012. Macedonian Ecological Society, Special issue 28, Skopje.
The paper presents the results of a comparative GIS analysis of habitats and land cover change patterns in
northeast Macedonia. The habitats were mapped in 1995 and 2011 along 500 m to one kilometer wide and 88 km
long corridor. The mapping was carried in course of the Environmental Impact Assessment studies for the railway
construction Kumanovo – Deve Bair as part of the European Transport Corridor 8. The aim of the presented study
was to document changes in land cover within 16 years period of time and to identify the reasons that led to present
landscape structure and habitat composition in the area.
The most considerable changes in the land cover along the surveyed corridor were observed at hill pastures
(dry grasslands), followed by agricultural land, settlements and forests. The results provide management guidelines
for sustaining the land use practices that have the greatest role in shaping the landscape in the area.