Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Channel Patterns of Polish Carpathians Rivers from the Galicia and Bucovina Map (1861–1864)

Historical maps are often the only source of information allowing for the regional reconstructions of river channel patterns in the past. In the Polish Carpathians, analyses of historical channel patterns were performed mostly in river reaches scale. In this paper, the Galicia and Bucovina map (1861–1864) (the Second military survey of the Habsburg Empire) was used to reconstruct and map the historical channel patterns of seven rivers from the Polish Carpathians. It was found that, in the nineteenth century, rivers in the western part of the study area (Soła, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec) supported a multi-thread channel pattern, whereas rivers in the eastern part (Wisłoka, San, Wisłok) present a mostly single-thread channel pattern. These differences probably result from the higher relief energy and precipitation, lower proportions of forests in the catchments, and more frequent floods favouring high sediment supply to the fluvial system, and thus the formation of multi-thread reaches in the western part of the study area. At the local scale, the most important factor supporting multi-thread channel pattern development was the availability of gravel sediments in the wide valley floor sections. The formation of anabranching reaches with a single mid-channel form was probably associated with the channel avulsion process. There is no clear evidence linking the change in the channel pattern type with an abrupt change in the river channel slope. This study confirms the usefulness of the second military survey map of the Habsburg Empire for the regional reconstruction of river channel pattern types.

Impact of the Cartographer’s Position and Topographic Accessibility on the Accuracy of Historical Land Use Information: Case of the Second Military Survey Maps of the Habsburg Empire

Historical maps are critical for long-term land use reconstructions; however, quantifying the uncertainty involved in comparing historical maps with recent data remains a considerable challenge. To date, many works have focused on the technical aspects of comparing historical and contemporary materials, but the potential sources of uncertainty inherent in historical data remain poorly understood. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of the topographic accessibility and cartographer’s field position on the content quality of historical Austrian second military survey maps by referring to independent census data. Our results show that the topographic accessibility and visibility from the cartographer’s surveying table points had very little impact on the map content quality and that the surveying table point locations were uniformly distributed throughout the area, regardless of the landscape conditions. These findings demonstrate that the second military survey maps can be seen as valuable and consistent historical data sources, making them especially useful for long-term land use research in Central Europe.

Mid-19th-century building structure locations in Galicia and Austrian Silesia under the Habsburg Monarchy

We produced a reconstruction of mid-19th-century building structure locations in former Galicia and Austrian Silesia (parts of the Habsburg Monarchy), which are located in present-day Czechia, Poland, and Ukraine and cover more than 80 000 km2. Our reconstruction was based on a homogeneous series of detailed Second Military Survey maps (1:28 800) that were the result of a cadastral mapping (1:2880) generalization. The dataset consists of two types of building structures based on the original map legend – residential and outbuildings (mainly farm-related buildings). The dataset's accuracy was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively by using independent data sources and may serve as an important input in studying long-term socioeconomic processes and human–environmental interactions or as a valuable reference for continental settlement reconstructions. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.17632/md8jp9ny9z.2 (Kaim et al., 2020a).

Mid-19^th-century building structure locations in Galicia and Austrian Silesia under the Habsburg Monarchy

We produced a reconstruction of mid-19th-century building structure locations in former Galicia and Austrian Silesia (parts of the Habsburg Monarchy), located in present-day Czechia, Poland and Ukraine and covering more than 80 000 km2. Our reconstruction was based on a homogeneous series of detailed Second Military Survey maps (1:28,800), which were the result of cadastral mapping (1:2,880) generalization. The dataset consists of two kinds of building structures based on the original map legend – residential and outbuildings (mainly farm-related buildings). The dataset's accuracy was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively using independent data sources and may serve as an important input in studying long-term socio-economic processes and human-environmental interactions or as a valuable reference for continental settlement reconstructions. The dataset is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/md8jp9ny9z.1 (Kaim et al., 2020).

Tariffs and Trees: The Effects of the Austro-Hungarian Customs Union on Specialization and Land-Use Change

This article examines the impact of the 1850 Austro-Hungarian customs union on production land-use outcomes. Using newly digitized data from the Second Military Survey of the Habsburg Monarchy, we apply a spatial discontinuity design to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on land use. We find that the customs union increased cropland area by 8 percent per year in Hungary between 1850 and 1855, while forestland area decreased by 6 percent. We provide suggestive evidence that this result is not confounded by the emancipation of the serfs, population growth, or technological change in agriculture.

Digital Terrain Model of the Second Military Survey – Part of the Military Training Area Brdy

The Second Military Survey in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was performed between 1806 and 1869. The territory of Bohemia was surveyed from1842 to 1852 and Moravia and Silesia from 1836 to 1840. After detailed study of the Lehmann´s theory of displaying the topographic landforms using hachure’s, it was detected that the hachure’s in the maps of the Second Military Survey were created by means of the modified Lehmann´s scale. The representation of landforms in maps of the Second Military Survey was accomplished by spot heights represented mostly by points of geodetic control. The aim of this contribution is to propose and describe the methodology of creating the digital terrain model (DTM) from the Second Military Survey hypsometry and to analyse its accuracy. A part of the map sheet (W_II_11) of the Second Military Survey, representing the long-standing military training area Brdy, was chosen as a model area. The resulting DTM was compared with the recent reference digital ground model – DMR ZABAGED®. The conformity of terrain relief forms and elevation accuracy of the DTM derived from the Second Military Survey hypsometry were also investigated.