Paper

Cultivation under the Framework of the “Balaton Law” the Effectiveness of the Regional Land Use Plan in the Balaton Recreational Area on the Traditional Cultivation Forms

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Abstract

Balaton region is the most popular recreational destination in Hungary not only because it is the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe but it is surrounded by traditional vineyards and horticulture, which provide an exceptional landscape character. For more than a century it has been a popular tourist destination and during socialism but especially after 1990 the land use structure has started to change, and vineyards, and orchards were abandoned. Several researches focused on the intensive urbanization process of the shoreline and its threat on the ecological, and environmental cycles of the lake. Our study explores land use changes in the background areas and analyses the effectiveness of the regional land use plan. Answering the negative trends, in 2000 a rigorous regional plan was adopted as an act for the recreational region: the Land use regulations of Balaton Priority Recreational area under the 2000 CXII. Law (so-called “Balaton Law”). The land use plan with legal tools tried to enforce the maintenance of traditional land use forms and control the urbanization process. Among various regulations, some tried to protect, preserve the traditional vineyards, orchards, cellars such as building-construction was only allowed if 80% of the vineyard was under cultivation. Our research objectives were:

· Evaluation of land use changes focusing on the main cultivation forms (vineyards, orchards and other agricultural land) in the Balaton recreational area 

· Evaluation of the effects of the spatial plans by overlapping the land use zones of the Balaton Law with the land use changes. 

For the spatial-temporal analysis we used the Corine Land Cover (CLC) database: 1990, 2000, 2006, 2012, and 2018. The CLC Database uses 25 ha as the minimum mapping unit. It is the only data source for the study area that reaches 1990. We aggregated the CLC nomenclature, creating seven main types of land cover: artificial/urban, transportation, vineyards, orchards, cropland, grassland, and wetland water surfaces. The Balaton-Law was modified several times, the rules, and the spatial extension of the land use zones changed, in our research with GIS techniques we analysed the changes and overlapped them with the results of land use changes.

Our results revealed a negative trend in spite of the strict regulations of the Law. The strictest regulation applied to the land use zone of vineyards however we found a significant change in the regulation zone and the share of vineyards decreased considerably by 2018, so the regulation became less focused and concentrated. The general land use trends were also negative: in the analysed region revealed a drastic, 35% drop in vineyards since 1990. Similarly, there were drastic changes considering arable land in the region, however, the regulation zone of orchards became more focused and concentrated considering orchards and vineyards. With our research, we attempted to raise the attention to the problems and limitations of regulation tools.

Keywords: Balaton, land use, change, regulation

How to Cite:

Filepné Kovács, K., Kutnyánszky, V., Zhen, S., Szilvácsku, Z. & Dancsokné Fóris, E., (2025) “Cultivation under the Framework of the “Balaton Law” the Effectiveness of the Regional Land Use Plan in the Balaton Recreational Area on the Traditional Cultivation Forms”, Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/fabos.2438