# Intensity and Driving Forces of Land Abandonment in Eastern Poland
## 3 Results
Those areas were historically used for intensive agricultural production, while the southern and south-western parts of the district are forested, and it is self-evident that land abandonment cannot occur there. The majority of areas where agricultural use was discontinued relatively recently (the last 10 years) are located in the central part of the district (Figure 9). The areas that were first excluded from agricultural use are located primarily in the south-eastern and north-western parts of the district. Areas belonging to category 2 are scattered across the entire area of Susiec District, although most of them are in its western half. The vast majority of abandoned land consists of rectangular plots. There were 551 plots where land abandonment took place within the district (Table 2). The plots differ considerably in area: the smallest ones cover little more than 0.02 ha, while the largest one reaches 70 ha. The most numerous plots (nearly 350) are polygons covering less than 1 hectare (Figure 10). The median plot size is 0.56 ha. Only 9 (out of a total of 551 polygons) are larger than 10 ha. The mean plot area is 1.65 ha. Areas excluded from agricultural use during the last 50 years cover 913 ha, which is nearly 4.8% of the area of the entire district (190 km\({}^{2}\)) and as much as 10.7% of the arable land area in 1965. It should also be noted that only 42.15 ha, primarily of privately held land, were subjected to deliberate afforestation in the years 2003-2018 [27]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Category 1** & **Category 2** & **Category 3** \\ \hline Smallest polygon (ha) & 0.6 & 0.4 & 0.2 \\ Largest polygon (ha) & 7.8 & 70.8 & 55.6 \\ Mean polygon size (ha) & 0.9 & 1.7 & 1.9 \\ Standard deviation & 1.0 & 6.2 & 5.1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Distribution of abandoned plot sizes according to their category (Susiec District). Figure 9: Spatial distribution of abandoned land areas in Susiec District. 1: agricultural land that was abandoned during the last 10 years (2009–2019); 2: agricultural land that was abandoned during the last 25 years (2008–1994); 3: agricultural land that was abandoned more than 25 years ago (before 1994). Areas that were excluded from agricultural use relatively recently (Category 1) cover 107 ha, which accounts for 12% of the abandoned land area, while areas abandoned for more than 10-15 years account for 33%. The largest proportion of abandoned land areas are those excluded from agricultural use for the longest time (504 ha). The largest areas of abandoned land were found within agricultural soil suitability complexes 6, 3, and 5 with 372, 155, and 131 ha, respectively. Distinctly fewer abandoned areas occur on the soils belonging to complexes 2 and 4, but they cover a distinctly smaller acreage, particularly in the case of complex 2. This process was the most intensive within complexes 7 and 6, where abandoned land accounts for 17.5% and 11.5% of their areas, respectively. Land abandonment occurred the earliest primarily in areas of complexes 6 (238 ha), 5 (70 ha), and 7 (69 ha). This also applies to the intensity of the process within a specific complex. It was the highest for complex 7 with 13% of its area excluded from agricultural use. In the case of land abandoned 10 to 25 years ago, this process primarily was observed in complexes 3 and 6 complex (100 ha each). The process took place with the highest intensity in complexes 2 and 3. In the former case, it resulted from the small area of the complex within the district and the exclusion of one large piece of land from agricultural use. The most recent changes had the lowest intensity, but they primarily affected complexes 7 (65 ha) and 6 (32 ha). The intensity of land abandonment in relation to the slope angle was assessed by comparing the share of areas excluded from agricultural use in relation to the entire area with a particular slope range. The calculation was carried out for all abandoned areas jointly and separately for each category of these areas (Table 3).