Loss of Agricultural Land in Slovakia: Evidence from LPIS and Sentinel-2 Data

Abstract. Agricultural land in Slovakia has undergone a significant transformation over the past two decades, but the extent and direction of this change remain insufficiently quantified at the national level. This study provides the first spatially explicit assessment of agricultural land loss using Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) records (2004–2022) in combination with Sentinel-2-based land cover classification. By differentiating the LPIS, we identified polygons that were lost from the agricultural land register; these polygons could represent abandoned agricultural land as well as areas converted to other uses. These polygons were classified into four land cover classes using a Random Forest model trained on Sentinel-2 spectro-temporal metrics and cleaned LUCAS 2022 samples (F1 = 0.867), with additional filtering applied to separate grasslands from shrubs based on vegetation height. The results show that more than 1,000 km² of originally suitable agricultural land has been converted to other land cover types. Forest expansion accounts for 834 km², while 298 km² has been converted to shrubland and 553 km² remains as grassland. Non-forested areas, including buildings and infrastructure, cover an area of 258 km². Only 17 km² of formerly agricultural land remained as actively utilised arable land. These findings indicate that agricultural land abandonment, ecological succession, and urbanisation are the primary causes of agricultural land loss in Slovakia. The research presented provides important data confirming that the loss of agricultural land is extensive and largely threatens habitats with high biodiversity, highlighting the urgent need to harmonise strategies across agriculture, the environment, and land-use planning.