Georelief Transfiguration in Areas Affected by Open‐cast Mining

Open‐cast mining activity causes the largest georelief transfigurations all over the world. Large localities in north‐west Bohemia (the Czech Republic) are affected. In this area, we focus on a very significant case: the royal town Most, which has been turned into a lake. The main aim of this article is the reconstruction of the original georelief in different time periods together with analysis showing the process of landscape devastation. The workflow and analysis is based on precise elevation data obtained from aerial photographs and old maps. The georelief development is reconstructed using the digitized contour lines contained in Derived state‐map 1:5,000 (SMO5) from the years 1953, 1972, and 1980; maps of the 3^rd Military Survey (year 1936); and digital surface models (DSM) extracted, using the pixel correlation method, from aerial images (year 1953 and 2008). The most important results of the analysis are digital terrain models showing the evolution of the landscape which may be used for many purposes in landscape development analysis, historical applications, visualization or landscape reclamation.