Abstract (eng)
The comparison of historical and current land usage structures represents the starting point for a comparative assessment of selected natural and anthropogenic flows of carbon and energy in the municipality of Oberwart in South Burgenland, which is divided into the boroughs of Oberwart and Sankt Martin in der Wart. The ecosystematic structural and material flow analysis method serves as a model for the analysis done in this paper. In addition, the way of development of the borough is analysed on the basis of selected socio-economic factors, such as number of inhabitants, economic development, settlement development, religion and employment structures, since these are connected with the land structures and flows of material.
The flows of carbon and energy are assessed for the years 1857 and 2008. The analysis of socio-economic factors shows Oberwart’s development from a formely rural place to a pulsating industrial location: the population rose from 3124 inhabitants to approximately 7000 inhabitants, corresponding to a rise of 220 %; due to the economic development the number of residential buildings also increased from 602 to 2242 buildings. The annexation to Austria caused a decrease in the Hungarian-speaking population from formely over 80 % to approximately 17,5 %; the percentage of borough land coverd by the settlement area rose from 1 to 11 %. The analysis of the land usage structures shows a decrease in the small-scale structured cultivated landscape. The borough of Oberwart recorded an increase in woodland area to 50 % compared to the neighbouring borough of Sankt Martin, whereas Sankt Martin has a large proportion of agricultural land. The biomass of plants had a higher energy content in the 19th century. In contrast to this, less energy was bound by the net primary production in the historical system due to inferior agricultural crops. The acquired NPP was 54 % of the potentially natural vegetation in the year 1857; today it is 36 %. If the total usage of energy sources is referred to one inhabitant, then a per head usage is approximately 9 MWh/a in the 19th century. The annual energy consumption of the end energy for room heating amounts to 44,4 GWh.
If the amount of carbon bound in the organic substance of the ground is referred to the total per hectare of land in the year 1857; In presently it is 60 tonnes per hectare land. The described tendencies conform in to the picture produced by comparable studies. Differences are shown in the context of the historical overall energy consumption. For example Ziehmayer (2000) determines a yearly consumption of 1,94 GWh for the municipality of Altenberg bei Linz, Haydn calculated for the municipality Hainfeld an energy consumtion of 1,31 GWh. In contrast, the own research results show that the municipality of Oberwart has a much higher energy consumption (10 GWh) than the other presented municipalities of Altenberg bei Linz and Hainfeld.