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This paper analyzes land cover changes at a small scale with respect to the environmental and socio-economic characteristics in five model municipalities. The data used included 1:50,000 Soviet topographic maps (1976–1989), recent fine scale satellite images from the Google Earth, natural geoecosystems data and 1:10,000 cadastral maps which provide land use structure data. The model areas selected for our study are rural and situated in different parts of Ukrainian Carpathians. A common tendency for four of five model areas is an increase in the area with forest or shrubland owing to the abandonment of former agricultural lands. The results of statistical analysis showed that land use type, landform, location within an ecotone and slope inclination have the most significant influence on the occurrence of secondary succession. At the same time, transport infrastructure parameters have no essential influence on recent land cover changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]