Although the fist mention of ponds in the Czech lands dates back to the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, the main development in pond-management occurred from the mid-15th century to the end of the 16th century. During this time ponds became a long-term and lucrative investment. However, just as the establishment of ponds at that time was relatively rapid, after roughly 200 years they were widely drained. In this article we present the mapping of defunct ponds making use of material from the 2nd military mapping. During spatial analysis in GIS environment it was determined that, in the course of the last 150 years, 3,479 bodies of water have disappeared, of which 3,416 were ponds larger than 0.5ha, and that almost 70 % of this land area is now utilised as agricultural land. The database created is one of the foundations for landscape and land use changes and for consideration of potential use of these localities within revitalisation and flod-prevention measures, or within agricultural management itself.