Monitoring 60 Years of Land Cover Change in the Marathon Area, Greece (original) (raw)
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European Journal of Geography, 2020
The scope of the study is to detect spatial changes in the forested areas over six decades (1945 - 2010) of two completely different landscapes in Greece (pilot areas). The first pilot area is Kastoria which is a relatively remote and mountainous area located northwestern on the Greek peninsula, while the second one is Propontida which is a coastal area in the Chalkidiki peninsula (central Macedonia, Greece). High resolution orthorectified aerial images are used to detect the general types (classes) of land use/land cover (LULC) in these pilot areas. The results reveal that during the examined period, a notable spatial growth and thickening of the forest areas was found (10,51%) in the pilot area of Kastoria. The spatial homogeneity of the forested areas in Kastoria decreased only by 2,11%. Regarding Propontida, the forested areas decreased in total about 13,02% while the agricultural and arable land has increased by 12,10%.
Multitemporal Land Use Changes in a Region of Pindus Mountain, Central Greece
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Natural ecosystems are renewable resources with special environmental, social and economical attributes and characteristics. The increasing need of the human beings for a better environment leads to the use of new technologies that offer many advantages in detecting changes in the ecosystems. In this study the integration of remote sensing tools and technology and the spatial orientation analysis of Geographical Information Systems (G.I.S.) combined with in situ observations were used in determining any changes in land cover categories along an 18 year period. The study area of 9,287 ha extends to Pindus mountain, in the municipality of Plastira, central Greece. The results have shown that the current technologies can be used for the modelling of environmental parameters improving our knowledge on its attributes, characteristics, situation, trends and changes of natural ecosystems. The multitemporal changes that were observed are mostly due to vegetation evolution and less to socioeconomic reasons. The basic management strategy for the specific area should combine forest, pasture and livestock in such a way that each component produces usable products, while in the same time preserves sustainability.
Already since the beginning of the 20 th century, Thriassion Plain has been the area that bore the brunt of the industrialization of Greece through the establishment and operation of a large number of industrial and production units. The focus of the present study is the growth of the number of established activities over time and the consequent change in land use. For the aforementioned research, census data were used, as well as the results of a model which was developed for this purpose. Auxiliarily, available Landsat satellite images were used for the supervisory confirmation of results. Finally, a summary of the results of the land use classification is presented, as it derives from the respective study carried out in 2000. The processing of data and the results drawn demonstrate that: established activities in the area are marked by a continuous growth, though the rate varies among the different local authorities. In addition, what appears to have played a significant part in the evolution of activities and residential zones of the area is the land surface available in each one of the local authorities.
This study investigates the Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) changes in a coastal area of the southwest part of Epirus region, called Preveza, situated in North-western Greece. Remote sensing imagery coming from the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETMþ) sensor on board at the Landsat 7 satellite platform is used for this purpose. More specifically, we identified LULC changes in this environmentally sensitive coastal area, using Landsat image scenes for the dates of June 19th, 2000 and July 22nd, 2009. During this period, there was an increasing tourist activity and a high growth in the construction sector of the study area. The land-use changes were identified, examining several vegetation indices and band combinations, along with the implementation of different well-known classification techniques. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Brightness Index (BI) have proved to be the most suitable indices to successfully identify discrete land surface classes for this study area. Regarding the classifiers, a series of traditional and modern algorithms were tested. The Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and the Support Vector Machines (SVMs) gave improved results in comparison to other more traditional classification techniques. The best overall accuracy for the study area was achieved with the SVM classifier and reached 96.25% and 97.15% on the dates of June 19th, 2000 and July 22nd, 2009 respectively. The classification results depicted notable urbanization, small deforestation and important LULC changes in the agriculture sector, indicating a rapid coastal environment change in the region of interest
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Land cover/land use (LCLU) transitions and landscape changes were mapped and interpreted in a deltaic Natura 2000 habitat site in northern Greece. Multi-temporal maps created over a period of about 65 years and based on panchromatic aerial photographs and high spatial resolution satellite data, helped to assess LCLU transformations. These changes were associated with human interference and major socioeconomic processes occurring in the area during the study period. In 1945, forests and wetlands dominated the delta area, occupying 63% of the total land cover. Subsequently, these land cover types severely reduced in coverage, and agricultural areas dominated the landscape as a result of policies introduced to accommodate the settlement of refugees from Asia Minor. This transition increased landscape fragmentation in 1960. Due to relative increase of swap changes, the landscape became less heterogeneous in 1992. Finally, in 2002, agricultural areas exhibit a small decrease in coverage having converted back to natural areas following the introduction of EU Common Agricultural Policy. About 77% of the deltaic ecosystem experienced LCLU changes during the first period of the analysis (1945e1960). Almost two thirds of this change is attributed to intercategorical transitions, while the rest is related to swap changes. During the second period of the analysis (1960e1992), half the study area was transformed due to net and swap changes. Finally, in the third, most recent time period (1992e2002), 85% of the landscape showed persistence while net changes were twice as frequent as swap changes. Human interference was the key factor beyond the landscape transformations and intercategorical transitions observed in the delta. During the previous century natural habitats were pressured by major socioeconomic processes that transformed their composition and structure. Assessing these changes is critical to develop area-specific policies that minimize negative influences and provide a framework for restoring habitats to their natural conditions.
Monitoring and prediction of land cover changes in the island of Corfu in Greece
32nd EARSeL Symposium, Mykonos, GREECE, 2012
Land cover change detection has been one of the most important applications of remote sensing since the first launch of Landsat satellite in 1972. The use of satellite remote sensing allows to monitor land cover changes, to make predictions and even to prevent future evolutions. It also helps using the natural resources in good effect, identifying new resources and protecting the existing ones from natural or human interference. This study examines the land cover changes in the island of Corfu in Greece for nearly 20 years. Two Landsat satellite images, dated back to 1990 and 2000, are used and a land cover change prediction is made for the future. The main analysis of this work involves a change detection modelling of the potentials through multi-layer perceptron neural network classification and a dynamic change prediction process, by means of Markov chain analysis. In order to estimate the prediction accuracy, the predicted image of 2007 is compared to the classified Landsat image of the same year. It is noticed that the urban sprawl and the economical development through tourism, is an indicator of land cover change detection, whereas the forestry and the natural environment to a large extent is preserved for the last 20 years and so does for nearly the next decade.
In Mediterranean Europe, wood-pasture landscapes with oak woodlands as emblematic ecosystems are undergoing rapid land-use change, which may threaten their legacy as hotspots of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and cultural heritage. The objective of this study was to quantify land cover changes and transitions as well as the dynamics of oak woodland patterns and densities over 50 years in two municipalities at the center and edges of Quercus macrolepis distribution in Northern Lesvos (Greece). We used aerial photographs from 1960 and WorldView-2 satellite images from 2010 to process land cover maps and metrics, and to calculate oak canopy cover with a point-grid sampling approach. Spatiotemporal dynamics of land cover change were generally high—especially between oak woodlands and grass- and shrub-lands, resulting in a more heterogeneous and fragmented landscape in 2010. Surprisingly, oak woodland area remained stable with marginal losses in one study site and gains in the other one. Oak canopy cover increased by 8 and 9 %. Spatial hotspots of change were mountainous and peripheral phrygana areas with expanding oak stands, as well as river valleys and near urban areas with expanding olive groves and grass- and shrublands in former complex cultivation and oak stands. We conclude that the parallel processes of abandonment of crop cultivation and intensification of livestock grazing have been less detrimental to oak woodlands than supposed. To ensure long-term persistence of oak woodlands in the face of ongoing rural depopulation and land-use intensification, environmental and agricultural policies should better address their specificities as anthropogenic habitats.