Landscape Planning of Land-use Using High-resolution Satellite Images and Ground-based Data

Abstract:

Satellite images serve as a major information source when extracting natural features in land-scape-ecological research. The application of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) in landscape planning provides to analyze the relations and interdependences of landscape features and factors and to examine land-use changes. The main objective of this research is to apply archive and modern satellite images and aerial photos in large-scale (1:10,000) landscape land-use planning. The chosen area, the land of the Town of Novi Iskur, Bulgaria, features high anthropogenization rate as a re-sult of the uranium-ore extraction and the open coal mining carried out on it in the second half of the 20th century. For the study objectives, high-resolution aerial photos and satellite images from QuickBird and IKONOS satellites acquired accordingly in 1980, 2002, and 2008, were used. The employed meth-ods were object-oriented image analysis and classification and computer-aided visual interpretation of aerial and satellite images. A combined land cover/land use classification was used, based on two inter-national classifications schemes – CORINE Land Cover and USGS. For the purposes of landscape planning, a geodatabase was constructed. Based on this geodatabase, a map of the integrated land use territorial planning objectives on the land of the Town of Novi Iskur was composed and suggestions and recommendations for the local self-governance authorities were provided.