Land use and land cover map of the part of Gorce National Park based on photointerpretation of CIR digital aerial ortophotomaps from 2011

Piotr Wężyk
ORCID: 0000-0002-4091-4128
University of Agriculture in Krakow
Faculty of Forestry
Institute of Forest Resources Management
Department of Forest Management, Geomatics and Forest Economics
Poland

Miłosz Mucha
University of Agriculture in Krakow
Faculty of Forestry
Institute of Forest Resources Management
Department of Forest Management, Geomatics and Forest Economics
Poland

Marta Szostak
ORCID: 0000-0003-1305-5476
University of Agriculture in Krakow
Faculty of Forestry
Institute of Forest Resources Management
Department of Forest Management, Geomatics and Forest Economics
Poland

Abstract

Recently observed global climate changes and associated extreme weather events (high temperature, atmospheric and soil drought, strong winds, etc.) can lead directly (e.g. windfalls) or indirectly (e.g. insects breakouts) to dynamic changes in mountainous stands, especially in sensitive upper forest belt composed of Norway spruce. The aim of this work was to develop the up-to-date digital Land Use and Land Cover map (LULC) including parts of: Kamienica Valley, Kudłoń and Jaworzyna Kamienicka massive located in the central part of Gorce National Park (South Poland), with particular emphasis on dying or already destroyed forest stand classes. Vector data acquired in the process of photointerpretation was the input data for GIS databases with the goal to perform GIS spatial analysis. The archive CIR aerial photos from 1997 and the digital orthophoto from 2011 (CIR, GSD 0.25 m) were elaborated in the frames of this project. Particular attention was paid to the areas covered by the spruce stands in the period 1979-1987 on the southern slopes of Kudłoń, Wierch Spalone and Jaworzyna Kamienicka. Deforestation interpreted and mapped on the archive CIR stereo models from 1997, covered 114.11 ha (4.37%) only. The results of photointerpretation workout of the LULC classes borders (the orthophoto from 2011) indicate that in the test area (2,611.42 ha) occurred 1604 pcs. of the, so-called, "bark beetle nest's" (Ips typographus L). In total, the classes of damaged forests occupied 374.48 ha (14.34% of the total test area), the Norway spruce with no obvious signs of damage occurred on 434.01 ha (16.62%) only. The performed study confirmed the high dynamics of forest stands dieback or decay caused by winds or insects and also indicated that secondary forest succession occurring in clearings and regeneration of forest on post-disaster areas are a kind of the guarantee of forest existence in the Gorce Mountains, though not everywhere as Norway spruce monocultures. The CIR aerial photographs or digital orthophotomaps once again proved a huge usefulness as the geodata for mapping the LULC classes in mountain environment. Due to low costs of digital aerial photographs acquisition it is recommended to introduce in the Gorce National Park the permanent monitoring of forests based on photogrammetric 3D workout or even semi-automatic image analysis (orthophoto). Supplying the GIS databases the mapping results would provide a comprehensive understanding of spatial processes occurring in the Gorce National Park in time.

Received 4.06.2016 Accepted 2.12.2016 Published 30.03.2017

Keywords:

GIS spatial analyses; photointerpretation, manual vectorization; LULC classes

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