Biotope mapping of extensive/intensive grassland supported by Remote Sensing and Mobile GIS in Eastern Styria (Austria)

Sulzer W., Gspurning J., Magnes M., Pink R., Muick M., Sengl P.: Biotope mapping of extensive/ intensive grassland supported by remote sensing and mobile GIS in Eastern Styria (Austria). Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 335-344, 2013.

The paper presents a case study for the application of remote sensing data (ASTER, LAND SAT and RG B orthophotographs) and GIS and methods in the context of biotope/grassland mapping/ monitoring in the Province of Styria (Austria). The range of the applied case study covers the detection of extensive/intensive grassland by techniques of multi-temporal satellite and airborne classification for grassland detection. The methodologies of three topics are discussed in this paper: special intensive used grassland detection, the preparation of a field map, with pre-processed land use polygons, and the description of a conceptual approach for a mobile client/server GIS grassland management and monitoring support system. Although from the legal (Government of Styria) point of view these methodologies cannot be used for the specific biotope mapping purposes, the verified results are showing valuable additional information for the intensive mapping activity during the fieldwork and postprocessing.