Infrared Images and Land Cover in the Past

Ždimal V.: Infrared images and land cover in the past. Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 383-387, 2013.

Czech landscape is an old residential area used by humans since ancient times. At one point, we can follow the traces of human activity from different periods and natural changes. Land cover of one location can change several times. The most important reason is meandering and subsequent straightening of rivers, deforestation, relocation and change in soil layers. These changes in the past affect the present management, and it is important to identify them. A suitable tool for the determination of different sites is remote sensing in the infrared spectrum, which monitors changes in the vegetation, with the support of archival materials. These changes in vegetation are statistically significant and distinct sites with different histories of others. After identifying the different places, one can search the archive materials to know what was the land cover in the past. The following archival materials have been used: maps II and III, military mapping, basic maps and other maps and historical aerial photographs. These images document the landscape before collectivization and the reclamation of the land, which dynamically changed the landscape cover. The studied area was documented by other aerial photographs from other time periods between 1959 and 1989 and mainly infrared images from present were used as the main basis for determining the development of land cover. A comparative analysis of land cover shows the increases and decreases in agricultural land, changes in communication line elements, the impact of new methods of land use, erosion control restoration measures, changes in retention capacity, losses and increase forest, comparing the legal and actual status of the forest boundaries and their changes over time and changes in the built areas.