Abstract
Dynamic changes in land use, many of which are related to land abandonment, are taking place in many regions of the world. As a result, forest vegetation appears, which in part is a consequence of planned afforestation programs and in part has the characteristics of secondary forest succession. Monitoring of forest structure allows the range and dynamics of such changes to be identified. The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of historical aerial photographs in the determination of forest structure. On the basis of such data, a point cloud was created which represented the forest structure in 1966. Subsequently, using airborne laser scanning data for the same area, corresponding datasets describing the situation in 2012 were created. Comparison of the two tall vegetation models made it possible to perform four analyses related to forest structure changes over a period of 46 years. The analyses were carried out in four areas in southern Poland. The analysis of the results confirmed that historical aerial photographs may be a valuable source in long-term analyses of changes in the range and height structure of areas containing tall vegetation.
Highlights
The accelerating rate of climate change, together with demographic, social, and economic processes, causes several significant land-use changes [1]
The present study demonstrated that historical aerial photographs may be a valuable source of data in temporal analysis of range and height structure changes in high-vegetation areas
The possible fields of application include the assessment of the scale of forest clearing, reforestation of such areas, and identification of areas affected by permanent agricultural land abandonment
Summary
The accelerating rate of climate change, together with demographic, social, and economic processes, causes several significant land-use changes [1] These affect the growth or contraction of the surface area of crops, or changes in agricultural production trends. The abandonment of agricultural land primarily affects the areas that are least suitable for economically sustainable agricultural production [3] because of significant fragmentation [4], low soil quality [5], or difficult topography [6] Climate change is another critical factor in crop abandonment as it degenerates natural conditions, access to water in many areas where farming is the traditional type of land use
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