Analysis of the relationships between morphometric relief parameters and visual characteristics of Ukrainian Carpathians ecosystems

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of the relationships between the visual characteristics of mountain ecosystems as they appear on spatial images, and the characteristics of the abiotic conditions as being governed and (or) indicated by the terrain morphometric parameters, in the study area in Ukrainian Carpathians. LANDSAT 7 ETM+ spatial imagery with 30 m resolution, and SRTM v. 4.1 DEM with 90 m ground resolution were the main data sources used in the study. Based on the analysis of LANDSAT imagery, three principal components have been picked out that describe the different characteristics of vegetation and land cover spatial differentiation. Terrain parameters accounted for in the study included raw elevation values, flow energy index, slope values, topographic wetness index, and insolation index. The canonical correlation analysis has then been applied to analyze the relationships between the landscape reflectance characteristics, and the terrain morphometric parameters, allowing deriving two statistical significant canonical roots and determining their structure. The relationships between the structure and properties of vegetation cover (as conditioned by landscape abiotic factors and the land use structure), and the terrain morphometric parameters have thus been revealed and statistically substantiated. Key words: LANDSAT imagery, digital elevation models, terrain morphometric parameters, factor analysis, canonical analysis.