Spatial Analysis for the Environmental Mapping of the Šumava National Park

Abstract

Current study is focused on the GIS based spatial analysis of the land cover changes in the Sumava National Park, Czech Republic. The presentation includes overview of the environmental and biogeographical settings of the Sumava National Park and gives detailed technical description of the workflow (GIS part): remote sensing data capture, pre-processing, algorithm processing, image classification and spatial analysis. The research has been technically done using Quantum GIS (QGIS). Methodologically, current research highlighted technical questions of remote sensing data processing, mapping and classification by means of QGIS. Research steps included: 1. collecting, organizing and sorting data; 2. studying, reading and analyzing relevant literature; 3. develop a GIS project and methodology for spatio-temporal analysis of the land cover types and mapping change detection; 4. mapping data land cover types for 1991 and 2009. Spatial and temporal analysis of the Landsat TM scenes taken at 1991 and 2009 was used for detecting changes in the land cover types. Classification of the images was used to analyze changes in the SNP area that consist in different geobotanical land cover types. The results of image processing demonstrate that structure, shape and configuration of landscapes in SNP changed since 1991.