The Problem of Mismatch between the CORINE Land Cover Data Classification and the Development of Settlement in Poland

Przemysław Śleszyński,Paweł Sudra,Piotr Gibas

doi:10.3390/rs12142253

Abstract

The main goal of the article is the evaluation of usefulness of CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data—acquired predominantly by visual interpretation of Landsat satellite imagery—for monitoring of changes in settlement development and land use. This has been done by comparison of occurrence of buildings (and address points) in Poland with delimitations of land use belonging to particular classes in the CLC 2018 dataset. Large discrepancies have been identified, which reach on average approx. 34% of addresses and 35% of buildings located outside class 1 (artificial surfaces), mainly on terrains of class 2 (agricultural areas). Among single-family buildings it was 37% and among new addresses (forecasted or “under construction” buildings)—as much as 50%. This puts a question mark over the possibility of using CLC data with a resolution of 25 ha for monitoring of spatial planning and development in Poland for purposes of the diagnosis and assessment of the scale of dispersion of built-up areas. It is worth carrying out similar analyses in other countries, known for the deconcentration processes and a relatively large share of dispersed settlement, e.g., other CEE countries, Spain, Portugal, Italy.

Highlights

The use of remote sensing materials and databases derived from them—in particular CORINE Land Cover, for examination of changes in land use, including “urban sprawl”, are numerous
The following datasets were used: CORINE Land Cover (CLC) 2018 land cover map, as divided into patches according to the classification of level 3 (33 classes for Poland), data from the Polish BDOT, as well as address points from the PRG database
Verification of location of the BDOT objects with reference to the CLC patches allows assessing the reliability of CLC data for the analysis of land use, as well as assessing the settlement dispersion processes and uncontrolled urbanization

Summary

Introduction

The use of remote sensing materials and databases derived from them—in particular CORINE Land Cover, for examination of changes in land use, including “urban sprawl”, are numerous. The research studies reveal numerous spatial conflicts between housing, urbanization, industrialization, agriculture, forestry, nature protection, i.e., the curbing of food-zones in the metropolitan areas [12]. CORINE Land Cover includes datasets of pan-European coverage. They are used in research on the monitoring of urban growth and urban sprawl having the character of comparisons between different countries, regions, and cities [13,14], in combination, inter alia, with population data [7,15,16,17,18]. Results of the research studies, showing a large diversity of the examined phenomena, suggest that they are affected by factors connected with demographic pressure and economic transformations and local conditions

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion