Wall-to-wall parcel-level mapping of agricultural land abandonment in the Polish Carpathians

Kolecka Kolecka,Kozak Kozak

doi:10.3390/land8090129

Abstract

Accurate estimations of the extent of agricultural land abandonment (ALA) are critical to the sustainable management of agricultural resources and forestry, the understanding of ALA determinants, and the development of future agricultural policies. Although ALA is widespread in Europe, mapping it over large areas using remote sensing data is difficult as a result of the complexity of this phenomenon. This study aims to develop methods for a detailed wall-to-wall regional-scale mapping of ALA using vegetation height and secondary forest succession indicators. The rates and distribution of ALA were analyzed at the parcel and communal level in the Polish Carpathians using a high-resolution vegetation height model (VHM) derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point clouds and topographic data. Depending on the parcel-level secondary forest succession threshold (10, 20, and 50%), the regional ALA rates were 18.8, 9.0, and 2.1%, respectively. Regardless of the threshold, abandoned grasslands covered about three times more area than abandoned croplands. The highest ALA rates were observed in communes located in the western part of the study area, as well as east and south of Rzeszów. We found that areas receiving European Union Common Agricultural Policy payments very rarely showed signs of secondary forest succession and land abandonment. The developed method proved to be effective for detailed ALA mapping at various spatial scales.

Highlights

Agricultural land abandonment (ALA) represents one of the major land use and land cover changes across Europe, and marginal mountainous areas are affected [1,2,3]
Headings used in the table: AGR and reference-eligible area (REA) indicate the proportions in which parcels are covered by agricultural land and the areas eligible for Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, respectively
This study provides a unique dataset resulting from the wall-to-wall mapping of agricultural abandonment in the Polish Carpathians using high-resolution digital surface models (DSMs) and digital terrain models (DTMs) data derived from airborne laser scanning data (ALS)

Summary

Introduction

Agricultural land abandonment (ALA) represents one of the major land use and land cover changes across Europe, and marginal mountainous areas are affected [1,2,3]. Estimation of ALA is critical to the sustainable management of agricultural resources and forestry, the understanding of its determinants, and the development of future agricultural policies [4,5], as well as for the ecosystems-related problems, such as soil erosion, biological changes, and landscape modifications [6]. ALA is defined as the complete withdrawal of agricultural management followed by natural succession processes [7] that continue for a minimum of 2–5 years [8]. Between 3 and 4 years later, perennial herbs and shrubs follow [9]

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Conclusion