Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, 2 G. Seferi Str., Agrinio, Greece.
Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, 2 G. Seferi Str., Agrinio, Greece.
Sci Total Environ. 2017 Jun 1;587-588:360-370. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.161. Epub 2017 Feb 27.
In the Mediterranean region, natural vegetation has been strongly affected by human activities for thousands of years. During the last decades, there has been a notable tendency for abandonment of marginal agricultural land that is further associated with a number of ecological consequences. In this study we recorded and mapped the temporal changes of land use/land cover (LULC) classes that were further aggregated into major process-based changes for the period 1945-2009 in Aetoloakarnania prefecture, Greece. LULC mapping was based on aerial photographs acquired in 1945, 1960, 1985-1986 and 2007-2009. Object-based image analysis allowed the classification of the region's LULC classes and, consecutively, the assessment of process-based LULC changes for each time period. The results indicated that agricultural land increased during the first post-war years while abandonment of agricultural land took place during more recent decades, especially after the period 1960-1985. The observed land abandonment is combined with a simultaneous densification of shrublands and forests. Radical socio-economic changes that took place in the 1960's include the migration of rural populations towards big cities and the beginning of the development of the tourist industry. We argue that these socio-economic changes play an important role in shaping the observed LULC changes.
在地中海地区，自然植被数千年来一直受到人类活动的强烈影响。在过去几十年中，人们明显倾向于放弃边缘农业土地，这进一步导致了许多生态后果。在本研究中，我们记录并绘制了土地利用/土地覆盖（LULC）类别的时间变化，这些变化进一步汇总为主要基于过程的变化，时间范围为 1945 年至 2009 年，地点在希腊的埃托利亚-阿卡纳尼亚州。LULC 制图基于 1945 年、1960 年、1985-1986 年和 2007-2009 年获取的航空照片。基于对象的图像分析允许对该地区的 LULC 类别的分类，以及随后对每个时间段的基于过程的 LULC 变化的评估。结果表明，农业用地在战后头几年增加，而在最近几十年，特别是在 1960-1985 年期间，农业用地被放弃。观察到的土地废弃与灌木丛和森林的同时密集化相结合。20 世纪 60 年代发生的激进社会经济变化包括农村人口向大城市的迁移和旅游业的发展开始。我们认为，这些社会经济变化在塑造观察到的土地利用/土地覆盖变化方面发挥了重要作用。
