Comparison of CORINE Land Cover Data with National Statistics and the Possibility to Record This Data on a Local Scale—Case Studies from Slovakia

Monitoring of land cover (LC) provides important information of actual land use (LU) and landscape dynamics. LC research results depend on the size of the area, purpose and applied methodology. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data is one of the most important sources of LU data from a European perspective. Our research compares official CLC data (third hierarchical level of nomenclature at a scale of 1:100,000) and national statistics (NS) of LU in Slovakia between 2000 and 2018 at national, county, and local levels. The most significant differences occurred in arable land and permanent grassland, which is also related to the recording method and the development of agricultural land management. Due to the abandonment of agricultural areas, a real recorded increase in forest cover due to forest succession was not introduced in the official records of Land register. New modification of CLC methodology for identifying LC classes at a scale of 1:10,000 and fifth hierarchical level of CLC is firstly applied for local case studies representing lowland, basin, and mountain landscape. The size of the least identified and simultaneously recorded area was established at 0.1 ha the minimum width of a polygon was established at 10 m, the minimum recorded width of linear elements such as communications was established at 2 m. The use of the fifth CLC level in the case studies areas generated average boundary density 17.2 km/km2, comparing to the 2.6 km/km2 of the third level. Therefore, when measuring the density of spatial information by the polygon boundary lengths, the fifth level carries 6.6 times more information than the third level. Detailed investigation of LU affords better verification of national statistics data at a local level. This study also contributes to a more detailed recording of the current state of the Central European landscape and its changes.

Download Full-text

The Use of the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) Database for Analyzing Urban Sprawl

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12020282 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 282 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Iwona Cieślak ◽

Andrzej Biłozor ◽

Karol Szuniewicz

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Local Governance ◽

Land Development ◽

Buffer Zones ◽

Corine Land Cover ◽

Gis Tools ◽

Reliable Source ◽

Novel Method

Urban sprawl is generally defined as the urbanization of space adjacent to a city, which results from that city’s development. The discussed phenomenon involves land development, mainly agricultural land, in the proximity of cities, the development of infrastructure, and an increase in the number of residents who rely on urban services and commute to work in the city. Urban sprawl generates numerous problems which, in the broadest sense, result from the difficulty in identifying the boundaries of the central urban unit and the participation of local inhabitants, regardless of their actual place of residence, in that unit’s functional costs. These problems are associated not only with tax collection rights but with difficulties in measuring the extent of urban sprawl in research and local governance. The aim of this study was to analyze the applicability of the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database for monitoring urbanization processes, including the dynamic process of urban sprawl. Polish cities with county rights, i.e., cities that implement independent spatial planning policies, were analyzed in the study to determine the pattern of urban sprawl in various types of cities. Buffer zones composed of municipalities that are directly adjacent to the central urban unit were mapped around the analyzed cities. The study proposes a novel method for measuring the extent of suburbanization with the use of the CLC database and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. The developed method relies on the overgrowth of urbanization (OU) index calculated based on CLC data. The OU index revealed differences in the rate of urbanization in three groups of differently sized Polish cities. The analysis covered two periods: 2006–2012 and 2012–2018, and it revealed that urban sprawl in the examined cities proceeded in an unstable manner over time. The results of the present study indicate that the CLC database is a reliable source of information about urbanization processes.

Download Full-text

Russian Parliamentarism: the Experience of the Institutional Creative Work

Almanac “Essays on Conservatism” ◽

10.24030/24092517-2018-0-4-69-81 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 69-81

Author(s):

Boris I. Makarenko

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Private Property ◽

Power Sharing ◽

Current Status ◽

Creative Work ◽

Party Discipline ◽

The Third ◽

Fourth Case

The article consists of four case-studies, analyzing examples of building procedures and institutions of the parliament work. The first one deals with the experience of inter-faction agreement on principles and procedures of distribution of leading positions in the Duma among party factions, providing the actual power-sharing arrangement and respect of factions’ interests. The second describes the attempts o the “young parliamentarism” to solve the relevant problem of “party discipline”. It needs to be said that Duma has proved to be able to avoid excessive regulation of the issue, ensuring at the same time reasonably high discipline. The third case describes the difficult process of building an inter-factional coalition to ensure the passage of the politically and symbolically important law on private property of agricultural land. The fourth case examines the practice of coordination between the cabinet and Duma majority factions on important government-initiated bills prior to their formal introduction to Duma (“zero reading”). For three out of the four cases, related to different Duma convocations and different years, an updated analysis of the current status of the same practice or procedure is provided. The overall conclusion is that all the cases are characterized by instrumental and creative approach of Duma members to the problems, and though the outcome was never predetermined, effective and lasting solutions.

Download Full-text

Corine land cover change detection in Europe (case studies of the Netherlands and Slovakia)

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2006.02.002 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 234-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 155

Author(s):

Jan Feranec ◽

Gerard Hazeu ◽

Susan Christensen ◽

Gabriel Jaffrain

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Land Cover ◽

Change Detection ◽

Case Studies ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Corine Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change Detection

Download Full-text

Modeling the Effects of Anthropogenic Land Cover Changes to the Main Hydrometeorological Factors in a Regional Watershed, Central Greece

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli7110129 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 129 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Angeliki Mentzafou ◽

George Varlas ◽

Elias Dimitriou ◽

Anastasios Papadopoulos ◽

Ioannis Pytharoulis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Cover ◽

Case Studies ◽

Air Temperature ◽

River Discharge ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Actual Evapotranspiration ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Central Greece ◽

The Impact

In this study, the physically-based hydrological model MIKE SHE was employed to investigate the effects of anthropogenic land cover changes to the hydrological cycle components of a regional watershed in Central Greece. Three case studies based on the land cover of the years 1960, 1990, and 2018 were examined. Copernicus Climate Change Service E-OBS gridded meteorological data for 45 hydrological years were used as forcing for the model. Evaluation against observational data yielded sufficient quality for daily air temperature and precipitation. Simulation results demonstrated that the climatic variabilities primarily in precipitation and secondarily in air temperature affected basin-averaged annual actual evapotranspiration and average annual river discharge. Nevertheless, land cover effects can locally outflank the impact of climatic variability as indicated by the low interannual variabilities of differences in annual actual evapotranspiration among case studies. The transition from forest to pastures or agricultural land reduced annual actual evapotranspiration and increased average annual river discharge while intensifying the vulnerability to hydrometeorological-related hazards such as droughts or floods. Hence, the quantitative assessment of land cover effects presented in this study can contribute to the design and implementation of successful land cover and climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.

Download Full-text

Map presentation of changes in Europe’s artificial surfaces for the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006

Open Geosciences ◽

10.2478/s13533-012-0132-9 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jan Feranec ◽

Tomas Soukup

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Human Activities ◽

Satellite Images ◽

Spatial Awareness ◽

Corine Land Cover ◽

Soil Sealing ◽

The Third ◽

The World ◽

Artificial Surfaces ◽

Dark Blue

AbstractThe landscapes of the world are constantly changing under the influence of human activities leading to the growth of artificial surfaces. The covering of soil by artificial surfaces is referred to as soil sealing. Aerial and satellite images or data derived from them (for instance CORINE land cover — CLC data used here) provide important information that makes it possible to assess the occurrence, area and rate of soil sealing. As the term sealed soil cannot be wholly identified with the content of the appropriate CLC classes, the term land cover flow urbanization (LCFU) will be used here. The essence of this study is the demonstration and documentation of the trends of the LCFU in Europe for the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006 on a single map. This may contribute to a better spatial awareness of the ongoing transformation of landscape under the effects of human activities in an pan-European context. Changes in the LCFU can be seen on a map, compiled from 3 × 3 km squares at an all-European scale, using colours and their hues, to fulfil the role both of identification and classification. The colour method employed makes it possible to perceive three groups of LCFU changes on two time horizons, that is, whether the rate of LCFU in 2000–2006 increased or remained the same (hues of red); or dropped compared to the 1990–2000 period (hues of light to dark blue). The third group represents the LCFU with rates higher or lower than the average (countries with changes recorded in only one time horizon are presented in dark and light magenta colours).

Download Full-text

Analysis of land cover changes using the Change Detection Toolbox: a case study of suburbanisation in the Senec district, Slovakia

Geographia Cassoviensis ◽

10.33542/gc2020-2-07 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Hana BOBÁĽOVÁ ◽

Lukáš ŽUBRIETOVSKÝ ◽

Adam ŠOLC

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Change Detection ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Hierarchical Level ◽

Residential Construction ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Multiple Time ◽

Conversion Table ◽

Data Layers ◽

Effective Visualization

Land cover changes are currently being monitored very closely as they affect climate change, habitat disappearance and other related phenomena. One of the socio-economic processes manifested by significant land cover changes is suburbanisation. In terms of the land cover, suburbanisation is reflected in an increase of built-up areas in the hinterland of cities. In Slovakia, the process of suburbanisation is most pronounced in the hinterland of the capital Bratislava, with the most dynamic expansion of built-up areas in the district of Senec. We evaluated the land cover changes in the Senec district from 2000 to 2018 on the base of Urban Atlas data layers and satellite images. For these purposes, we designed a conversion table based on the Urban Atlas 2006 legend, which identifies nine types of changes within the urbanisation process. The conversion table allows effective visualization of landscape changes to assess their spatial distribution. Since the detection and evaluation of changes from multiple time horizons requires the repetition of several steps, we developed the Change Detection Toolbox (CDT) to automate this process. The toolbox consists of four tools that enable change detection, classification of change types, determination of hierarchical level of change and statistical evaluation of changes. Similar tools have not yet been available for the vector-based change detection. The toolbox was created using Python scripting language and it works in ArcGIS Desktop, the most widely used proprietary GIS software. The results produced by the CDT toolbox showed that in the years 2000-2018, almost 2000 ha of agricultural land were lost in favour of residential construction (especially in the municipality of Chorvátsky Grob), construction of logistics parks and the Bratislava motorway bypass. However, in the last evaluated period 2012-2018, there was a slight slowdown in the intensity of residential construction, which may be related to persistent problems with transport to and from the capital during the morning and afternoon peak hours.

Download Full-text

TRENDS OF SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN PERIOD 2000-2018

Geografski pregled ◽

10.35666/23038950.2020.42.57 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 57-67

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Satellite Image ◽

Spatial Development ◽

Land Cover Types ◽

The Third ◽

Spatial Coverage ◽

Environment Agency

Trends of spatial development in Bosnia and Herzegovina in period 2000-2018 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has undergone significant changes in land use during the last 20 years. According to CORINE Land Cover (CLC) artificial areas have increased spatial coverage, forests and semi-natural areas as well, while agricultural land has decreased. It is to be expected that such trends will continue, having in mind demographic processes, urbanization processes, infrastructure and economic projects, etc. The CLC project has started about 40 years ago and coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA). BiH has been participating in the project since 2000. Every six years, new data are pubished in form of land cover types and changes comparing to the previous period, so that trends in spatial development can be followed. In this regard, there are already four databases in BiH: for 2000, 2006, 2012 and the most recent for 2018. Data are obtained mainly by satellite image processing and divided into three levels: the first level contains 5 main classes (artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests and seminatural areas, wetlands and water bodies), the second level has 15 subclasses and the third level, the most detailed, has 44 subclasses. At the third level, there are distinction between similar land cover types, e.g. continuous and discontinuous urban areas or between broadleaved and coniferous forests, etc. This has resulted in a unique database that aims to determine the state and trends of spatial development, which is useful for creating strategic plans: in the field of spatial planning, forestry, agriculture, natural resources managemant, environment, etc.

Download Full-text

Mountain Landscape Dynamics after Large Wind and Bark Beetle Disasters and Subsequent Logging—Case Studies from the Carpathians

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13193873 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 3873

Author(s):

Vladimír Falťan ◽

František Petrovič ◽

Marián Gábor ◽

Vladimír Šagát ◽

Matej Hruška

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Case Studies ◽

Bark Beetle ◽

National Park ◽

Large Scale ◽

Landscape Dynamics ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Forest Recovery ◽

Natural Disturbances ◽

Local Case

High winds and the subsequent infestation of subcortical insect are considered to be the most extensive types of large natural disturbances in the Central European forests. In this paper, we focus on the landscape dynamics of two representative mountain areas of Slovakia, which have been affected by aforementioned natural disturbances during last two decades. For example, on 19 November 2004, the bora caused significant damage to more than 126 km2 of spruce forests in the Tatra National Park (TANAP). Several wind-related events also affected sites in the National Park Low Tatras (NAPALT). Monitoring of related land cover changes during years 2000–2019 was based on CORINE Land Cover data and methodology set up on satellite and aerial images interpretation, on detailed land cover interpretation (1:10,000) for the local case studies, as well as on the results of field research and forestry databases. The dynamics of forest recovery are different in the clear-cuts (usually with subsequent tree planting) and in the naturally developing forest. The area in the vicinity of Tatranská Lonmnica encroaching on the Studená dolina National Nature Reserve in TANAP represents a trend of the gradual return of young forest. The area of Čertovica on the border between NAPALT and its buffer zone are characterized by an increase in clear-cut sites with potentially increasing soil erosion risk, due to repeated wind disasters and widening of bark beetle. Proposed detailed, large-scale approach is being barely used, when considering recent studies dealing with the natural disturbances.

Download Full-text

Paths of the urban regeneration process in Central and Eastern Europe after EU enlargement - Poland and Bulgaria as comparative case studies

Spatium ◽

10.2298/spat2146001c ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-1

Author(s):

Przemysław Ciesiółka ◽

Angel Burov

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Case Studies ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Local Level ◽

Urban Regeneration ◽

Eu Enlargement ◽

Local Planning ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Local Case ◽

The Eu

The enlargement of the EU towards Central-Eastern Europe in the years 2004 and 2007 and the related EU funds provided new opportunities and created new challenges to both big metropolitan cities and smaller settlements. One of the particularly important challenges was to define appropriate national and local policies for the urban regeneration of neglected areas, which were abundant in this part of Europe. The objective of the paper is to analyze and evaluate actions taken in Bulgaria and Poland at the national and local level in the field of urban regeneration after the countries? accession to the EU. The paper compares the general national and local planning approaches and capacity building for urban regeneration in the context of regulative and procedural issues. The local case studies represent two types of urban areas under regeneration: the metropolitan core cities Pozna? and Sofia and medium-sized non-core towns of Pi?a and Gabrovo. The results are in the form of a concurrent evaluation of both the achievements and negative effects resulting from the national and local processes in the envisaged and the recently implemented activities with regard to the regeneration of deprived urban neighborhoods and areas.

Download Full-text