Experimental mapping and assessment of ecosystem services based on multi-level landscape classification

The importance of the landscapes for the development of recreation and ecotourism is significant but very little studied. Usually, scientists use spatial units to map and assess the ecosystem services CORINE land cover or similar classifications. Traditional multi-level landscape classifications, very well-known and developed in the XXth century in Bulgaria, Russia, and other Eastern and Central European countries, could give valuable information for various indicators for ecosystem services assessment. From another hand, these classical landscape ecological maps are very little- known for the international scientific audience. We decided to conduct an experimental mapping and assessment of ecosystem services based on multi-level landscape classification. For this, we have chosen a case study area with hilly karst relief, which is part of the inner Predbalkan Region, located in North-Central Bulgaria. The site represents a scientific interest in terms of its transitional position between the Stara Planina Mountain and the Danube Plain and the presence of various anthropogenic changes. The study aimed to develop and test an original methodology for mapping and assessment of the capacity of the contemporary landscapes in the Strazhata syncline upland and Melovete hills to provide cultural ecosystem services – recreation and ecotourism. The results showed that 70% of the territory has medium or higher capacity, dominated mainly by karst areas with natural vegetation in protected sites.

MAPPING MULTI-SCALED LANDSCAPE TYPOLOGY OF LANG SON PROVINCE

The landscape of a territory is generated by natural components, and it is also influenced by human activities. The complexity of factors making up landscape and the relationship between them with humans has created a diverse and complex differentiation of landscape in Lang Son province. Three factors reflecting typical characteristics of Lang Son landscape: Digital Elevation Model (DEM), soil, and land cover have been selected in this study. The concept of multiscaled landscape classification based on the European Landscape Convention (ELC) is applied for combining the holistic with parametric approaches and combining typological with multi-scaled landscape classifications. A number of possible combinations between 9 land cover variables, 9 soil combination variables, and 5 topographic variables have yielded 40 landscape units for Lang Son province. The obtained results are basic documents for contributing to modern and practical landscape research on the one hand, and to territory planning for sustainable development of Lang Son on the other hand.

Environmental Vulnerability Modeling in the Extensively Urbanized Arctic Center Integrating Remote Sensing, Landscape Mapping, and Local Knowledge

<p>Arctic extensively urbanized centers are subject to the impact of many negative environmental phenomena progressing in terms of global climate change and regional development in Yakutia in the context of poor and missing databases. For this reason, the modeling of the risk exposures is based on combining the remote sensing, and local knowledge of inhabitants. According to the occurrences of the natural hazards, the territorial management and the decision-making system require the identification and assessment of natural risks to which the rural populations localized in the towns and villages are exposed, for example, in the urban center of Khamagatta located at 70km to the North from Yakutsk near the Lena River. The main environmental vulnerability exposures are seasonal: springtime floods between May and June, the forest fires from June to August, the cyclic permafrost degradation, and river erosion impacts.</p><p>The current vulnerability impacts, damages to the lands and the settlements, and the populations risk exposures are analyzed from the maps of vulnerabilities created from remote sensing satellite Sentinel 2A/B series, with the local knowledge of the inhabitants of Khamagatta who lived and perceived all events. All the data generated, maps, models of vulnerability exposures, and local knowledge are integrated, combined, and merged into the geographic information system (GIS). The GIS modeling combines the risk of natural hazards and the damages, and the risk knowledge and perceptions of the inhabitants. Land uses, Landscape classification, and the land cover is made by Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) using an optical time series of Sentinel 2 images (2015-2020) including the population knowledge for the recognition of the environmental vulnerabilities. The methodological approach included the participation of local people in workshops through discussion and participatory mapping, questionnaires, and interviews in two stages. The first stage included the development of the knowledge database for a comprehensive understanding of the life of the local population, including the forms of adaptation to the negative natural phenomena. The collected information is delocalized and integrated into the GIS. The second stage consisted of validation and discussion, including stakeholders (municipality and rescue services) to increase the reliability and legitimacy of the research results.</p><p>Perceptions of the inhabitants of Khamagatta are correlated with the maps of risk exposures generated by remote sensing to increase the accuracy of the environmental process modeling and landscape classification. The combination of the environmental change dynamics, the impacts on the towns and villages with the human perception and experience constitutes the main base supporting the prevention mapping of the natural hazards. This data could be very useful in planning the development of Arctic towns and villages and proposing evolution scenarios and urban planning models and strategies for increasing their resilience and adaptation to climate change consequences.</p>

Landscape Signature as an Integrative View of Landscape Metrics: A Case Study in Brazil-French Guiana Border

The present work presents an integrated view of landscape analysis through the construction of a signature system for the analysis of landscape types. These signatures were based on metrics that informed different patterns for each landscape type, which allowed the behavior of the landscape to be visually analyzed. The signature system was applied through a landscape classification developed through fieldwork to gather data on socioenvironmental categories combined with remote sensing data. The study site was the border region between Brazil and French Guiana. The results of this work showed that in situ landscape classification techniques can be supported by the analysis of quantitative metrics of landscape analysis, reinforcing the need for integrative and systemic studies in landscape geography.

CLASSIFICATION AND ZONING OF RIVERINE TERRITORIES OF SMALL CITIES ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE BELGOROD REGION

Riverine territories of the city are a special functional and typological subsystem with constantly emerging environmental problems, experiencing a stable anthropogenic load and requiring the development of its own zoning system. The article presents the systematization of riverine territories with different typological characteristics, and examines the accumulated experience of landscape classification. Riverine territories are also considered as part of the general typology of urban anthropogenic landscapes. Based on a field study of riverine spaces within the boundaries of small towns of the Belgorod region, existing land categories and the most common functional zones are identified. The scientific research is based on a contextual, theoretical, empirical and practical analysis of urban municipal landscapes and riverine territories of the cities of Valuek, Korocha, Alekseyevka, Grayvoron, Shebekino, Biryuch, Novy Oskol. A generalized system of typological zoning for riverine territories of small cities is proposed. As a result of the study, three most common types of territory are identified: natural green areas, natural and anthropogenic landscapes and built-up areas.