Scholarly record
AGRICULTURAL LAND ABANDONMENT AS A DRIVER OF LANDSCAPE CHANGE: ASSESSMENT OF SUCCESSIONAL PROCESSES AS A BASIS FOR DESIGNING ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT MEASURES
Abstract
Agricultural land abandonment represents a significant landscape-forming process affecting vegetation structure, soil stability, and the functionality of agroecosystems. This paper focuses on the identification and mapping of agricultural unused land (AUL) in the cadastral territory of Velke Trencianske Stankovce (Trencin district, western Slovakia). The analysis is conducted on 371 state-owned parcels and parcels with unknown or unidentified ownership managed by the Slovak Land Fund, covering a total area of 98.0 hectares. The main objective of the study is to identify non-cultivated areas, analyse manifestations of natural succession, and quantify the extent of overgrowth by non-forest woody vegetation. The methodological approach is based on the integration of cadastral data, LPIS data, orthophotos, bonited soil ecological units (BSEU), and time series of multispectral Sentinel-2 imagery. Identification of AUL is based on spatial overlay analysis of cadastral and LPIS data, interpretation of historical orthophotos, assessment of vegetation dynamics, and analysis of NDVI vegetation indices combined with a classification approach for succession assessment. Results indicate that approximately 22% of the analysed area is not registered within the LPIS system, while areas with potential occurrence of AUL and successional processes were identified on approximately 12.0 hectares. The results indicate varying intensities of successional processes and different degrees of overgrowth by vegetation. The findings are validated using five selected localities where geodetic measurements of successional boundaries and UAV-LiDAR mapping of vegetation spatial structure were performed. The novelty of the approach lies in integrating multiple spatial datasets and Earth observation methods for succession assessment and identification of AUL as a basis for designing adaptive management measures aimed at supporting ecosystem restoration and sustainable land management.
Publication details
References14
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