Evaluation of Land Use Changes of Ilia’s Prefecture Using
Geographical Information and Contemporary Satellite Techniques
Michos Aristeidis
Forest Service
of Ilias, Department of Forest Mapping, Greece
Abstract: This thesis has as main objective, first to
describe the changes in land use in the prefecture of Ilia (located in the
western part of the Peloponnese-Southern Greece) during the period 1987-2014,
and second to study the impact of mega fires on the environment through the use
of advanced remote sensing techniques and satellite data. Particularly, three
Landstat satellite images of the years 1987, 2004 and 2014 were used for the
analysis, which was performed using 5.2 ENVI and ArcGIS 10.1 remote sensing software’s.
All data have been radiometrically and atmospherically corrected and subjected
to analysis. Exported raster data were further classified using high resolution
οobject based image analysis. The
application was done using supervised and non-supervised classification
techniques. Classifications results were used for visual and qualitative
comparison of changes in land cover over the survey area. Moreover, in order to
assess the classification results, field work was also carried out, in which
site specific data were obtained, and classification classes were redefined.
Classification results, for the three reference years, were mapped accordingly
to create land cover maps for each case. Eventually six land cover change maps
were made; two for any combination of two reference years. On the basis of the
results obtained, it is shown that land covered by the provisions of the
Forestry Law (Aleppo pine forests and scrubland) slightly exceeds 50% and shows
a slight upward trend. The areas covered by evergreen bushes — broadleaf
exhibit during 2007-2014 a significant increase due to the great fire of 2007.
Finally, several changes occurred in the land use and associated with the
expansion of agricultural land.
Key words: remote
sensing, GIS, landstat, timeless use/land cover changes, object classification
