Katarzyna Ostapowicz

Impact of scale on morphological spatial pattern of forest

Assessing and monitoring landscape pattern structure from multi-scale land-cover maps can utilize morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), only if various influences of scale are known and taken into account. This paper lays part of the foundation for applying MSPA analysis in landscape monitoring by quantifying scale effects on six classes of spatial patterns called: core, edge, perforation, branch, connector and islet. Four forest maps were selected with different forest composition and configuration. The sensitivity of MSPA to scale was studied by comparing frequencies of pattern classes in total forest area for various combinations of pixel size (P) and size parameter (S). It was found that the quantification of forest pattern with MSPA is sensitive to scale. Differences in initial composition and configuration influence the amount but not the general tendencies of the variations of morphological spatial pattern (MSP) class proportions with scale. Increase of P led to data generalization resulting in either a removal of the small size features or their potential transformation into other non-core MSP classes, while an increase of S decreases the MSP core area and this process may transform small core areas into the MSP class islet. We established that the behavior of the MSPA classes with changing scale can be categorized as consistent and robust scaling relations in the forms of linear, power, or logarithmic functions over a range of scales.

Global Change Research in the Carpathian Mountain Region

Abstract The Carpathian Mountains in Europe are a biodiversity hot spot; harbor many relatively undisturbed ecosystems; and are still rich in seminatural, traditional landscapes. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Carpathians have experienced widespread land use change, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Climate change, as an additional driver, may increase the effect of such changes in the future. Based on a workshop organized by the Science for the Carpathians network, this paper reviews the current status of global change research in the Carpathians, identifies knowledge gaps, and suggests avenues for future research.

European forest cover mapping with high resolution satellite data: The Carpathians case study

Abstract The aim of the study was to elaborate a methodology for forest mapping based on high resolution satellite data, relevant for reporting on forest cover and spatial pattern changes in Europe. The Carpathians were selected as a case study area and mapped using 24 Landsat scenes, processed independently with a supervised approach combining image segmentation, knowledge-based rules to extract a training set and the maximum likelihood decision rule. Validation was done with available very high resolution imagery. Overall accuracies per scene ranged from 93 to 96%. The labelling disagreement in overlapping areas of adjacent scenes was 6.8% on average. The proposed methodology is easily applicable to other regions in Europe. It allows an accurate forest–non-forest map to be obtained in a quick and cost effective manner, spatially more detailed than the currently available European data sets.

Uncertainty in Historical Land-Use Reconstructions with Topographic Maps

Abstract The paper presents the outcomes of the uncertainty investigation of a long-term forest cover change analysis in the Polish Carpathians (nearly 20,000 km2) and Swiss Alps (nearly 10,000 km2) based on topographic maps. Following Leyk et al. (2005) all possible uncertainties are grouped into three domains - production-oriented, transformation- oriented and application-oriented. We show typical examples for each uncertainty domain, encountered during the forest cover change analysis and discuss consequences for change detection. Finally, a proposal for reliability assessment is presented.

Assessing differences in connectivity based on habitat versus movement models for brown bears in the Carpathians

ContextConnectivity assessments typically rely on resistance surfaces derived from habitat models, assuming that higher-quality habitat facilitates movement. This assumption remains largely untested though, and it is unlikely that the same environmental factors determine both animal movements and habitat selection, potentially biasing connectivity assessments.ObjectivesWe evaluated how much connectivity assessments differ when based on resistance surfaces from habitat versus movement models. In addition, we tested how sensitive connectivity assessments are with respect to the parameterization of the movement models.MethodsWe parameterized maximum entropy models to predict habitat suitability, and step selection functions to derive movement models for brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the northeastern Carpathians. We compared spatial patterns and distributions of resistance values derived from those models, and locations and characteristics of potential movement corridors.ResultsBrown bears preferred areas with high forest cover, close to forest edges, high topographic complexity, and with low human pressure in both habitat and movement models. However, resistance surfaces derived from the habitat models based on predictors measured at broad and medium scales tended to underestimate connectivity, as they predicted substantially higher resistance values for most of the study area, including corridors.ConclusionsOur findings highlighted that connectivity assessments should be based on movement information if available, rather than generic habitat models. However, the parameterization of movement models is important, because the type of movement events considered, and the sampling method of environmental covariates can greatly affect connectivity assessments, and hence the predicted corridors.

The Carpathians: Integrating Nature and Society Towards Sustainability

The Carpathian Mountains: challenges for the Central and Eastern European landmark.- Science for the Carpathians: using regional capacity to cope with global change.- Progress in understanding the dynamics of Carpathian abiotic environment.- Progress in understanding the dynamics of Carpathian abiotic environment.- Landslide susceptibility assessment: GIS application to a complex mountainous environment.- GIS evaluation of erosion-sedimentation risk caused by extreme convective rainstorms: case study of the Stonavka River catchment, Czech Republic.- Assessment of the impact of agricultural land utilization practices on soil losses.- The effects of climate change on element content and soil pH (Sikfokut DIRT Project, northern Hungary).- Climate changes in the vertical zones of the Polish Carpathians in the last 50 years.- Air temperature variability in the High Tatra Mountains.- Climate trends in the Slovak part of the Carpathians.

The Carpathian Mountains: Challenges for the Central and Eastern European Landmark

The Carpathians are a very distinct mountain chain and a major landscape landmark in the core of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The Carpathians are characterized by valuable biological resources and a rich cultural heritage that is of high importance for the Carpathian countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine). Historically the Carpathian Region has experienced many political changes and conflicts including more than 40 years of communism that restricted development of an efficient pan-Carpathian scientific co-operation. In contrast, the last 20 years allowed remarkable increase in the awareness of the value of the Carpathians for the European society and opened new opportunities for most Carpathian countries after their accession to the European Union. The 1st Forum Carpaticum held in 2010 in Krakow, Poland, is a perfect example of this trend. This book presents a subset of research problems related to the sustainable development of the Carpathian region discussed at the event. Four sections of the book deal with various issues related to abiotic environment, forests and biodiversity, human activities in the region and research methods allowing a better understanding of the past, present and future of the Carpathians.

Assessing forest fragmentation and connectivity: a case study in the Carpathians

This study focuses on forest monitoring at landscape level on the basis of a methodology combining satellite data mapping and image morphological processing. It aims to contribute to reporting on trends of forest fragmentation and connectivity, by using forest spatial pattern metrics. The Carpathians were selected as a study area. For five case study areas single-date forest - non-forest maps derived from Landsat images acquired in the 1980s and 2000s were an input for the post-classification change detection. Morphological image processing was applied then to map forest spatial pattern into six classes (core, patches, edges, perforation, connectors and branches). Further, connectivity and fragmentation processes were assessed on the basis of the proportion of forest pattern classes. We found a general trend of forest increase over the last decade. An increase of forest fragmentation and connectivity was noticed for four case study areas and a decrease for one case study area. The increase of forest cover may indicate the decline of importance of mountain agriculture, while changes of forest fragmentation and connectivity are probably related to the transformation of forest management practices in the 1990s in the region. We conclude, that the proposed methodology allows assessing trends in forest fragmentation and connectivity at approximately 1 ha minimum mapping unit.

Data, Techniques, and Methods in the Carpathian Research

The Carpathian Mountains represent a complex system with various factors influencing synergies between environmental and human subsystems of the entire region. Understanding these natural and social processes and phenomena requires access to and use of high quality and accurate data, sophisticated technologies, and methods. In particular, development of geographic information science and technology (GIS&T) over the last three decades has played a significant role in advancing the availability of geospatial data and development of digital geodatabases. This chapter summarizes the content of this book section, focusing on different data types and sources like historical maps, satellite imagery, airborne laser scanning, and their various uses from simple map overlay methods to more sophisticated point cloud modeling or 3D visualization.

Historical land use dataset of the Carpathian region (1819–1980)

ABSTRACT We produced the first spatially explicit, cross-border, digital map of long-term (160 years) land use in the Carpathian Ecoregion, the Hungarian part of the Pannonian plains and the historical region of Moravia in the Czech Republic. We mapped land use in a regular 2 × 2 km point grid. Our dataset comprises of 91,310 points covering 365,240 km2 in seven countries (Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Romania). We digitized three time layers: (1) for the Habsburg period, we used maps of the second Habsburg military survey from years 1819–1873 at the scale 1:28,800 and the Szatmaris maps from years 1855–1858 at scale 1:57,600; (2) The World Wars period was covered by national topographic maps from years 1915–1945 and scales here ranged between 1:20,000–1:100,000; and (3) the Socialist period was mapped from national topographic maps for the years 1950–1983 at scales between 1:25,000–1:50,000. We collected metadata about the years of mapping and map sources. We used a hierarchical legend for our maps, so that the land use classification for the entire region consisted of 9 categories at the most general level and of 22 categories depending on the period and a country.