Zmiany pokrycia terenu w Tatrach Polskich określone na podstawie powtórzonej fotografii naziemnej

Land cover changes in the Polish Tatra Mountains using ground-based repeat photography

Summary: In the paper, an analysis of land cover changes in the area of the Polish Tatra Mountains is described. To obtain results, the method of repeat, ground-based photography was used. Five archival photographs (Figure 1) from the mid-20th century (when the Tatra National Park was established) were retaken in 2005-2009 and used as source materials. Spatial analysis was based on the method proposed by Roush et al. (2007), where a regular grid is used to assess land cover changes (Figure 3). The method enables comparing relative changes only, because an oblique perspective creates a continuously varying scale and prevents linking landscape features in the photograph to absolute spatial coordinates. The authors proposed a new approach in the method, when the process of rectification within a pair is not possible due to a lack of control points. The land cover within each cell of the grid, in both photographs in a pair was determined through visual interpretation. Three land cover classes were used - full forest or krummholz cover, partial forest or krummholz cover and a lack of forest or krummholz cover. To minimize the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem, two cell sizes were tested - 20x20 pixels and 40x40 pixels. Regardless of the grid size, the results showed a relatively uniform increase in forest and krummholz areas, combined with a decrease in the area of mountain pastures and glades (Figure 2). Despite the fact that the results were obtained from ground-based photographs, the results of the quantitative analysis correspond with the findings of other authors, who based their work on comparisons of aerial images.

Słowa kluczowe: zmiany pokrycia terenu, metoda powtórzonej fotografii naziemnej, Tatry

Słowa kluczowe (w języku angielskim): land cover changes, ground-based repeat photography, Tatra Mountains

Prace Geograficzne, 2010, z. 123, s. 31-45.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1644-3586

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