Methods of analyzing landscape ecosystem diversity of a region based on remote sensing

Abstract

The relevance of the research is caused by the need to preserve the resource- A nd environment-reproducing functions of landscapes during their anthropogenic development. One of the factors contributing to the resilience of landscapes to anthropogenic loads is their ecosystem diversity. Currently, cartographic modeling methods are widely used in practice to determine ecosystem diversity, but they are not effective enough due to the lack of updated large-scale cartographic information about the ecosystem structure of the studied landscapes. The aim of the research is to develop a methodology for analyzing the ecosystem diversity of the region's landscapes using remote sensing materials and to test it on the territory of the Leningrad region. Objects: Ecosystem diversity of landscapes. Methods: Remote sensing of landscapes; construction of digital terrain models in the GIS environment; automated interpretation of soil and vegetation cover; statistical data processing, aerial surveys; cartographic generalizations; regional landscape and environmental analysis using GIS. Results. The expediency of using remote sensing materials to assess the ecosystem diversity of the region's landscapes is substantiated. A model of automated interpretation of the main types of forest vegetation cover based on its vegetation indices is developed; an approach to determining ecosystem diversity based on the materials of automated interpretation of the main types of forest vegetation cover is proposed. Aerial photography of fourteen key sites selected in the Leningrad region was performed using an unmanned aerial vehicle. Aerial photos were transformed using the digital photogrammetric system PHOTOMOD. A classifier of the main types of forest plant communities characteristic of the study area was developed. Vegetation indices were determined for each of them (normalized difference vegetation index and vegetation index adjusted for the underlying surface); automated decoding of the main types of forest vegetation cover in key areas was performed and the ecosystem diversity of each of them was calculated based on its results. In the GIS environment, a cartogram of the ecosystem diversity of the landscapes of the Leningrad region was compiled. Summary. The method developed by the authors can be successfully applied in the design.