Spatial correspondence between physiographic factors, vegetation and land use in the Kocevje region
2002
Hladnik, D. (Ljubljana Univ. (Slovenia). Biotechnical Fac., Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources Dept.)
We have applied mutual information analysis to assess environmental gradients that occur over the Kocevje region. An evaluation of the physiographic factors, vegetation characteristics and the distribution of land use units in the forest matrix was made on a meso-regional level. Spatial correspondence between the vegetation map and individual models of physiographic factors including solar irradiation, precipitation, geology, soils, relief amplitude, topography and altitude was carried out by the systematic sampling of a 1x1 km net. For all physiographic factors we evaluated the characteristic mutual information content with the vegetation map. At three levels of stratification, 35 % of the information content of the vegetation map was explained. Based on maps from the end of the 18th century, it was estimated that at that time 41 % of the region was non-forested. Today, 20 % of non-forested areas were established by supervised classification of the data from the Landsat TM multispectral satellite imagery. The land use distribution in the Kocevje region is preconditioned by physiographic factors. Historic land use was distributed over broader gradients of relief amplitude, soils and potential solar irradiation.
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]