Technology and Engineering
  • ISSN: 2333-2581
  • Modern Environmental Science and Engineering

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






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