Research Information System
LAND, vol.11, no.10, pp.1-24, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
Agricultural land abandonment is a globally significant threat to the
sustenance of economic, ecological, and social balance. Although the
driving forces behind it can be multifold and versatile, rural
depopulation and urbanization are significant contributors to
agricultural land abandonment. In our chosen case study, focusing on two
locations, Ruen and Stamboliyski, within the Plovdiv region of
Bulgaria, we use aerial photographs and satellite imagery dating from
the 1950s until 1980, in connection with official population census
data, to assess the magnitude of agricultural abandonment for the first
time from a remote sensing perspective. We use multi-modal data obtained
from historical aerial and satellite images to accurately identify Land
Use Land Cover changes. We suggest using the rubber sheeting method for
the geometric correction of multi-modal data obtained from aerial
photos and Key Hole missions. Our approach helps with precise sub-pixel
alignment of related datasets. We implemented an iterative object-based
classification approach to accurately map LULC distribution and quantify
spatio-temporal changes from historical panchromatic images, which
could be applied to similar images of different geographical regions.