Exploring historical maps for insights into ecosystem extent and condition: a case study landscape in Poland

Abstract

The present era is characterized by unprecedented levels of human activity, which adapt the world to our needs and induce transformations in landscape morphology and physiognomy. The Anthropocene is a remarkable epoch, where changes in space are not only visible, but also confirmed by an extensive body of research. Human activities lead to the creation of numerous tools for measuring the scale of anthropogenic pressure. Satellite and photogrammetric data that broaden our field of vision and change the scale of reference from local to global or even beyond global. These data support observations of the present condition of the surrounding space as well as the rate of changes in space. In the present study, land cover data were used to monitor changes in thesurrounding landscape. A system for classifying evolutionary changes in space was proposed to monitor land-use transformations and describe landscape stability. The applicability of CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data for such analyses was evaluated. The research hypotheses and the proposed procedure were tested in the Mazovian (Polish: Mazowieckie) Voivodeship and the city of Warsaw, the Polish capital and the central point of the analyzed voivodeship which generates continuous changes in space. The results of the study confirmed the research hypotheses and demonstrated that CLC data are suitable for monitoring spatial changes.