Multi‐decadal changes in vegetation and land use inferred from different data sources: Two case studies at the regional scale in the Slovenian karst

Abstract

Few studies have used aerial imagery or various statistical records to analyse temporal land use and vegetation dynamics over large areas. This study presents an innovative approach that merges national‐scale data to provide temporal and spatial digital information on land use and vegetation cover change at high resolution. The work includes 326 historical aerial photographs from 1957 and 1980, derived digital terrain models, digital orthophotos (from 1994 to 1997), current land use (available from 2006), and forestry databases. Using two case studies in Slovenia, a detailed procedure for data preparation, processing (including orthorectification, on‐screen digitisation, visual photointerpretation), and result generation is presented. The used multiple sources showed great potential for the acquisition, mapping and quantifying selected land use categories. The study provided very important material for land use change assessment and implementation of the national documentary heritage. Although the processing methods were time‐consuming, they proved to be very suitable for delineating polygons of change with a spatial resolution of at least 1 m. The results show that the forest in the Rižana catchment has increased by 30 percentage points in the last 60 years and that in the Unica catchment 2/3 of the forest was damaged by large‐scale disturbances in 2014–2018.