Temporal changes analysis of landscapes with the use of Geographic Informational Systems (GIS)

Main reasons for degradation of traditional landscapes of continental Greece are the temporal changes of management practices. Portaikos valley and Pertouli land were chosen as a study area. The landscape of the study area is made up of natural and cultural features and artifacts and represents a typical traditional landscape of mountainous Greece. The possibilities of Geographic Informational Systems (GIS) have been exploited in order to achieve proper photointerpretation techniques in detection and mapping of land cover/use changes in airphotographs. Changes in the study area mainly concern management practices (changes in traditional pastoral systems), but also demographic and socioeconomic changes and they lead to homogeneous landscapes. Landscape changes mostly concern the decline of grasslands, agricultural lands and shrublands by 31.77%, 46.72% and 10.47 respectively between 1945 and 1992 while forest lands increased by 14.68% and 21.31% (conifers and broadleaves respectively) during the same period. Main
feature of forest change has been a shift between sparser to denser forests that in some cases was up to 57.7% (increase of dense coniferous forests).