SP 5 - Geo-database

SP5 Objectives are:

  • to create an Earth observation-based land cover and land use map of the Kulunda steppe region
  • to derive regionalized landuse change information using historical Corona data of the KeyHole missions (KH4), Landsat MSS data and recent high resolution multispectral data sets (Landsat ETM+)
  • to create a soil degradation classification system using multitemporal Very High Resolution data (VHR) of test areas and an upscaled soil degradation information class on 15 m resolution cell basis with spectral (ratio-based), image object relational, shape object based and textural image features in image object space dimensions (object based image analysis).

The EO-based land cover and land use classification will map the land use changes that happened over the past 50 years in the Kulunda steppe region. This will allow a spatially precise change analysis since the pre-Zelina status to the post-Zelina and post-Sowjet status of the ecosystem. The precise change mapping of the spatial distribution of land cover classes of the Zelina converted ecosystem allows an improved modelling of linked changes in the carbon budget. Some specific (spatial) GIS analysis tasks will be performed in a cooperation with the project partners (e.g. for the classes “fallow land” and “degraded soils”) to analyze spatial relations of land use objects and their change in time.