Earth Observation And Map-Based Land-Use Change Analysis In The Kulunda Steppe Since The 1950s

The overall aim of this work is to provide land-use and land-cover change information as part of the KULUNDA project to develop sustainable land management policies and practices to stabilize agricultural yields and minimize ongoing degradation and desertification processes. The area under investigation comprises around 80,000 km(2) and belongs to what is thought of as Russia's granary, an essential area in ensuring adequate food supply. Inadequate and outdated cultivation and agricultural management practices have caused ecological and socio-economic problems including soil degradation, desertification and yield losses. The focus of this work is the quantification and assessment of land-use and land-cover changes over time. Multi-temporal and multi-sensor satellite data and historical topographic maps were used to detect changes of specific land-use and land-cover classes. The present work utilizes pixel-based data classification approaches as well as object-based concepts and uses Landsat MSS, TM5, ETM and RapidEye data. For the 1950s, a GIS map layer-based approach is used and calibrated with panchromatic airphotograph data mosaics. Results of the land-use change mapping show an increase in cropland until 1989 of nearly 1 mio ha and a decrease until 2013/2014 of 500,000 ha directly connected to a decrease in grassland and steppe area until 1989 and an increase in grassland until 2013/2014. This study for the first time quantifies the land-cover change over 60 years in the Kulunda steppe region of Russia.