Dubrovnik
Figure 1: The study area.
Despite well known problems in Eastern Europe, many ar-
eas are beginning to anticipate reconstruction. The region
of Dalmatia (Croatia) is one such area. Dalmatia, formerly
one of the most popular tourist resorts in Europe, has suf-
fered severe environmental and economic damage. Despite
this, local planners regard the situation as one which al-
lows major reevaluation of local development procedures.
The Adriatic and especially the Dalmatian karst are very
sensitive environments and demand careful monitoring. In
the past, this occurred via local development plans, sup-
plemented by a series of United Nations development stud-
ies (United Nations, 1968). Unfortunately the documents
produced were frequently based upon inadequate informa-
tion. Consequently, development was uncontrolled and
damage to environmental resources was commonplace.
This situation was exacerbated by the development of mass
tourism associated with pressure on water and land, in-
creased erosion, pollution and levels of damage to cultural
resources.
Local planners wish to avoid the repetition of such a situa-
tion when economic development recommences. The lack
of access and experience in new technologies related to
development data is a serious handicap in preventing fur-
ther environmental miss-management. There is a continu-
ing reliance upon traditional paper-based thematic maps
as a source for data which could be applied more efficiently
via satellite imagery.
No matter if data is gathered through traditional or advanced
techniques, it is the analysis that really makes the differ-
564
ence between right decisions and miss-management.
Therefore, for the purposes of local decision making, GIS
technology should be applied. Observing the changes in
the natural and social environments on a long-term scale
and especially isolating catastrophic events in the past com-
pared to general trends would be of extreme importance.
Some environmental changes have been monitored for
nearly 100 years. However, it is apparent that earlier his-
toric and prehistoric data should also be considered. Only
this can enable a relevant evaluation of changes in the en-
vironment as well as the building of a model representing
the dynamic system of human-environmental interaction
and their transformation.
The research in Central Dalmatia is comprised of two parts.
In the first part our aim is to integrate present natural envi
ronment data. The established database includes exten-
sive information on the current status of soil, surface geo!
ogy and the terrain. All these data is incorporated into fhe
GIS providing a technological framework for the analysis.
Thematic map data is then compared to the Landsat satel
lite images thus enabling the evaluation of the convention-
ally produced thematic maps. The natural environment data
— when available — was namely supplied as such maps
which were frequently unsuitable for detailed analysis. In
the second part of the Project we want to analyze the cut
tural and environmental resources of the islands. The cu:
tural environment data, especially the archaeological data,
is integrated with the natural environment data. The proc
ess of archaeological data collecting was limited to the Is
lands of Bra& and Solta. The results are used to model the
possible impacts of human intervention on the environment
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996
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