In: Wagner W„ Székely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium - 100 Years ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, July 5-7, 2010, IAPRS, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 7B 
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IDENTIFICATION OF HISTORICAL LAND USE 
BY THE HELP OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
V. Zdimal* a 
a Mendel University in Brno, Department of Applied and 
Landscape Ecology, Zemedelska 1, 61300, Brno, Czech Republic 
Technical Commission VII Symposium 2010 
KEY WORDS: Agriculture, History, Human Settlement, Land Cover, Land Use 
ABSTRACT: 
Southern Moravia region (Czech Republic) belongs to old development areas settled by a man from of old. A man had influenced it 
since primeval ages and up to the present days we have been finding here survivals from his activity both out of this time. To 
recognize a certain place thoroughly, it is necessary to use all accessible resources and to synthesize them in a suitable way. One of 
the information sources about a local countryside are aerial photographs. Human intervention into the landscape in the past led to 
overlay of mould and to the change of soil rates of a particular place and thus to a change of the soil plants surroundings. This is one 
of the reasons why the land cover on this place is different from the one in the suroundings. And just for this diversity, monitoring the 
aerial photography in spectral channels NIR and RED is very suitable, just for differential reflectivity of green matter in these 
channels. For information highlighting we can use so called vegetation indexes that declare the relation between reflectivity of NIR 
and RED channels. Land use in the past was watched on the fields of University agriculture enterprise in Zabcice near the village 
Prisnotice (ninety kilometres to the north of Vienna). In the monitored area, which is presently agriculturally exploited, five hundred- 
hectare plot, there was identified and by other surveys designated the region settlement in the past and its destruction, the gas conduit 
location and the place after sand mining. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Southern Moravia in the Czech Republic has been the site of 
settlements stretching back to the dawn of man. The landscape 
has been under human influence since people first arrived on 
the scene, with individual eras leaving their mark in the form of 
layers which may be read almost like a palimpsest. A single 
location may show evidence of human activity from the 
eneolithic period, the age of the Romans, the medieval era and 
contemporary times. Human activity during these periods has 
been of varied intensity, with the greatest influence on the 
structure of the landscape being attributable to agriculture. 
Deforestation took place initially, followed soon after by use of 
the land for farming. Every intrusion on the land in times past, 
whether it involve relocation, the addition of new layers, 
excavation or topsoil, has changed its structure to varying 
degrees, with results still visible today. All of these intrusions on 
the soil have left their mark on the vegetation. These allow past 
human activities to be observed. They are easily seen from 
above and therefore amenable to monitoring by aerial 
photography using various spectral bands. The use of remote 
sensing has been described by various authors. 
Spectral characteristics of plants are influenced by the size of 
leaf surface per unit of area (leaf area index LAI). The difference 
in the amount of chlorophyll in leafs has a great influence on the 
determination of LAI. An influence of the amount of 
chlorophyll on the LAI determination was studied by 
Haboudane et al. (2004). Convenience of used spectral bands is 
often discussed question. Primary, standard red (RED, 630-690 
nm) and near infrared (NIR, 750-900 nm) bands are used. Zhang 
et al. (2006) used these spectral bands and NDVI, respectively, 
for the determination of the amount of nitrogen in rice and 
Reyniers et al. (2006) observed dependence between the 
amount of nitrogen and NDVI in plants. Additionally, studies 
that evaluate convenience of various spectral bands in different 
plant growth phases or conditions are also made. Ferwerda, 
Skidmore a Mutanga (2005) observed that the most convenient 
spectral region for the monitoring of the nitrogen amount lies 
between 1770 and 693 nm. Lee et al. was then comparing 
hyperspectral and multispectral data. 
Large-scale aerial photography in the infrared band has been 
taking place in the Czech Republic since last year. (Figure 1.) 
Figure 1. Aerial photography in the infrared band (© GEODIS)