INTEGRATING LANDSAT TM IMAGERIES AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS FOR URBAN BIOTOPES MAPPING
Vladimir Kusan & Renata Pernar
Faculty of Forestry, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Landek
State Geodetic Administration, Zagreb, Croatia
Commission VII, Working Group 3
KEY WORDS: Biotopes mapping, Landsat TM^;'CIR and BW aerial photograps, urban planning, GIS model
ABSTRACT
Biotopes mapping is a base for landscape or urban plannig in the sense of sustainable development and nature
protectionas well as change detection. The pilot project of biotopes mapping in Zagreb, the biggest urban center in
croatia was established. The aim of this project is to find out methodology for convinient and efficient method for
biotopes mapping and detection of changes in the fast development of town. For that purpose the aerial photographs
(CIR and BW) from different periods (1982, 1997) and Landsat TM imageris (1995) were integrated in a GIS model
over the base map in the scale of 1 : 5000. The maps of biotopes were prepared and changes within fifteen years
were identified.
1. INTRODUCTION
The availability of valid environment status data is main
prerequisite for the city development planning. Such data may
be ensured by establishing a methodology for their permanent
collection. In the last few years, in the cities of northern and
central Europe, the function of the city as a natural
environment, the so -called urban environment (Erz, 1993) has
been more and more considered, and the researches have been
developed accordingly. The objective of such researches is to
enable in the urban environment a better quality of life for
population and the development and the protection of life
spaces for plant and animal species. In that, permanent changes
of ecological conditions must be taken into consideration, so
the planning should be made in accordance with the principles
of a sustainable development and with the aim to increase
standard of life for the population and to preserve natuaral
functions and features of the respective area. As the basis for
planning the actual status inventories are used, but it is
important that they are carried out in a multidisciplinary
manner. Taking inventory and preparation of space use and
management plans is not enough, the implementation of these
plans should be ensured, too. Their applicability and
efficiency, as well as their impact on the natural features and
functions require a permanent assessment. This can be
achieved best by establishing a continuous monitoring system,
i.e. by the biotope mapping. In this way the status of flora,
fauna and biotopes, as bioindicators for the human life quality
in the city of Zagreb, would be determined, and the
knowledges of the biological diversity of the Zagreb urban
environment would be gained. The most important prerequisite
for its establishment is to determine a unique flora and fauna
applicable system, which will put together all data on types,
quantity, distribution and status of biotopes in the area of the
city. Such data must be of good quality and readily accessible,
because of the permanent environment changes.
The first urban development researches for the city of Zagreb
have been carried out within the "Ecological project for the city
of Zagreb", and for this purpose the preliminary investigations
of flora and fauna were made (MuZini¢, 1993). Lately, for the
land use mapping purpose the satellite imageries have been
used more and moreoften, among them particularly suitable
being Landsat TM (Kusan and Lampek, 1994). In Croatia, the
satellite imageries were used for the first time in making the
urban environment ornithological evaluation for the town of
Sisak, a heavy industry center located between two regions
important for birds (Kusan et al., 1997).
2. RESEARCH AREA
By observing the space around us, we can see that the biggest
changes in the space take place just in urban environments.
From a planners point of view, these changes should be
monitored and the methods and procedures for the
implementation of the urban development strategy, namely
policy should be found out. There is no simple or uniform
solution for this, however, new technologies such as the remote
sensing and GIS offer a completely new approach to the urban
area planning (Pernar, 1997), the so-called "continuous"
planning with a spatial change monitoring system, on the
assumption of a permanent updating of data concerning
changes in a certain period of time.
The biotope mapping pilot project using the remote sensing
methods (aerial and satellite imageries) has been carried out in
Zagreb, as the biggest urgan center in Croatia. The objective of
this project was to find the methodology for a reliable and
efficient mapping of biotopes and of new changes under
conditions of the fast city development. The biotope mapping
has been made in the area of Maksimir municipality, which,
due to its biotope type diversity, was chosen as suitable.
3. METHODS OF WORK
For biotope mapping in this pilot project, the CIR aerial
photographs taken in 1982, and the cyclically taken black-
white aerial photographs (1997), as well as Landsat TM
imagery from 1995 have been used. In Croatia, there is not
sufficient experience on such tasks as yet. Therefore, for the
biotope mapping, the methodology and the biotope
identification key established for the region of Germany by the
240 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998
Accord
for the
