An assessment of land-use/land-cover change of Bistrishko branishte biosphere reserve using Landsat data

Land-Use/Land-Cover (LU/LC) change detection using satellite data has gained momentum with the advance of the pre-operational phase of regional and global earth observation programmes such as GEOS, GMES, and GOFC-GOLD to name but a few. Present study aims at revealing LU/LC change of Bistrishko branishte biosphere reserve using Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ radiometer satellite data. The LU/LC classification of the study area is done for the period 2007-2012, and difference images, between LU/LC maps, have been created. The classification scheme follows CORINE2000 Level 3 with few additional classes introduced to map changes. The methods used in the study are geoinformation, cartography, and statistical. The results show that in effect of 2012 wildfire 0.72 km(2) from reserve territory was devastated. The temporal changes which are taking place after the 60 ha windthrow in 2001, the 200 ha bark-beetle outbreak in 2003-2011 and the wildfire from June 2012 were further investigated using ASD HH FS spectrometer in 2011. As a result the increase in '331 Broad-leaved forest' and '312 Coniferous forest' LU/LC classes is attributed to the increase of the territory of deciduous species after a large bark beetle outbreak, which took place between 2003 and 2011, which devastated most of the old Picea abies trees, while the decrease of 'Outbreak' and '332 Bare rock' LU/LC classes is mainly due to the wildfire which took place in June 2012.