Monitoring of specially protected natural territories of forest-steppe landscapes of the Stavropol upland by means of remote sensing data

Abstract

The article considers the methodology of monitoring specially protected natural areas using remote sensing data. The research materials are satellite images of the Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 satellites, obtained from the resource of the US Geological Survey. The key areas of the study were 3 specially protected areas located within the boundaries of the forest-steppe landscapes of the Stavropol upland, the reserves «Alexandrovskiy», «Russkiy Les», «Strizhament». The space survey materials were selected for the period 1991-2020, and the data from the summer seasons were used. The NDVI index is chosen as the method of processing the spectral channels of satellite imagery. To integrate long-term satellite imagery into a single raster image, the method of variance of the variation series for the NDVI index was used. The article describes an algorithm for processing satellite images, which allows us to identify the features of the dynamics of the vegetation state of the studied territory for the period 1991-2020. The bitmap image constructed by means of the variance of the NDVI index was classified by the quantile method, to translate numerical values into classes with qualitative characteristics. There were 4 classes of the territory according to the degree of dynamism of the vegetation state: “stable”, “slightly variable”, “moderately variable”, “highly variable”. The paper highlights the factors of landscape transformation, including natural and anthropogenic ones. In the course of the study, the determining influence of anthropogenic factors of transformation was noted. The greatest impact is on the reserve «Alexandrovskiy», the least on the reserve «Russkiy Les», in the reserve «Strizhament» the impact is expressed locally. The paper identifies the leading anthropogenic factors of vegetation transformation, based on their influence on vegetation.