Development of the land cover in Mala Planina

Research Article

Development of the land cover in Mala Planina

Assen Assenov, Borislav Grigorov

Abstract

The current study investigates the development of the land cover in the mountainous territory of Mala Planina, located in the western part of Stara Planina. It focuses on cameral and terrain research in which basis is the CORINE Land Cover (CLC), initiated by the European Union. All existing databases for the country were applied (CLC 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2012). Each updated version of the CLC data shows typical transformation in Mala Planina’s land cover. A thorough investigation is made about all parts of the mountain and published within the results. Four GIS derived maps are published. The results show that the most significant dissonance occurs between CLC 1990 and the rest CORINE Land Cover data sets (CLC 2000; 2006; 2012) and the reason for the imparity lies mainly in the extensive timeframe. Almost no distinction is observed, when we compare CLC 2006 and 2012. The most common changes are connected with the transition to land principally occupied by agriculture, with significant areas of natural vegetation, which is explained by the decreasing number of population and abandonment of the agricultural areas.

Keywords: Mala Planina, CORINE Land Cover, GIS, changes

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Citation / Начин на цитиране

English only:

Assenov A, Grigorov B (2018) Development of the land cover in Mala Planina. Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society 39: 79-82. https://doi.org/10.3897/jbgs.2018.39.15