Study supported by the Forest Development Fund (agreement No. 22-00-S0MF10-000044)
Forest diversity studies, its protection policies and practical management solutions require new knowledge, which helps to understand the dynamics of forest development over time and space. In 2021, the research directions necessary for understanding forest diversity peculiarities were outlined. The most important issues are as follows: enhance and test the draft of forest diversity methodology, digitization of data sources and the process that is necessary for open access, including the development of the software and data maintenance solutions and, finally, the synthesis of the representation of the forest structure extracted from remote sensing data and supplemented with observations on the ground.
Goal of the study is to select potentially valuable areas found outside of the areas of EU habitats mapping project, and provide with reliable ground verification based on forest development attributes in terms of management, biodiversity aspects and ecological conditions on site level.
Tasks of the study:
- Approbation of the methodology:
1.1. Changes in forest structure were analyzed using remote sensing data and materials from historical maps and plans. Chronological framework: 1940s to the present day.
1.2. Elaborate methods to localize ancient forest areas in a mosaic landscape using biophysical and historical settlement data, their derivatives in the development of a spatial model in a GIS environment.
1.3. Stand contours, dynamics of tree species, succession of economic activities of different times in the context of nature mapping results, using factor analysis. Chronological framework: 1850s to the present day.
1.4. Dynamic development of riverbanks – changes in land cover, regulatory acts and economic practices. - Publication of data and information important for the study of the historical use and diversity of the forest:
2.1. Digitization and georeferencing of historical aerial photographs from the 1940s and 1980s.
2.2. Preparation of geospatial data of forest block summaries of forest inventory descriptions of the 1960s to 1980s in the study areas.
2.3. Maintenance and development of data, selection algorithms and services used for the selection of biologically valuable territories.
2.4. Evaluation of potential Nature Conservation agency newly created protected site extensions from the ecological point of view of historical diversity, historical forest cover.
2.5. Research of the historical forest cover and forest diversity of European countries, comparing countries with different importance of the forest sector in the GDP. - LIDAR data and forest structural diversity:
3.1. Comparison of the spatial structure of forest biotopes of European importance registered in the database "Ozols" and other similar forest stands.
3.2. Analysis of forest habitats of European importance, internal spatial structure and their spatial arrangement in the test areas and their buffer zones registered in the database "Ozols".