Determining the Intangible: Detecting Land Abandonment at Local Scale

Abstract

Precisely determining agricultural land abandonment (ALA) in an area is still difficult, even with recent progress in data collection and analysis. It is especially difficult in fragmented areas that need more tailor-made methods. The aim of this research was to determine ALA using airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, which are available in Poland with 4 to 6 points per square metre resolution. ALS data were processed into heat maps and modified with chosen kernel functions: triweight and Epanechnikov. The results of ALS data processing were compared to the control method, i.e., visual interpretation of an orthophotomap. This study shows that ALS data modelled with kernel functions allow for a good identification of ALA. The accuracy of results shows 82% concordance as compared to the control method. When comparing triweight and Epanechnikov functions, higher accuracy was achieved when using the triweight function. The research shows that ALS data processing is a promising method of detection of ALA and could provide an alternative to well-known methods such as the analysis of satellite images.

Keywords

• land abandonment
• agricultural land abandonment
• normalised digital surface model
• heat map
• fragmented areas
• landscape