Results of studies on determinants of marginal area reforestation in the Western Carpathians were published by dr. Michał Sobala in “Applied Geomatics”. Using the series of consecutive aerial photographs from 1977-2009 enabled the differences between features of plots with a faster rate of reforestation and plots covered entirely with forest to be shown.
As the highest range of forest in the study area concerns plots with south exposure and the highest mean slope, these are the features of plots abandoned first. These plots also had the highest range of forest in 1977 (the first year of observation), so at that time, the process of forest succession was also developed. On the contrary, the fastest changes in the RI were observed in plots with the lowest level of solar radiation.
The findings should be a basis for the proper design of legal tools concerning landscape protection and scenarios of landscape changes within marginal mountain areas.
Sobala, M. Determinants of marginal area reforestation in the Western Carpathians in the light of consecutive aerial photographs. Appl Geomat (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-022-00418-2
