Satellite images for the detection of changes in rural landscapes : a landscape-ecological perspective

Environmental and ecological impacts are not only the results of changes at individual sites, but also of changes in spatial patterns in relation to different functions in the landscape. Remote Sensing images deserve a greater role as information source for the deduction of different functional characteristics at the landscape and regional scale. In this paper, SPOT and TM images, and a limited number of spatial operands are the heuristic basis for the landscape ecological interpretation of rapidly changing rural landscapes in Belgium and in Normandy (France). Both areal (grassland and crop types) and linear (hedgerows) features and their spatial patterns determine to a great extent major environmental characteristics. Spatial descriptors applied on classified images are a useful tool for modelling habitats of species such as the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) and the Badger (Meles meles]. As the detectability of ecologically important features such as hedgerows is limited, using 20 m resolution images, one should evaluate the sensitivity of landscape system parameters, such as connectivity, to image resolution. Results of analysis performed on satellite based land use maps are compared with those obtained from aerial photographs.