Spatial Analysis for Environmental Mapping of Šumava National Park

The research focuses on the environmental mapping of the Šumava National Park (ŠNP), the largest of the four national parks (68,064 hectares) located in the south-west of Czech Republic, on the border with Germany. Since 1990 it has been the protected Biospherical Reserve of UNESCO The spatial analysis performed by means of QGIS in combination with remote sensing data (satellite images Landsat TM) for geobotanical studies. The spatio-temporal analysis was applied to raster images taken at 1991 and 2009. Built-in functions of the mathematical algorithms of QGIS enabled to process geospatial data and to derive information for geoecological modelling. The research aim was to analyse how the ecosystem landscapes located within the study area changed since 1991 until 2009 (18-year time span) using remote sensing data and GIS. The data include GIS layers in two forms: raster layers as Landsat TM images with 18-years interval (1991 and 2009), and vector thematic layers in ArcGIS shape-file format. The data were stored in a GIS project. Technically, the GIS project were generated in Quantum GIS (QGIS) software. The images classification was used to analyse changes in the ŠNP area that consist in different geobotanical land cover types. The results of spatial analysis demonstrated that structure, shape and configuration of landscapes in ŠNP changed since 1991. The combination of the remote sensing data and GIS tool for pattern recognition is proved to be effective tool for geo-botanical research, which is demonstrated in the current research