Land change in European Russia : 1982-2011

In this chapter, we use change analysis at three spatial resolutions (8 km, 500 m, and 30 m) to investigate land changes in European Russia occurring between 1982 and 2011. We first apply the nonparametric Seasonal Kendall trend test to the improved GIMMS 3g AVHRR NDVI dataset in three ten-year epochs: 1982-1991, 1991-2000, and 2000-2009. We investigate the changes in each individual period to determine the consistency of the change analysis. We then use Landsat and MODIS imagery to identify the arable lands in the grain belt of European Russia. We report on cultivation frequency, which is a key management decision that affects soil carbon stocks in croplands. We previously demonstrated for two MODIS tiles that the cultivation frequency strongly depends on location. Here we extend the analysis to a third MODIS tile. We conclude with a discussion of visible changes on the ground for four study regions: Kostroma, Chuvash Republic, Samara, and Stavropol