=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper40 |storemode=property |title=Land Use/Cover Changes in North Eastern Greece from 1980 to 2000 |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper40.pdf |volume=Vol-1498 |dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/KaratassiouSPGS15 }} ==Land Use/Cover Changes in North Eastern Greece from 1980 to 2000== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper40.pdf

Land Use/Cover Changes in North Eastern Greece from
1980 to 2000

Maria Karatassiou1, Paraskevi Sklavou2, Zoi Parissi2, Georgia Galidaki2, Anna
Sidiropoulou2
1
Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124
Thessaloniki, Greece, e-mail: karatass@for.auth.gr
2
Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124
Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract. Routes of transhumance movement as well as both summer and
winter destinations are subjected to intense grazing that over the years may
shape landscapes. The aim of this study was to investigate land use changes in
Aspropotamos area, Trikala from 1985 to 2000 that serves as a summer
destination of transhumance flocks. Changes in land cover were explored with
the post classification comparison approach within a GIS environment. Two
maps of 1985 and 2000 were used. The results of the current paper reveal a
dramatic reduction of shrubland (up to 100%) followed by grazed open forest
(17.61 %) and grasslands (13.77%), while the higher percentage of increase
was recorded in the forest (32.7%) followed by agricultural land (24.88%). It
seems that the declining trend of transhumance grazing in mountainous areas
in Greece account for both changes in rangelands and forest areas. In
conclusion, transhumance serves as a critical element towards maintaining
ecosystem productivity to its recent historical equilibria.

Keywords: transhumance, lowland, highland, rangelands, succession.

1 Introduction

Transhumant livestock systems are common practices in many countries worldwide
accompanied by vertical movement of the livestock (Aryan 2010, O'Flanagan et al.
2011). In this system, the livestock follows the same prescribed route from lowland
to highlands every year, in order to exploit the seasonality of forage production and
availability, due to different rangelands altitude, throughout the year. In addition in
Greece, livestock movement is a common practice from antiquity (Hadjigeorgiou,
2011), although the last decades there is a reduction in this livestock movement.
Nowadays, according to the Greek Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and
Guarantee Community Aid (GPCAGGCA, 2011) there is only 1 million transhumant
sheep and goats. However, Chatzimichali (2007) reported that around to 1960 in
Greece there were about 2 millions transhumant small ruminants. This mobility
decline of sheep and goats number has important ecological implications, as herders

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stopped utilize summer rangelands. Thus, rangelands go through a stage of plant
succession towards climax, decrease their forage production and biodiversity, while
leads to an increasing fire risk, and dynamic landscape changes (O'Flanagan et al.,
2011, Oteros-Rozas et al., 2013).
Last years, herders and ecologists had a debate about the transhumance livestock
systems. The first group pays attention to livestock production, whereas ecologists
care about the ecosystems conservation and biodiversity maintenance in grazing
lands (Ayan 2010). It is known that specific characteristics of the landscape as
maquis, dehesas, montados (Gomez Sal and Lorente 2004) had been formed under
grazing pressure and the transhumance has an important role in this landscape
shaping (Gomez Sal 2000, Sklavou et al., 2014).
A common method for quantifying land cover changes is the comparison between
two classified land cover maps (Foody, 2001, Fuller et al., 2003; Poyatos et al. 2003;
Lu et al., 2004), namely post-classification comparison. However, the accuracy of the
post-classification comparison is totally dependent on the accuracy of the initial
classifications (Coppin et al. 2004).
The aim of this study was to investigate the land use changes in Aspropotamos
area from 1985 to 2000.

2 Materials and Methods

The study was conducted in the enlarged community of Aspropotamos area in
West part of Regional unit of Trikala (Fig 1) at an altitude above 700 m to 2379m.
The most part of the study area were taken place among the mountains Lakmos,
Athamanika and Koziakas. This survey has covered an area of 94.111 ha and its
largest part is covered with grasslands, shrublands and forests and mainly used from
transhumant livestock from May to October.

Fig. 1. The experimental area of Aspropotamos, Trikala.

For the land cover change detection, the post classification comparison approach
was implemented, within a GIS environment. Two maps of 1985 and 2000 were
used. For the land cover classification in 1985 a digital map of Forest Vegetation and
Land Cover, by the former Ministry of Rural Development, was used. This was

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based on an aerial photography survey around the year 1985 and is of 1:50,000 scale.
The classes of this map were indicative of the classification scheme designed and
they were merged to suit the purposes of our study.
The Corine Land Cover 2000 (CLC2000) vector map was used to provide land
cover information for the year 2000. CLC2000 is based on classification and
digitizing of features on satellite imagery, with 100 m positional accuracy and 25 ha
minimum mapping, and is of original scale1: 100,000. 21 out of the 44 CLC classes
were found in the study area, which were merged into the 5 classes of the
classification scheme adopted in this study (Table 1).

Table 1. Classification scheme

Land use
Description
categories
Areas dominated by herbaceous plants, with ground cover of woody
Grasslands
vegetation < 10%
Areas dominated by evergreen woody shrubs with sclerophyllous
Shrublands
leaves
Areas dominate by herbaceous plants, with ground cover of woody
Forest-rangeland
vegetation between 10% - 40%
Forest Areas with relative tree cover higher than 40%
Agricultural land Fields with permanent or temporary crops
Other Areas Areas with manmade features, including villages, rocks etc.

3 Results and Discussion

The land use/cover classification for the experimental area in 1985 and 2000
presented in Figure 1. Although the study period is only 15 years there are obviously
differences in land use categories.

Fig. 2. The land use/land cover in experimental area of Aspropotamos in 1983 and 2000.

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A decrease in rangelands (grasslands, shrublands, and grazed open forest) was
detected during the study period. On the other hand, an increment of forests and
agricultural lands in hectares were recorded (Table 2). Moreover, the higher
percentage of reduction was recorded in shrublands (100%) following by grazed
open forest (17.61 %) and grasslands (13.77%) while the higher percentage of
increase was recorded in land use category of forest (32.7%) following by
agricultural land (24.88) (Figure 3).

Table 2. Land uses (ha) in the study area during the period 1985-2000

Years
Land uses
1985 2000
Grassland 28,946 24,959
Shrubland 3,301 0
Grazed open forest 22,238 18,322
Forest 36,789 48,820
Agricultural land 2,815 3,516
Other land 2,021 494
Total 96,111 96,111

Moreover, the increment in agricultural land presented in the north east part of the
experimental area (Table 2, Figure 2,3) as in this part there are many villages with
agrarian societies. On the other hand, the above changes in rangelands and forest
areas are expected as there is a decline trend of transhumance grazing in mountain
areas in Greece (unpublished data) and other Mediterranean countries (Oteros-Rozas
et al., 2013, Ainalis et al., 2015). Reduced transhumant livestock system may be due
to various socio-economic factors that have significantly influenced the lifestyle of
herders (Sklavou et al., 2014).

Other Areas

Agricultural lands

Forests

Grazed open forests

Shrublands

Grasslands

-120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40
Percentange difference (%)

Fig. 3. Changes (%) of land use in Aspropotamos area during 1985 and 2000.

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The abandoned of traditional livestock system has a significant influence in the
landscape shaping in mountainous ecosystems and rural area (Hatfield and Davies
2006). Spatial pattern of grazing creates habitat heterogeneity in the landscape and
influences species richness in different ways.The rangelands lost their biodiversity
and presented more homogenous. Additionally, the decrease in shrublands and
grazed open forest has as result their encroachment and reduction of the open patches
(Figure 1) which are useful not only for the small ruminant feeding but there are
habitats for wildlife animals (Olea and Mateo-Tomas, 2009).

4 Conclusions

It seems that is important to encourage the herders to keep alive the transhumance
livestock system in order to benefit the ecosystem and maintain the landscape
conservation. In Greece as a Mediterranean country with semi arid climate the
maintenance of transhumance livestock system is critical element towards
maintaining ecosystem productivity to its recent historical equilibria.

Acknowledgments. This paper is part of the project “The dynamics of the
transhumant sheep and goat farming system in Greece. Influences on biodiversity”
which is co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) through the
Action “THALIS”.

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