Land cover and landscape diversity analysis in the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve

The aim of this research was to present the land cover structure and landscape diversity in the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve. The land cover classification was performed using Object Based Image Analysis in Trimble eCognition Developer 8 software. The retrospective land cover changes analysis in 3 lake catchments (Kleszczów, Moszne, Białe Włodawskie Lakes)was performed on the basis of archival aerial photos taken in 1952, 1971, 1984, 1992, 2007 and one satellite scene from 2003 (IKONOS).On the basis of land cover map structure, Shannon diversity index was estimated with the moving window approach enabled in Fragstats software. The conducted research has shown that the land cover structure of the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve is diverse and can be simply described by selected landscape metrics. The highest level of land cover diversity, as showed by Shannon Diversity Index, was identified in the western part of the West Polesie Biosphere Reserve, which is closely related to the agricultural character of land cover structure in those regions. The examples of three regional retrospective land cover analyses demonstrated that the character of land cover structure has changed dramatically over the last 40 years.