ON THE DESIGN OF A SCHEME OF PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS IN THE KRASNODAR REGION. A GEOINFORMATION ASPECT

Abstract

The paper presents the results of designing a scheme of protected natural areas in Krasnodar Territory (region) using satellite images and geoinformation mapping. The proposed substantiation of the location of protected areas is based on the biogeocenotic approach. The geobotanical factor of their location was taken into account through the accepted florogenetic zoning of the territory. The geoinformation aspect in the study was the key one and included a set of sequential actions: determining the location of promising protected areas based on data from the PROBA-V satellite system with a spatial resolution of 100 m (zonal design scale),analyzing the representativeness of vegetation cover types and unvegetated lands on sites of proposed protected areas (local scale),mapping and cartometric calculations, creation of a GIS of protected areas of the region. The design process was preceded by an analysis of the existing network of protected areas of Krasnodar Territory comprising 424 objects of various significance and categories with a total area of 958.7 thousand hectares, or 12.7% of the region’s territory. The scheme includes 29 territories with a total area of 24.6 thousand hectares. In each of the 10 florogenetic areas on the territory of the region, the organization of protected areas is proposed in accordance with the biogeocenotic approach. At the zonal level, the largest number of reserves (14) are designed in florogenetic areas in the flat part of the region in order to preserve the discovered fragments of primary natural complexes – grassforb and shrub steppes, ravine oak forests, and floodplain forests. At the local level, in determining the contours and sizes of the protected areas, the priority was the representativeness of vegetation cover types, established from satellite images.