Application of Fractal and Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix Indices to Assess the Forest Dynamics in the Curvature Carpathians—Romania

Ana-Maria Ciobotaru, Ion Andronache, Helmut Ahammer, Marko Radulovic, Daniel Peptenatu, Radu-Daniel Pintilii, Cristian-Constantin Drăghici, Marian Marin, Donatella Carboni, Gavino Mariotti and Rasmus Fensholt
Additional contact information
Ana-Maria Ciobotaru: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Ion Andronache: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Helmut Ahammer: GSRC-Medical Computing, QMnM-Quantitative Morphology and Nonlinear Methods, Medical University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
Marko Radulovic: Laboratory of Cancer Cell Biology, Institute for Oncology and Radiology, Pasterova 14, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Daniel Peptenatu: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Radu-Daniel Pintilii: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Cristian-Constantin Drăghici: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Marian Marin: Research Center for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Regina Elisabeta Avenue, 030018 Bucharest, Romania
Donatella Carboni: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Sassari, Piazza Università 21, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Gavino Mariotti: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Sassari, Piazza Università 21, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Rasmus Fensholt: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: The mountain ecosystems face significant damage from deforestation and environmental forest changes. We investigated the evolution of tree types of cover areas, deforested areas and total deforested areas from Curvature Carpathians using Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix and fractal analysis. The forest dynamics mapping was one of the main objectives of this study and it was carried out using multiple fractal and GLCM indices. We approached the analysis of satellite forest images by calculation of four fractal indices such as Pyramid dimension, Cube Counting Dimension, Fractal Fragmentation-Compaction Index and Tug-of-War lacunarity. We also calculated fractal dimension because it is an index of complexity comparing how the detail in a pattern changes with the scale at which it is measured. Fractal dimension is useful for estimation of irregularity or roughness of fractal and natural objects that do not conform to Euclidian geometry. While the fractal dimension quantifies how much space is occupied, the Tug-of-War lacunarity complements fractal dimension with its ability to quantify how space is occupied. Analysis was further supplemented by the Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix analysis because it quantifies spatial probability distributions of gray level values between pixel pairs within an image. The calculated Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix features included Angular Second Moment, Contrast, Correlation, Inverse Difference Moment and Entropy. Such comprehensive analysis has the advantage of combining fractal analysis that extracts quantitative information about the morphological complexity of the image with the spatial distribution of the gray pixel intensities as calculated by the co-occurrence features provided by Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix. Evolution of deforested areas, expansion of agricultural land and the increased demand for quality timber have affected the forests ecosystems and, the regional sustainable development of local communities.

Keywords: deforestation; forest changes; GLCM analysis; fractal analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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