GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE FOREST LAND OF FOOTHILL AND LOWLAND PARTS OF THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF DROHOBYCH DISTRICT, LVIV REGION)

Abstract

The forest cover of Drohobych district is vectorized with the help of remote sensing of the Earth based on space images QuickBird. The geospatial analysis of forest lands of the foothills and lowlands of the Ukrainian Carpathians has been carried out. It is found that the proportion of forest throughout the region is higher than the average forest cover of Lviv region and more than doubled the average forest cover of Ukraine. Even though the forest cover of Drohobych district is more than optimal indicators for this natural area, forest land is extremely unevenly distributed. A created schematic map of forest resources has shown that the most forested is the mountainous part of the region with the absolute height between 500-1000 m, which decreases in the direction from southwest to northeast. Forest area significantly decreases at the changeover to Drohobych Upland, because of the extension of the boundaries and areas of influence of the Drogobych agglomeration increasing densities of human settlements. In the northeast section of the region, the forest is almost missing due to the significant agricultural development in the plains with a superior absolute height between 250–300 m. For the better analysis of the forest cover of the territory, the geoinformation model of the forest cover of Drohobych district from the perspective of administrative units is created and analyzed. This model allows to classify administrative units according to the proportion of forest land in 6 categories because a considerable variation of indicators is seen in the region. From completely deforested administrative units to rural councils in mountainous areas, where the proportion of forest areas is more than 70%. Administrative units with an insufficient level of reforestation, which are half of all in Drohobych district and with the reforestation level lower than average in Ukraine, are featured. Features of the geospatial distribution of such indicators are noted. It is analyzed that forest cover in urban and rural councils changes from significant in the town council of Boryslav to almost missing forest areas in the rural council of Medenychi. The reasons for such differences between the indicators are identified and the peculiarities of household land development of the territories that belong to urban and rural councils are stated. Key words: forest cover; decryption of ERSD; geoinformation modeling; optimization of natural resources.