Abstract
Aerial photography and remote sensing delivers a huge amount of data about landscape changes over time. Black and white aerial photography is available in many countries of Europe since 1930's.
In my master thesis and on-going research project, I have used aerial imagery to monitor and model woody species spreading in an abandoned landscape of a military area. Modelling based on environmental conditions derived from digital elevation model identified some driving forces of woody species spreading into grasslands.
Models from each decade show faster spreading of trees and shrubs along forest edges, steep slopes and in valleys, influence of former land use is still significant (even after 50 years). I am now trying to add more information about the species from WorldView 2 satellite imagery and make the model species specific.