Analysis of the changes to land use in selected municipalities of Lublin metropolitan area, based on remote sensing data

The aim of the study was to diagnose the main trends of the changes in land cover around the urban agglomerations, as illustrated with the example of Lublin, over the last twenty years (1998–2016), as well as their statistical and graphical presentation in the form of digital maps compilation. The project was conducted on the basis of the remote sensing data: RapidEye and LANDSAT 5 TM satellite imagery from three temporal records (1998, 2009–11, 2016–17). Detailed research was carried out in purposefully selected municipalities. The performed analyses showed that in the studied municipalities some changes in the use of arable land and grassland occurred. The largest loss in terms of area share was recorded mainly in the arable land. At the core of the metropolitan area, i.e. in the city of Lublin, over the last 20 years the share of arable land in the total area decreased by almost 11 percentage points (p.p.). In the municipalities located directly at the border with Lublin, this loss was much lower, and was equal 4–5 p.p. Slightly larger changes occurred in municipalities located further from the core, where both in the category of very good and slightly weaker natural conditions, losses of arable land were greater than in municipalities located directly at the core’s border of the metropolitan area (MA).