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Presented at the CzechGlobe PGS Conference. 2014 Feb 06. Oral presentation. Czech Republic, Brno, 2014. Research area: Taipei urban landscapes, Taiwan R.O.C. Research aim: spatio-temporal analysis of urban dynamics in study area during 15 years (1990-2005) Research objective: application of geoinformatic tools, remote sensing data and application of methodology to spatial analysis for urban studies, a case study of Taipei Current work has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education Short Term Research Award (STRA) for research stay at National Taiwan University (NTU), Department of Geography during April-May 2013. The research was performed using ENVI GIS software using Landsat TM images for years 1990 and 2005. The landscapes in study area at both Landsat TM images were classified using "K-means" algorithm into different land use types The area covered by each land cover class is compared and dynamics is analyzed for respecting years. The changes in selected land cover types were analyzed and the human impacts on natural landscapes detected. Finally, classified land cover types across study area were compared at both maps of land cover types for the years 1990 and 2005, respectively.

Research area: Taipei urban landscapes, Taiwan. Located on the north of the Taiwan Island, Taipei is the country's core urban political and economic center with population reaching over 2.6 M and continuing to expand within the city Research aim: spatio-temporal analysis of urban dynamics in study area during 15 years (1990-2005) Data capture: The data include Landsat TM images taken from the U.S.G.S. website. The software used is ENVI GIS. Research objective: application of geoinformatic tools, remote sensing data and application of methodology to spatial analysis for a case study of Taipei. Research problem: In the past decades, the process of urbanization has become more notable in the East Asia. Since past decades, Taipei city undergone serious urban changes.The development of urban landscapes in Taipei has unique feature; Taiwan's exceptional economic and industrial growth since 1980s, which is often referred as "industrial wonder of Taiwan". Recently, the country quickly transformed from an agriculture-based traditional economy into a highly industrialized society. As a result, Taiwan has now a new face of high-technology oriented, economically restructured economy. This caused changes in the face of the country, modifying both its social and natural landscape patterns. Taiwan is nowadays a highly urbanized country with almost 80% of the total population of Taiwan living in urban areas. Intensive urbanization necessarily create new conditions for human-nature co-existence, since rapidly growing city and high urbanization rate affect biodiversity and ecosystems sustainability. The process of urbanization includes transformation of natural landscapes: typical natural land cover type are being transformed into human-affected artificial surfaces and the city area enlarges. Anthropogenic pressure increased rapidly due to the expansion of Taipei metropolitan area. Rapid urbanization affects complex interrelations of natural and urban ecosystems, changes their structure, size and shape, which becames a serious environmental problem. At the same time, Taiwan has unique natural landscapes with high environmental value, outstanding natural beauty, rare and extinct species. In vies of this, environmental monitoring should be considered for effective city management and nature conservation on the island. Methods: Workflow includes following steps: Preliminary processing Creation color composites Classification using K-means algorithm Mapping using classification results Accuracy assessment. The preliminary data processing includes image contrast stretching, which is useful as by default, ENVI displays images with a 2% linear contrast stretch. For better contrast the histogram equalization contrast stretch was applied to the image in order to enhance the visual quality. Reults. Based on the image classification, three (3) areas within the city has been selected and distinguished: I, II, III. Comparing regions I, II and III, the conclusion is the following: Region I has changes in the land cover types since 1990s. It has much more changes comparing to the core, old city area (region II) Region II (the core city) is the most stable region. It has the least changes, because this area has been already industrialized for a long time. Region III, has undergone notable changes. This is caused by the intensive relocation of the population to the Taipei area after 1980s. This is regions is dynamically developing within the Taipei since 1990s.

The study area is focused on the coastal city of Taipei. The environmental changes of the city were detected by geospatial analysis of the satellite images. The areas occupied by different landscape types were calculated and analysed. It was detected that various districts were developing with different rate and intensity due to the complex factors of both human and ecological origin. The results showed intensive urban development, decline of green areas, increase of urban spaces since 1990. Область исследования сосредоточена на прибрежном городе Тайбэй (Тайвань, Китай). Экологические изменения города были обнаружены с помощью геопространственного анализа спутниковых снимков. Площади, занимаемые различными типами ландшафта, были проанализированы. Было обнаружено, что разные части города развиваются с разной скоростью и интенсивностью из-за сложного сочетания антропогенных и природных факторов. Результаты показали процессы интенсивной урбанизации, деградацию зеленых ареалов, увеличение площадей застроенных территорий с 1990 года.

Current research aims at spatio-temporal analysis of urban dynamics in study area during 15 years (1990-2005). Research objective: application of geoinformatic tools, remote sensing data and application of methodology to spatial analysis for urban studies, a case study of Taipei. Current presentation consists in 2 parts: 1) Overview of the environmental research problem, urbanization and characteristics of Taipei. Consequences of urban sprawl for the global cities, such as Taipei; 2) Detailed technical description of the GIS part: remote sensing data capture, pre-processing, algorithm processing, image classification and spatial analysis. The spatial analysis performed by means of GIS ENVI enabled to use satellite images for social and urban studies. The spatio-temporal analysis was applied to Landsat TM images taken at 1990 and 2005. Built-in functions of the mathematical algorithms (K-means) enabled to process raster Landsat TM images and to derive information from them.

During the last 10 years the environmental conditions in the New Forest (Hampshire, UK) has changed dramatically: the natural ecosystem structure of this unique natural reserve has been affected by the invasion of the bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) – the noxious weed that has spread rapidly over the area of 10*10 km in the New Forest. This paper focuses on remote sensing techniques advantages for environmental monitoring and investigating the endangered area using ENVI software and Landsat Imagery. Using satellite imagery classification will highlight the exact area where the spread of bracken has taken place, its change during the years, and the speed of bracken's spreading (change of bracken coverage in percents), thus helping in environmental decisions making and protecting the unique ecosystem of the National Park of the New Forest.

This paper focuses on the technical aspects of the using the imaging spectrometry for monitoring the coastal and hydrological environment of the Test River (southern England, UK). The airborne imaging spectrometry proved to have a positive effect in investigating the river channel habitats in the shallow and clear waters where usual satellite imagery are ineffective.