Второе издание учебного пособия (первое – в 2004 г.) подготовлено в соответствии с программой курса «Дешифрирование аэрокосмических снимков» для бакалавров, обучающихся по специальности «Картография и геоинформатика». Учебник переработан и дополнен с учетом существенных изменений, произошедших в количестве и качестве доступных для пользователей материалов космических съемок и методах их анализа в последнее десятилетие. Рассмотрены факторы, влияющие на формирование аэрокосмического изображения, основные виды материалов съёмок (полученных в оптическом, тепловом инфракрасном и радиоволновом диапазонах), дешифровочные признаки, методы визуального и компьютерного дешифрирования природных и антропогенных географических объектов на снимках в разных спектральных диапазонах, использования разновременных снимков при изучении динамики, вопросы оценки качества дешифрирования. Учебник предназначен для студентов географических специальностей университетов, а также специалистов смежных отраслей знания. Он может быть также полезен для специалистов, применяющих аэрокосмические снимки для решения научных и практических задач, в географических исследованиях и при создании карт.

The methodological approaches to compilation of landscape-geochemical maps of urban areas have been developed around a cartographic database which systematizes digital maps presenting the land-use zoning of a study area, its landscape structure and anthropogenic anomalies of heavy metals. The methods have been tested in the course of geoinformation landscape-geochemical mapping the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow. A landscape-geochemical map has been compiled displaying the taxonomy of urban landscapes with respect to factors of heavy metal accumulation and contamination levels of snow and soil cover. KeywordsGeoinformation Mapping; GIS; Geochemistry of Landscapes; Urban Area; Contamination; Risk Assessment; Moscow

Methodical approaches to landscape-functional mapping based on functional zoning and analysis of the landscape structure were developed. The technique was tested for the geoinformation mapping of Eastern and Western Districts of Moscow. The synthetic landscape-functional maps of the districts in scale of 1:50 000 showing the differentiation of urban landscapes in the degree of accumulation and the environmental risk of soils and snow cover pollution with heavy metals was compiled.

This paper presents methods and some results of multidate airborne and satellite imagery for environmental studies in rapidly changing conditions of wetlands regions: Volga Delta at the Northern Caspian coast (Russia) is a case study. Remotely sensed data are important mapping and monitoring medium, but problems with concurrent use of aerial photos and satellite images varying in spatial resolution and other properties are widely known. One possible way of study changing territories basing on remotely sensed data is to compile maps, depicting the territory at some moments. Data from aerial and space surveys cover the period from 1951, including the Caspian low-stand in 1977, the subsequent Caspian rise and the highest sea level in 1996-1999. Maps based on multi-date images characterize the state of the vegetation in 1951, 1977-1981, 1989-1992 and 1996-1999. GIS-analysis of the maps allows indication the peculiarities of delta vegetation response to the sea level drop and raise.

During the twentieth century the level of the Caspian Sea dropped from -26 m (1930) to -29 m (1977) below global sea level and subsequently rose again to -26.66 m in 1996. We aimed to describe responses of the vegetation in the lower Volga Delta to these substantial sea-level changes using an analysis of historic vegetation maps produced by aerial photography and satellite imagery.The sea level drop in the earlier part of the century was followed by rapid progression of the vegetation. The subsequent rapid sea-level rise in the 1980s did however not result in similarly rapid regression of the vegetation. This partial irreversibility of the vegetation response to sea-level change is explained by the wide flooding tolerance of the major emergent species, namely Phragmites australis. Floating vegetation increased in extent, most likely due to the increased availability of more favourable conditions, particularly for Nelumbo nucifera, a tropical plant reaching its northernmost distribution in the Volga Delta. This species increased in distribution from 3.5 ha in the 1930s throughout the entire Volga Delta to several thousands of hectares in the Astrakhanskiy Biosphere Reserve alone in the 1980s. The reported sea-level changes swept the ecosystems in the Astrakhanskiy Biosphere Reserve back and forth within the Reserve boundaries. At longer time scales, ten-fold greater sea-level change has been reported. The ecosystems for which the Reserve is renowned might be pushed completely out of the Reserve under these conditions. We therefore question whether the current Reserve will be sufficiently large to guarantee conservation of the biota in the lower Volga Delta at longer time scales.