Analysis of Dynamics of Forest Landscapes of Administrative District by Means of GIS Technologies

On the example of the territory of Insarsky District, located in the South of the middle part of the Republic of Mordovia, the authors reviewed the methodology and presented the results of the use of geographic information and aerospace technologies for the analysis of the dynamics of forest landscape in the period between the time slices – 1941 and 2009. The research allowed to reveal tendencies of change and development of forest landscapes through the creation of specialized GIS databases and the use of software ArcView GIS, MapInfo Professional, SAS.Planet, ERDAS Imagine, EasyTrace. Baseline data were presented cartographic materials – retrospective traditional and digital as well as the actual remote sensing data. Determining the area of forest landscapes, analysis, comparison, display and cartographic visualization of their dynamics are based on cartographicmaterials produced using GIS technology. In the GIS have been produced covered (overlay) vector layers, analysis and comparison of obtained maps identifying the direction (increase or decrease) of the changes and their possible causes, in order to reveal the dynamics the area of forest landscapes. In the case of processing of raster cartographic materials you can use toolkit raster algebra (map algebra). As a result, have been identified direction and possible causes of the changes the area of forest geosystems for each of the studied time sections, as well as the quantitative characteristics of extant disappeared and re-emerged of their arrays. In most of the analyzed territory there was an increase of forest landscapes, the cause of which should be considered as abandonment and non-use of agricultural land. The slight decrease in the area of forest geosystems may be associated with deforestation and fires. Obtained through research geoinformation and cartographic models and statistics are the basis for management decisions in the field of forestry and forest management, organization and conduct of monitoring and directed ultimately to solve optimization problems of regional nature management.