Coastal changes and movements in the wider Vlora (Albania) area

Abstract

This paper explores the environmental change monitoring on the Albanian coastline (Vlora area) by analysing optical remote sensing data. Changes along this coastline are driven by coastal erosion and abusive urban construction of mostly tourist complexes and other man-made processes and pressures (e.g. sandpits, poor wastewater management, etc.). The change detection is based on yearly Landsat data of the period between 1984 and 2015. On the basis of mentioned images, each year's Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Build-up Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are extracted. With the use of change vector analysis technique the combination of these indexes were then compared between each other. The quantitative extent of coastal changes was defined using geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA). By obtaining GEOBIA post-classification results we compared both change detection approaches of pairs of one period (2010-2015). The coastline and coastal change maps produced at 30 m resolution, applying both pixel- and object-based approaches, showed that CVA approach is a preferred technique when analysing Landsat data for coastal change detection. Apart from identifying spatial changes through time, the objective of this study is to show that these landscape changes correspond with the population movements and migrations. This study argues that movements of both people and landscape strongly impact each other and form an intertwining and corresponding relationship.