CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL LAND-USE IN ESTONIA IN THE 1990S DETECTED WITH MULTITEMPORAL LANDSAT MSS IMAGERY

During the 1990s, the largest changes in land use in the Baltic states ocurred in the agricultural land sector. The changes can be summarise d as the abandonment of arable land and the overgrowing of grasslands with shrubs. Both types of formerly agricultural land become successio nal oldfields. A national land-use map of Estonia is currently not ava ilable. Multitemporal Landsat Multispectral Scanner scenes combining w inter, spring and summer data were used to classify land use in Estoni a in 1990 and 1993. Satellite data discriminated 'arable land' and 'ot her,' but failed to differentiate 'grasslands currently in use' from ' successional oldfields'. One-third of the arable land in use in Estoni a in 1990 had been abandoned by 1993. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.