SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ARABLE LAND IN STAVROPOL TERRITORY DURING THE PERIOD FROM 2015 TO 2019

Abstract

The article presents the results of a spatial analysis of arable land in Stavropol Territory,
which was carried out during the period from 2015 to 2019. The total area of the available land
in Stavropol Territory is 6616.0 thousand hectares. The main part of the territory is occupied
by agricultural land (87.5%), which accounted for 62.5% of arable land. There is a pressing
issue of the rational land use in the region, because large areas are liable to various types of soil
degradation. In this regard, there is a need to obtain reliable data on the spatial location of arable
land and the identification of territories in which one can notice the misuse of agricultural land.
Geographic Information Systems and Earth remote sensing data are important for obtaining
objective data on the spatial location of arable land. In comparison to the year 2015, there was
an increase in the actual area of arable land by more than 50 thousand hectares in Stavropol
Territory in 2019. Due to the specificities of the current cadastral registration of land in Russia,
it is not possible to establish the exact belonging of additionally plowed lands to hayfields and
pastures. Based on the morphometric analysis of the additionally plowed lands, it has been
established that their maximum slope is 24.54° with an average slope of 1.95° and a standard
deviation of the slope of 1.54°. The result is an indirect sign of plowing hayfields and pastures
for which slope lands were also used. In Stavropol Territory, the total area of unrecorded arable
land is 394.0 thousand hectares, which can enhance the development of degradation processes.
The presented approaches and the obtained results can become the basis for the development
of a system for regular remote monitoring of arable land not only in the Stavropol Territory,
but also in any agrarian region.