Analyzing Historical Land Cover Change at the Interplay of Urbanization, Rural Depopulation, and Agricultural Land Abandonment in Bulgaria and Turkey Since the 1950s

This paper outlines the findings of an ongoing research project. We aim to extend the longitudinal analysis of land cover changes (LCC) back to the 1950s using historical aerial photographs, to enhance the quality of land cover (LC) maps for the 1970s and the 1980s by utilizing panchromatic photographic reconnaissance satellite imagery. The project involves the acquisition of previously underutilized historical aerial and satellite reconnaissance imagery, as well as historical demographic data for all the populated places in the selected areas of interest. This study focuses on five diverse regions in Southeast Europe and Anatolia to examine LCC since the 1950s until today.