Study of the structure of land in the 18th–21st centuries using GIS-technology methods in Kenozersky national park

GIS-technologies open up wide opportunities in historical and environmental research, including for assessing the historical transformation of land. These transformations are related to socio-economic situations and are reflected in landscapes. We have studied the dynamics of land use (natural and farmland) of different categories in a key area of the Kenozersky National Park (Arkhangelsk Region) with a total area of 56.5 thousand hectares. For this purpose, the plans of the General Surveying of the 1780s, the special surveying of 1861, the satellite images of 1986 and 2021, as well as the forest management plans of 2014 were used. The binding of raster analogues of boundary plans and their vectorization were carried out using the basic tools of the ArcGIS program. The dynamics of land use within the key area under study for 250 years is shown, broken down into categories of land use corresponding to the attributes of their time, including the dynamics of agricultural land, reflecting the socio-economic structure. Historically, the transformation of landscapes reflects the relative stability of maximum plowing of land when using a slash-and-burn (shifting) farming system of agriculture in combination with a three-field system in the 18th-19th centuries. Subsequent twofold changes in the socio-economic system in the 20th–21st centuries led to the complete loss of all arable land within the key area and its transfer to the category of natural plantings when overgrown with forest.