ABSTRACT
Olga N. Trapeznikova Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 145, 13, Ulansky per, 101 000, Moscow, Russian Federation.
An indication technique based on interrelations between evident and latent components of landscapes has been well developed for visual interpretation of remote-sensing data (RSD). At first the indication technique was used for undisturbed natural landscapes but later indication studies often dealt with man-changed landscapes because well-developed areas are characterized with landscapes totally changed under anthropogenic impact. Even when landscapes seem to be undisturbed, such as taiga landscapes in the Russian plain, they in fact often prove to be secondary ones. Slash-and-burn agriculture, w idespread in Russia already in the 19th century, provided for space-time rotation of clearance, fallow, and forest. That is why long and well-developed areas of the Russian plain could be regarded as agricultural landscapes (agrolandscapes). Application of the indication technique for man-changed landscapes is based on the concept of modification, which is contrary to the idea of total destruction of landscape patterns, and preserving interrelations between natural components under man-made impact (Viktorov 1973, Viktorov et. al. 1979).
