| Abstract: | A procedure is elaborated whereby image pattern (texture) provides the basis for development of a hierarchical regionalization scheme for the European USSR based on the level of human modification of the environment. Medium and high resolution scanner and photographic imagery in the visible and near infrared bands are analyzed, together with supporting materials, to identify 6 natural-economic zones, 14 natural-economic provinces, 52 natural-economic oblasts, and 180 natural-economic regions. Such regionalization permits comparisons among different parts of the USSR in terms of locations where image pattern (and landscapes) are more or less significantly altered by human activity. Translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005 from: L. I. Vasil'yev, ed., Kosmicheskiye metody izucheniya biosfery Remote Sensing Methods in the Study of the Biosphere]. Moscow: Nauka, 1990, pp. 18–23. |
