Advances in Geosciences Konstantinos Perakis & Athanasios Moysiadis, Editors EARSeL, 2012 Temporal Land Cover Analysis of a NATURA 2000 Wetland. The Case Study of Megalo Livari (GR 2420004) in Northern Evia, Greece Athanasios K. Moysiadis 1 and Georgios S. Efthimiou 2 1 University of Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Volos, Greece; moysiadis@uth.gr 2 Technological Educational Institute of Larissa - Karditsa Branch, Karditsa, Greece; efthimiou@teilar.gr Abstract. Natural environment has been degraded both qualitative and quantitative due to human activities over the last century. The European Ecological network NATURA 2000 has been created to preserve the biodiversity in SCI and SPA areas. The selected study area of Megalo Livari in Northern Evia, a part of the NATURA 2000 network, is one of the most important wetlands for migratory birds in Greece with rich riparian forest vegetation. The aim of this work is to record the temporal land cover changes, nearly the last 50 years, by means of remote sensing and GIS analysis. The proposed methodology presents a cost effective solution for an accurate assessment of the land cover changes in the study area. An old and a recent orthoimage of the area of interest are used and the land cover changes are assessed by photo-interpretation in combination with field work. The land cover changes, largely affected by human activities (agriculture, tourism, fishery), is the main reason of the degradation of the natural environment, more particularly of the riparian forest and vegetation the last 50 years in the area of Megalo Livari in Greece. Keywords. Wetland, NATURA 2000, Megalo Livari (GR 2420004), riparian forest, riparian vegetation, orthoimages, remote sensing, GIS. 1. Introduction Over the last century, human interference has lead to the degradation of the natural environment. Land cover change detection has been one of the most important applications of remote sensing for the detection and protection of the natural environment [1]. Therefore, it offers great potential not only to the management of the natural environment but also to the management of the social and economical consequences to the human environment. Some of the methodologies for such applications can be categorized as: delineation of changes, multivariate temporal resolution in feature space, image rationing and subtraction, image regression, post-classification comparison and multi-temporal linear data transformation [2], [3], [4], [5]. This study presents a cost-effective conventional technique for the assessment of land cover changes of one of the few wetlands in eastern continental Greece. The European Ecological network NATURA 2000 has been created to preserve the biodiversity in SCI and SPA areas. The selected study area of Megalo Livari in Northern Evia, Greece, a part of the NATURA 2000 network, is one of the most important wetlands for migratory birds. It also constitutes both a Special Protection Area (SPA) (GR2420007) and a Site of Community Importance (SCI) (GR2420004) [6]. The aim of this work is to record the land cover changes the last fifty years, by means of orthoimages using standard remote sensing and GIS techniques. An orthoimage has been created from a stereopair of aerial photographs using ground control points and a recent one has been provided by the e-Ktimatologio digital services of the Hellenic Cadastre (KTIMATOLOGIO S.A.)