What are these Maps in Mountains all about?

Looking towards the Réfuge de Bassièse

From a distance, the Pyrénées appear rugged and almost uninhabitable - the walls of the steep valleys climb seemingly vertically ever upwards towards great horns and summits. The geology varies, with the sheer walls and ancient grottos of limestone in some areas, and the jagged precipices of hard granite in others.

The landscape appears sparse - oftentimes characterized by alternating rock outcroppings and low vegetated areas. In the high peaks, there are seldom large alpine meadows, such as the ones that come to mind when thinking of the Alps (or rather, Gone With the Wind...) Instead, the High Pyrénées appear desolate and raw, almost lunar at times.

Despite their appearance, the Pyrénées have provided resources to the people of Spain and France for many hundreds of years. Their rough appearance is, in fact, the product of human development in the area. 

Prehistoric peoples inhabited the grottos of the regions for many years (a homo erectus 400,000 years old, several signs of life 90,000 years old, quite a rich archeological history.) Caves in the region contain crude instruments and tools, as well as various drawings. Historial artifacts in the Pyrénées have filled some crucial voids in modern man's knowledge of his ancient ancestry.

In the 19th century, mining industry established precious metal mines throughout the region. As mining became less profitable, Agriculture took over as the primary economy, bring terracing and cattle farming to the region. For over a hundred years, cows and sheep have left the pastures of the lower valleys for the grass of the High Pyrénées in the summer months, a process called Transhumance. In bringing their animals into the mountains, the farmers changed the Pyrénées into the landscape that it is today.

In the 1980s, the agricultural industry began to slowly die out, leading to a gradual movement towards tourism as the main economic driver of the region. As this shift occurred, the reduction of animals in the High Pyrénées began to change the landscape back to what it had been during the beginning of the 19th century and before. 

These changes in landscape dynamics, both from the point of Human Land Use and Physical Land Cover, coupled with Climate Change as a background force, are at the root of the mapping project.

Developing an automated mapping classification system that can be applied to satellite imagery will allow us to look both at changes that have happened in the past (well, at least as long as satellites have been around...) as well as changes that are happening in the current. Of course, understanding the past and the present often leads to guesses into the future...

Old World Meets New - Gasconne Cows grazing in front of Université de Toulouse Mirail's Observatoire Homme Milieu (OHM) Meteorological Station