Using repeat Landscape photography to assess vegetation changes in rural communities of the southern Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, USA

Repeat photography is a useful tool for evaluating historical landscape change. The objective of this study was to use ground-based repeat photography to quantify landscape vegetation changes during the period of 1880–2008 and to evaluate methods employed in repeat photography. The historical photographs included 237 landscape photographs taken in 1880 in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Fifty-five photographs were successfully relocated, and the photograph pairs were analyzed for changes in cover classes and changes by topographical position. From 1880 to 2008, forest land was the most stable cover type (98% of forested land in 1880 remained forested in 2008). Some of the main patterns of land conversion during this time period were (1) agricultural land converted to forest (19%), (2) residential and commercial land converted to forest (18%), and (3) transportation systems converted to forest or agricultural land (57%). When combined with other historical land use methods, repeat photography can yield a detailed reconstruction of the historical profile of an area; however, if the original locations of the photographs are unknown, repeat photography is a very time-intensive technique.