Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULC) in the North Talihya River Watershed (Lubero Territory, Eastern DR Congo)

Abstract

On the Equator, the Talihya North watershed is a vast area of nearly 581.7 km2 that extends from the Cool Highlands on the Congo-Nile Crest in Lubero Territory to the Rift Valley in the Virunga National Park in Beni Territory. This vast territory has an agropastoral vocation. Indeed, agricultural activities combined with the high population density in this watershed generate modifications in the landscape structure. The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of land use from 1987 to 2020. To achieve this, two Landsat TM+ and ETM+ images and one Sentinel-2 image were analyzed. After the classification of the images based on the Maximum Likelihood algorithm, this study shows that two processes are evident in the landscape of the North Talihya watershed: deforestation and savannization. Forests that occupied 253.11 km2 in 1987 have decreased to 201.12 km2 in 2001 and to 123.04 km2 in 2020. These area balances indicate that the natural forest formations in the North Talihya watershed have been converted primarily to croplands and fallows. The estimated annual deforestation rate between 1987 and 2020 is 2.18%. With this high rate of deforestation, mechanisms to restore degraded forest ecosystems in this watershed will need to be put in place. The sustainable management of residual forest ecosystems that have escaped human pressure is necessary for the conservation of biodiversity for future generations.