Land Use Change Map Research Articles

Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Land Cover Change and Oil Palm Expansion in Gunung Mas

Abstract: The area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has increased over time. The growth of oil palm plantations even exceeds the percentage of the area of paddy fields, especially in Gunung Mas Regency. This phenomenon is accompanied by the implementation of "Regional Regulation No. 1 of 2020 concerning Land Fire Control". The regulation aims to prevent land fires due to human activities. However, local people believe that burning can increase land productivity. As a result, many people convert their land to plant oil palm, because it is considered to guarantee economic improvement compared to paddy fields. Remote sensing satellite imagery is the basis and main source in the analysis. With spatio-temporal analysis, mapping of land use changes in a certain period of time and its relationship with the distribution of agricultural wet and dry areas. As a result, the proportion of palm oil land in Gunung Mas Regency is higher than the proportion of paddy fields. If oil palm expansion continues in the future, agricultural drought could become more widespread. Keywords: Expansion of oil palm, Land use change, Paddy Fields, Remote sensing, Spatio-Temporal Analysis

Amazon Deforestation and Global Meat Consumption Trends: An Assessment of Land Use Change and Market Data from Rondônia That Shows Why We Should Consider Changing Our Diets

This paper seeks to elucidate the interrelationship between global meat consumption and deforestation in the Amazon region. To this end, empirical research is conducted to investigate land use changes in Rondônia and the expansion of pasture areas and beef production. Brazil is one of the largest beef producers in the world, with products destined for local and global markets. Based on bibliographical research, the paper analyzes maps of land use change between 1985 and 2021, using Landsat satellite imagery and the MapBiomas methodology for Landsat mosaic and classification. The research shows that beef from Rondônia is primarily purchased and consumed in Brazil, but it is also bought and sold on the international market. Landsat imagery analysis shows the predominance of forest conversion to pasture in Rondônia. The results show that deforestation in the Amazon is directly linked to the growth of cattle ranching. Land use change from native forest to pasture for beef cattle production is a reality in the Brazilian Amazon, especially in Rondônia. It suggests the urgent need for more conscious consumption and production practices as well as ethical and sustainable eating habits.

High-resolution mapping of land use changes in Norwegian hydropower systems

The Transition towards sustainable energy systems requires phasing out fossil fuels. Hydropower is a key source of renewable energy and can contribute to reaching a 100 % low carbon-based energy system. Uncertainty remains about land cover changes due to hydropower deployment with a widespread perception of major losses in the land from inundation and associated habitat loss in the surrounding areas due to improved access and recreational use. Norway has a dominant share of hydropower generation in Europe with knowledge gaps in the associated land cover changes. We conducted one of the first retrospective analyses of land use change associated with hydropower development in Norway during the last 80 years. Using remote sensing data, we performed object-based analysis on sets of aerial images representing land systems before and after hydropower construction. We quantified the change in the land due to development of 40 hydropower schemes representing 24 % of the total Norwegian installed capacity. Our analysis revealed that 88 % of analyzed reservoirs were developed by regulating or expanding natural lakes. Vegetation growth was observed in the surrounding regions of 22 of 40 schemes, while urbanization was limited to only 0.9 % of the total surrounding area, primarily located within 400 m from reservoir's borders. Our findings provide insights into interaction between land use change and hydropower development in Norway. Our work provides a basis for further assessment of relevant environmental impacts and can be used to quantify expected land changes due to an increase in Norway's hydropower with integration into the European energy market.

Monitoring and Modeling of Spatio-Temporal Urban Expansion and Land Use/Land-Cover Change in Mountain Landscape: A Case Study of Dalat City, Vietnam

The lack of ability to control human activities led to changes of land use/land cover (LULC) in Dalat City where rapid urbanization and the demand to expand agricultural land have resulted in dramatic forest reductions. This study assessed the rate and extent of LULC changes over the past 12 years and simulated future scenarios in Dalat City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam by using an integrated model of Markov chain and logistics regression. Three land-use maps used to analyze land-use change were extracted from satellite images in 2010, 2016, and 2022 by classification approach. The outcome of this process indicates a significant increase in agricultural and built-up land of 48.22 km2 and 9.36 km2, respectively; a decrease in forest land of 55.61 km2, and a minor change in water bodies and bare land in the 2010-2022 period. Prediction maps of land-use change in 2028 and 2034 are generated after the model is validated by comparing the actual map with the prediction map of LULC in 2022 using Kappa statistics. Transition of forest area to other land use types, especially land for expansion of built-up and agricultural land is the crucial trend of land-use change in the future according to the forecast model. Compared to 2022, forest area in 2034 will decrease by 60.65 km2 while built-up and agricultural land will increase by 14.07 km2 and 43.61 km2, respectively. The research results provide valuable information as a foundation for land-use policy planning and local urban development to ensure sustainable development objectives.

Multitemporal Analysis of Land Use/Cover Changes and Landscape Fragmentation in Murshidabad District of West Bengal, India

Rapid population growth, human migration, and commercial activities are changing land use and Land cover at a faster rate. The human being's need and greed to sustain themselves alter the earth's natural environment, and that change affected us. However, poor and unmanageable land conversion led to severe environmental effects. For planning and management purposes, precise information regarding land use and its characteristics is required to ensure the sustainability of the area. The current study uses multi-temporal satellite images to analyze the decadal change from 1991 to 2021. Supervised image classification is performed using the Maximum likelihood classifier. The main goal of this study is to compare post-classification results using change vector analysis and analyze human impact on the environment using FRAGSTAT. Fragstat is a widely used software program designed for analyzing spatial patterns in categorical maps. It is commonly employed in landscape ecology, conservation biology, and land management studies. The primary purpose of Fragstats is to quantify and assess the composition and configuration of patches or landscape elements within a given area. The built-up area increased from 2.57% to 8.41% over the past 30 years, while the agricultural land decreased from 83.51% to 70.05%. It was observed that the density of patches and percentage of landscape reduction over time, the rise in the number of patches for agricultural class from 3570 in 1991 to 10173 in 2021 indicates that spatial diversity is increasing in the class with higher levels of anthropogenic disturbances. Moreover, in landscape-level indices, the number of patch and landscape shape index increases, and a fall in the largest patch index indicate that the landscape is becoming more complicated and fragmented. To achieve the sustainable land-use planning and safeguard natural ecosystems and biodiversity from anthropogenic activities, land-use change maps are utilized as an early warning system.

Long-term mapping of land use and cover changes using Landsat images on the Google Earth Engine Cloud Platform in bay area - A case study of Hangzhou Bay, China

Large-scale, long-term series, and high-precision land use and cover change (LUCC) mapping is the basic support for territorial spatial planning and sustainable development in the Bay Area. In response to the sustainable development agenda, for characteristics of high landscape fragmentation, strong surface heterogeneity and frequent land use type conversion in the Bay Area, this study developed a random forest (RF) algorithm that considers spectral bands, remote sensing indices and components of a principal component analysis, and the mapping and monitoring of LUCC in Hangzhou Bay from 1985 to 2020 based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) and Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) were carried out. The results are as follows. (1) The overall accuracy (OA) and kappa coefficient were 92.83% and 0.91, respectively. (2) During the study period, the areas of the construction land, water area, and bare land increased, while the areas of the wood land, cultivated fields, and tidal flats decreased. (3) During the study period, the total area of the tidal flats decreased from 181.65 km2 to 161.50 km2, with an average annual decrease of 0.58 km2, and the tidal flats were primarily concentrated on the south shore of Hangzhou Bay. (4) During the study period, the transfer of cultivated fields to construction land was the most significant (2268.05 km2). (5) During the study period, the length of the coastline decreased from 383.73 km to 362.80 km, with an average annual decrease of 0.60 km. According to the DSAS statistics, the net shoreline movement (NSM) of the coastline on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay was 773.58 m, the end point rate (EPR) and the linear regression rate (LRR) were 22.10 m/a and 27.00 m/a, respectively. The NSM of the south shore was 4109.57 m, and the EPR and LRR were 117.42 m/a and 132.22 m/a, respectively. The proposed methods improve the accuracy of land use classification of the RF algorithm in the complex environment of the Bay Area, and it can provide technical support for natural resource survey and regional sustainable development in the Bay Area.

Mapping and monitoring of spatio-temporal land use and land cover changes and relationship with normalized satellite indices and driving factors

ABSTRACT Climate change has become a severe threat all around the world. Pakistan is also affected by climate change. It has become a severe problem in any part of the country. It is land degradation caused by climatic disturbance and anthropogenic activities. In this study, we used Landsat TM for the years 1980 and 1990, Landsat ETM+ for the years 2000 and 2010, and Landsat OLI/TIRS for the year 2020 were classified using the Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) into a built-up area, barren land, vegetation, and water area. This study has been conducted to assess the spatio-temporal analysis of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) with driving factors from 1980–2020 in the Cholistan Desert, Punjab, Pakistan, and the relationship between different normalized satellite indices with LULC. Post-classification change detection methods were then used to assess the variation over the study period. The built-up area has increased by 6.25% from 1980–2020. The Kappa coefficient was estimated at 0.83, 0.82, 0.83, 0.85, and 0.88 in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively. At the annual scale (the years 2000 and 2020), a significant positive relationship was observed among LULC, NDVI, and MNDWI for the regions located in the western part of the Cholistan region, while negative trends in the year 1980 to the 2010 year.

THE CHANGE OF LAND USE IN JENDERAL A.H NASUTION STREET MEDAN

One of the factors causing changes in land use is the increasing population. Also, the increasing number of people causes the need for land to increase. In regulating and planning the land use of an area, the government establishes a technical reference in the form of legislation regarding the use of space in an area. Regulation is developed according to the characteristics and needs of the government in the area. Thereby, regional development can be managed and directed according to the use and utilization of the land. Regulations on spatial use are then outlined in a map, i.e., the Regional Spatial Plan Map, making it easier for the government to control, supervise, and plan regional the management and use of regional land properly. This study aims to map land-use changes on Jalan Jenderal A.H Nasution Medan in 2006, 2013, and 2020. Primary data is a mapping of land-use changes obtained from field observations and aerial photos in 2006, 2013 and 2020 obtained from the Dinas Housing, Settlement Areas and Spatial Planning of Medan City. Also, secondary data in the form of Regional Head Regulations were then analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques. The findings of this study serve as an evaluation for the government in making land-use regulations so that these regulations can be targeted and meet the community's needs.

Mapping of Land Use Changes in Urban Catchments. A Case of Msimbazi Catchment in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Rapid urbanization activities may put significant pressure on catchments around the globe as they are also associated with the change in land use/land cover. This study used GIS-based techniques to investigate the land use/land cover changes in the Msimbazi river catchment in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Landsat images of the selected study years (1998, 2009, and 2018) were processed in ArcGIS software. The land use classes were grouped into five groups namely; water bodies, forests, developed high intensity, developed medium intensity, and developed low intensity. This study observed significant changes in land use/land cover in the Msimbazi catchment from 1998 to 2018, with an estimated 40.54% decrease in developed low-intensity areas, as well as a 15.95% increase in developed high-intensity areas defined with 80% to 100% impervious cover. The extent of development and impervious surface cover were observed to be increasing towards the downstream approaching the Indian Ocean coast. The results from this study reflect the reality of the catchment where downstream is characterized with more development activities than the upstream of the catchment. The results derived from this study can be useful in the planning and implementation of catchment management practices.

Impact of landuse change and urbanization on urban heat island effect in Narayanganj city, Bangladesh: A remote sensing-based estimation

Urban development always had a significant influence on Land Surface Temperature (LST). The impacts of urbanization on the trend of temperature rise and the degradation of the ecological environment over a period of 8 years before and after the establishment of Narayanganj City Corporation have been studied in this paper. LST has been calculated by utilizing land-use change map and computation of vegetation coverage using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), assessment of building coverage using the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), and using the Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) for the evaluation of ecological index. The result indicates that the LST has been tremendously affected by the built-up areas, especially where the heavy industries had been established. The mean LST between 2011 and 2019 went upward by 1.86°C. A negative correlation has been found between the LST and NDVI, which suggests that the green coverage debilitates the effect on urban temperature. On the other hand, the positive correlation found between the LST and NDBI shows that the built-up or paved area intensifies the LST and gives rise to Urban Heat Island (UHI). The areas around vegetation and waterbody showed comparatively lower temperatures while the temperature of the built-up area exhibited an increasing trend. The study reveals that proper heat action plans and toolkits are necessary for urban heat management and ensuring sustainable city development.

Spatial Evolution of Coastal Tourist City Using the Dyna-CLUE Model in Koh Chang of Thailand during 1990–2050

Spatial evolution can be traced by land-use change (LUC), which is a frontier issue in the field of geography. Using the limited areas of Koh Chang in Thailand as the research case, this study analyzed the simulation of its spatial evolution from a multi-scenario perspective on the basis of the 1900–2020 thematic mapper/operational land imager (TM/OLI) remote sensing data obtained through the transfer matrix model, and modified LUC and the dynamic land-use change model (Dyna-CLUE). Over the past 30 years, the expansion of recreation areas and urban and built-up land has been very high (2944.44% and 486.99%, respectively) along the western coast of Koh Chang, which replaced the original mangrove forests, orchards, and communities. Logistic regression analysis of important variables affecting LUC revealed that population density variables and coastal plain topography significantly affected LUC, which showed strong β coefficients prominently in the context of a coastal tourist city. The results of the LUC and logistic regression analyses were used to predict future LUCs in the Dyna-CLUE model to simulate 2050 land-use in three scenarios: (1) natural evolution scenario, where a large patch expansion of agricultural land extends along the edge of the entire forest boundary around the island, particularly the southwestern areas of the island that should be monitored; (2) reserved area protection scenario, where the boundary of the conservation area is incorporated into the model, enabling forest preservation in conjunction with tourism development; and (3) recreation area growth scenario, where the southern area is the most susceptible to change at the new road crossing between Khlong Kloi village to Salak Phet village, and where land-use of the recreation area type is expanding. The model-projected LUC maps provide insights into possible changes under multiple pathways, which could help local communities, government agencies, and stakeholders jointly allocate resource planning in a systematic way, so that the development of various infrastructures to realize the potential impact on the environment is a sustainable coastal tourist city development.

Land-use change mapping and analysis using remote sensing and GIS for watershed evaluation- A case study

Watershed development and its management are dynamic with new challenges and complexities, rendering difficulties in laying out a proper development plan. There is a need for an accurate process to assess the progress of implementation. Its assessment and evaluation need a holistic approach through reliable methods. Increasing the number of indigenous remote sensing satellites, reasonable pricing of indigenous satellite data and trained human resources have further facilitated the application of remote sensing for watershed management. In this study, a cluster of five watersheds, three in Telangana State (Mangalagudem, Rampur, Chilkepalli) and two in Andhra Pradesh (R.N. Palle, Nathiobanagari Palle-II) were taken up for watershed evaluation study. A detailed methodology for the impact evaluation of watersheds using remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) is presented in this paper. Post classification comparison of pre-and post-implementation satellite imagery for watershed is being used for impact evaluation. Land use classification was done using SOI toposheet of 1:25,000 scale and LISS- IV (MS) remote sensing imagery. Results clearly show that interventions to check soil erosion and water run-off in a watershed mode increased Rabi cropped area up to 61 per cent and Kharif cropped area up to 22 per cent in all the watersheds. There was about a 47 per cent decrease in the extended fallow area in Nathiobanagari Palle-II watershed. Thus, interventions for checking soil erosion and runoff lead to the area's sustainable development in all the evaluated watersheds.

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme and its effect on the loss of forests: the case of the Mafungabusi Forest Reserve in Zimbabwe

Land reform in Zimbabwe, commonly known as the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), was established in early 2000. Since the inception of the FTRLP, loss of forests and biodiversity has been on the rise. In this paper, an analysis of the rate of forest loss pre-FTLRP, during and post-FTLRP to date (1995–2019) is presented for the Mafungabusi Forest Reserve. Data were collected from semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, satellite imagery and fieldwork. Land Cover, Land-Use Change Maps were obtained from supervised classification of satellite imagery and regression graphs for the rate of change of forest area were also obtained. Results show that the forested areas decreased at a rate of 308 ha per year (2.4%) during the FTLRP and at a rate of 481 ha per year (5.2%) post FTLRP. The inception of FTLRP and the withdrawal of funds to support the Community Involvement in Forest Management (CIFM) resulted in forest loss as the population grew and demand for land increased. Given the current rate of forest loss, the Mafungabusi Forest will probably disappear in the next 20 years if no measures are taken to reduce the rate of forest loss. Thus, there is need for the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission, Environmental Management Agency and other relevant stakeholders to engage resettled farmers in sustainable co-management of natural resources. Such efforts will help in combating effects of climate change and conserving biodiversity.

Classification of land use/land cover of Aniocha north local government area, Delta state using satellite imagery

Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have been established as indispensable tools in the assessment of Land use / Land cover (LULC) change. RS and GIS are important for the monitoring, modelling and mapping of land use and land cover changes across a range of spatial and temporal scales, in order to assess the extent, direction, causes, and effects of the changes. Change detection has provided suitable and wide-ranging information to various decision support systems for natural resource management and sustainable development. The main objective of the study is to assess and evaluate the extent and direction of changes in LULC of Aniocha North Local Government Area (LGA), Delta State, Nigeria to explain the changes and identify some of their effects on both the livelihoods of the local people and the local environment, and also to explore some of the conservation measures designed to overcome problems associated with land use and land cover changes. Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) of 2002 with 30 meters resolution and landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) 2014satellite images as well as GIS techniques were used to monitor the changes and to generate maps of the LULC of the area in these periods. Supervised Land Use/Land Cover classification algorithm (Maximum likelihood with null class) was used in the analysis of classification. The classification result of LandSat ETM+ (2002) revealed that farmland accounted for 36.34% of the total LULC class, followed by savannah which accounted for 24.15%. Forest built up area, and waterbody constituted 20.42%, 16.46% and 2.62% respectively. Also, the result of LandSat ETM (2014) shows that forest accounted for 38.59% followed by farmland with 30.93%. Built up area covers 25.55% while savannah and river cover 2.86% and 2.08% respectively. The classification shows 83.26 % average accuracy and 79.16 % overall accuracy for 2002 while the 2014 accuracy assessment showed 95.06% average accuracy and 94.99% overall accuracy. Growing population pressure and its associated problems, such as the increasing demand for land and trees, poor institutional and socio-economic settings, and also unfavorable government policies, such as lack of land tenure security and poor infrastructure development, have been the major driving forces behind the LULC changes.

From land cover to land use: Applying random forest classifier to Landsat imagery for urban land-use change mapping

The extensive record of Landsat imagery is commonly used to map urban land-cover and land-use change. Random forest (RF) classification was applied for mapping more detailed urban land-use and change categories than is typically attempted with Landsat data. Two dates of Landsat imagery (1990 and 2015) were utilized with surface reflectance, Vegetation-Impervious-Soil (V-I-S) fractions, grey-level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) of V-I-S, and temporal variation of V-I-S inputs. GLCM V-I-S and temporal variation of Vegetation as input features of RF classifiers slightly improved accuracies of land use maps. A change map derived from an overlay analysis between the 2015 map and a Landsat-derived urban expansion map was more accurate than one from post-classification comparison of 1990 and 2015 maps. For the Taiwan study area, Transportation Corridor land use tended to lead conversion to Residential and Employment types in relatively undeveloped districts, and extensive urban land-use change occurred in peri-urban areas.

Changements d’occupation et d’usage des terres entre 2016 et 2019 dans le Sud-Est de la Côte d’Ivoire : impact des cultures de rente sur la forêt

En Côte d’Ivoire, plus de la moitié du couvert forestier (57 %) a disparu en un quart de siècle (1990-2015) avec une perte importante de biodiversité. Pour mieux comprendre les dynamiques en cours et appuyer les politiques de réduction de la déforestation, des cartographies fines et régulières des changements d’occupation et d’usage des terres sont nécessaires. Cependant, ces études sont rarement conduites sur de grands territoires ou bien elles sont parfois obsolètes à cause de la rapidité des processus anthropiques sous-jacents. L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer les changements d’occupation et d’usage des terres, en particulier les dynamiques de déforestation et de dégradation forestière dans trois régions du Sud-Est de la Côte d’Ivoire, entre 2016 et 2019. La méthodologie est basée sur l’utilisation d’images Sentinel-2 à 10 et 20 m de résolution spatiale sur une zone d’étude de 22 014 km2. Des données d’apprentissage ont d’abord été délimitées en suivant une description de la zone en 16 catégories d’occupation et d’usage des terres. Celles-ci ont ensuite été utilisées avec l’algorithme Random Forests pour produire des cartes d’occupation et d’usage des terres en 2016 et 2019 avec une précision globale respective de 92 % et 87 %. Enfin, ces cartes ont été croisées pour décrire les transitions forestières de la zone étudiée. Les résultats révèlent que l’extension des cultures de rente (cacao-café, hévéa et palmier à huile), des cultures et jachères non différenciées ainsi que des infrastructures (habitations et routes) a conduit à un taux de déforestation de 4,95 % par an sur la période étudiée. Cette étude fournit ainsi une compréhension détaillée et actualisée des changements d’occupation et d’usage des terres, et contribue aux réflexions sur la mise en place d’un système national de surveillance des terres.

Integrating Ecosystem Services and Disservices in Valuing Smallholder Livestock and Poultry Production in Three Villages in South Africa

This study presents an integrated examination of both the ecosystem services (ES) and ecosystem disservices (EDS) associated with smallholder animal husbandry in rural livelihoods in three villages in southeast South Africa. It recognises the contribution of ES supporting and resulting from smallholder livestock and poultry production, but also details the limiting factors or EDS, such as tick-borne disease, birds of prey or unpalatable rangeland, produced by the same system. Using a mixed-methods approach, including focus group discussions with various Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) activities, key informant interviews, household surveys and land-use change mapping on GIS, we consider the relative value and benefits from ES after the effects of EDS, as well as the management and strategies that households adopt to minimise EDS. The effects of ES and EDS were expressed in economic terms to provide a common framework to assess the magnitude of their contribution or effect. Although animal husbandry made measurable contributions to households, with an average gross value of between R2605–R9753 across villages, EDS undermined the meaningful production of livestock and poultry goods and services. The average EDS-induced economic loss in households was between R8289–R22,426 per annum. Despite active management, often at substantial cost to the household, EDS undermined the health of livestock which resulted in a loss of the animal or potential goods and services produced. We emphasise the need to recognise both the positive and negative contributions of ecosystems to identify the complex feedbacks between ES and EDS which interact to determine local ways of doing things.

Spatiotemporal relation of RADAR-derived land subsidence with groundwater and seismicity in Semnan—Iran

Due to excessive harvesting of underground water resources in many important aquifers inside Iran, ground subsidence is occurring at different speeds. In present study, InSAR processing was applied to identify land displacement by using Sentinel-1A. For this target, 17 frames of images during 2015–2019 with small temporal-perpendicular baseline were allocated and using SBAS approach were analyzed. After removing unnecessary noise and phases, phase shift due to land deformation is extracted and then converted to subsidence. Besides SAR images, fluctuations of groundwater were analyzed using piezometric data for last 10 years. Then the spatial pattern relationship between subsided regions and underground water resources as well as urbanization was investigated. Throughout this period, all datasets reveal 125 km2 bowl subsidence in a maximum rate of 10 cm/year. Generally, areas with high rates of subsidence are located between the industrial town and city of Semnan over clay foundation with high rates of groundwater head decline. Moreover, surveying the piezometers and landuse change map obtained from Landsat indicates that due to the intense groundwater withdrawal as a result of industrialization and urbanization, the maximum annual decline of groundwater head at 123 cm/year is detected. Our preliminary investigation shows some spatiotemporal positive correlation between the subsidence and seismicity of the area. Considering the fragility of arid ecosystems and increasing the population of Semnan, it is recommended that the development of industries with high water consumption is prevented and the groundwater resources policies should seek to strictly reduce overusing of groundwater in agricultural lands and urban areas.

Translating sociocultural transformations into historical maps on land use changes: the case of Lafkenmapu (Araucanía, Chile)

ABSTRACT While it is widely known that socio-cultural transformations have a spatial impact on geographical areas, limited attention has been paid to mapping such transformations. This paper aims to explore how historical maps of land-use changes can be excellent tools for this purpose. The Lafkenmapu area in Chile, which has undergone critical socio-cultural transformations over the last five centuries, served as a case study. A total of five historical periods were described and translated into land-use change maps (pre-Hispanic; colonial; post-colonial; state consolidation; present). Non-cartographic (e.g. historical chronicles and publications) and cartographic sources (historical maps, aerial photography and satellite images) were integrated for each period to create a timeline map. Finally, some concluding remarks discuss the added value of the maps as a tool for a better understanding of the impact of socio-cultural transformations on land use and population distribution.

Remote Sensing Mapping of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Upper Casamance, Senegal, 1987-2018

In order to study the evolution of land use and the changes in land cover in Upper Casamance, from Landsat images acquired in 1987 and 2018, we used a method of multistage unsupervised classification. Recently developed to mapping and quantification of vegetation land cover changes in West-African coastal, this method is based on the following stages: first classification (K-means) over 15 classes, interpretation of the spectral signatures of the resulting classes followed by reclassification according to the chosen nomenclature, creation of thematic masks, classifications on masks, and finally reclassification. With the only difference, our study aims also to contribute, methodologically, to the knowledge of the spectral profiles of plant formation types. On a thematic level, the results show that between 1987 and 2018, forest areas decreased by 377,118.7 ha (or 27.4%), while wooded areas and agricultural and soil surfaces increased by 263,172.4 ha (or 19.1%) and 1560 75.5 ha (11.3%). In terms of change, deforestation by increasing agricultural and soil surfaces is noted along the border with the Gambia, savanization and anthropization is noted along the central part, and stability of forest surfaces followed by a slight increase in savannas and agricultural and soil surfaces is noted in the south.