Analysis of Land Use Change in the N'ZI Watershed of Côte d'Ivoire Using Landsat Satellite Images

• Published in: Earth and space science (Hoboken, N.J.) N.J.), 2023-03, Vol.10 (3), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Yao, K. L., Kouakou, K. E., Kouassi, A. M., Deguy, A. J.‐P., Camara, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classification; Côte d’Ivoire; Desertification; Geographic information systems; Land use; Landsat; Landsat satellite images; Landsat satellites; Methods; N'ZI watershed; Natural resources; Population growth; Remote sensing; Vegetation; Watersheds
• ISSN: 2333-5084; 2333-5084
• DOI: 10.1029/2022EA002744

Uncontrolled population growth and strong industrialization are enormous pressures on natural resources. To monitor land use changes in the N'ZI watershed, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) were used from three satellite images: Landsat 4 and 5 (1986), Landsat 7 (2000), and Landsat 8 (2020). The method of supervised classification and calculation of spectral indices was used in this work. The results of the analysis identified six land use classes that changed over the 1986–2000, 2000–2020, and 1986–2020 periods. Water surfaces showed a decrease from −64.95% to −52.47% over the period (2000–2020 and 1986–2020). The forest class showed an average decrease of −86.93%. The savannah class had a reduction of −3.97% and the agricultural class of −9.30% between 1986 and 2020. All this desertification has been to the advantage of the great increase of dwellings‐bare soil of 373.63% and of the weakly covered grounds of 10.60%. These results allowed the detection of different spatial and temporal changes in the N'ZI watershed, creating an awareness to control land occupancy. Key Points The land use study of the N'ZI watershed is based on Landsat images of 1986, 2000, and 2020 years using the supervised classification method The estimation of the areas of change in land use classes in 1986, 2000, and 2020 is done using ArcGIS and ENVI software To structure the evolution of changes in land use classes between the periods 1986–2000, 1986–2020, and 2000–2020