Using the Landsat Archive to Estimate and Map Changes in Agriculture, Forests, and other Land Cover Types in East Africa
Abstract
Every country's land is distributed among different cover types, such as: agriculture; forests; rangeland; urban areas; and barren lands. Changes in the distribution of these classes can inform us about many things, including: population pressure; effectiveness of preservation efforts; desertification; and stability of the food supply. Good assessment of these changes can also support wise planning, use, and preservation of natural resources. We are using the Landsat archive in two ways to provide needed information about land cover change since the year 2000 in seven East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). First, we are working with local experts to interpret historical land cover change from historical imagery at a probabilistic sample of 2000 locations in each country. This will provide a statistical estimate of land cover change since 2000. Second, we will use the same data to calibrate and validate annual land cover maps for each country. Because spatial context can be critical to development planning through the identification of hot spots, these maps will be a useful complement to the statistical, country-level estimates of change. The Landsat platform is an ideal tool for mapping land cover change because it combines a mix of appropriate spatial and spectral resolution with unparalleled length of service (Landsat 1 launched in 1972). Pilot tests have shown that time series analysis accessing the entire Landsat archive (i.e., many images per year) improves classification accuracy and stability. It is anticipated that this project will meet the civil needs of both governmental and non-governmental users across a range of disciplines.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMGC11F..01H
- Keywords:
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- 1616 Climate variability;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1632 Land cover change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1640 Remote sensing;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1655 Water cycles;
- GLOBAL CHANGE