Diachronic analysis of Landsat satellite images and socioeconomic dynamics in a context of anthropogenic pressure and climatic variability in the Sudano Sahelian environment: case of the rural commune of Nyamina, region of Koulikoro, Mali.

Abstract

In a context of high climatic variability coupled with many anthropogenic pressures, natural resources and the environment face several challenges, including the degradation of plant cover, the decrease in soil fertility, the reduction in the duration of fallow, overgrazing, decrease in agricultural yields, etc. To deal with these multiple challenges, the adoption of new innovative technical strategies and routes, and the use of satellite data from earth observation platforms in the monitoring of ecosystems appear important. This study which combines satellite data and those obtained from field surveys, in situ measures, aims to analyze the dynamics of land use between two periods, in the prism of the socioeconomic situation of the rural commune of Nyamina. It consisted in mapping the land use using Landsat satellite images in 1985 and 2018, then carrying out socioeconomic surveys and in situ measures for the validation of the results obtained. The results of monitoring environmental dynamics in the rural commune of Nyamina over 33 years (from 1985 to 2018) showed a strong degradation of the with a degraded tree -lined savannah and savannah for the benefit of the shrub savannah, bar soils and cultures. The same study, in the same line as others, mainly links this degradation to anthropogenic pressure and climatic variability. These results are indeed confirmed by the data of socioeconomic surveys, where, agriculture is the activity in which almost 90% of respondents are involved in the three sectors, followed by farming, logging and fishing.