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Remote Sensing
Volume 12
Issue 22
10.3390/rs12223817
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Article

Thirty Years of Land Cover and Fraction Cover Changes over the Sudano-Sahel Using Landsat Time Series

by
Niels Souverijns
1,*,
Marcel Buchhorn
1,
Stéphanie Horion
2,
Rasmus Fensholt
2,
Hans Verbeeck
3,
Jan Verbesselt
4,
Martin Herold
4,
Nandin-Erdene Tsendbazar
4,
Paulo N. Bernardino
4,5,
Ben Somers
5 and
Ruben Van De Kerchove
1
1
Remote Sensing Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
2
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, ster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
3
CAVELab Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium
4
Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
5
Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(22), 3817; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223817
Submission received: 28 September 2020 / Revised: 13 November 2020 / Accepted: 17 November 2020 / Published: 20 November 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Land Cover Change within Semiarid Environments Using Satellite Imagery and GIS)
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Abstract

Historical land cover maps are of high importance for scientists and policy makers studying the dynamic character of land cover change in the Sudano-Sahel, including anthropogenic and climatological drivers. Despite its relevance, an accurate high resolution record of historical land cover maps is currently lacking over the Sudano-Sahel. In this study, 30 m resolution historically consistent land cover and cover fraction maps are provided over the Sudano-Sahel for the period 1986–2015. These land cover/cover fraction maps are achieved based on the Landsat archive preprocessed on Google Earth Engine and a random forest classification/regression model, while historical consistency is achieved using the hidden Markov model. Using these historical maps, a multitude of variability in the dynamic Sudano-Sahel region over the past 30 years is revealed. On the one hand, Sahel-wide cropland expansion and the re-greening of the Sahel is observed in the discrete land cover classification. On the other hand, subtle changes such as forest degradation are detected based on the cover fraction maps. Additionally, exploiting the 30 m spatial resolution, fine-scale changes, such as smallholder or subsistence farming, can be detected. The historical land cover/cover fraction maps presented in this study are made available via an open-access platform.
Keywords: Landsat; land cover classification; cover fractions; remote sensing; Sahel; Sudano-Sahel; random forest Landsat; land cover classification; cover fractions; remote sensing; Sahel; Sudano-Sahel; random forest
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MDPI and ACS Style

Souverijns, N.; Buchhorn, M.; Horion, S.; Fensholt, R.; Verbeeck, H.; Verbesselt, J.; Herold, M.; Tsendbazar, N.-E.; Bernardino, P.N.; Somers, B.; et al. Thirty Years of Land Cover and Fraction Cover Changes over the Sudano-Sahel Using Landsat Time Series. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 3817. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223817

AMA Style

Souverijns N, Buchhorn M, Horion S, Fensholt R, Verbeeck H, Verbesselt J, Herold M, Tsendbazar N-E, Bernardino PN, Somers B, et al. Thirty Years of Land Cover and Fraction Cover Changes over the Sudano-Sahel Using Landsat Time Series. Remote Sensing. 2020; 12(22):3817. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223817

Chicago/Turabian Style

Souverijns, Niels, Marcel Buchhorn, Stéphanie Horion, Rasmus Fensholt, Hans Verbeeck, Jan Verbesselt, Martin Herold, Nandin-Erdene Tsendbazar, Paulo N. Bernardino, Ben Somers, and et al. 2020. "Thirty Years of Land Cover and Fraction Cover Changes over the Sudano-Sahel Using Landsat Time Series" Remote Sensing 12, no. 22: 3817. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223817

APA Style

Souverijns, N., Buchhorn, M., Horion, S., Fensholt, R., Verbeeck, H., Verbesselt, J., Herold, M., Tsendbazar, N.-E., Bernardino, P. N., Somers, B., & Van De Kerchove, R. (2020). Thirty Years of Land Cover and Fraction Cover Changes over the Sudano-Sahel Using Landsat Time Series. Remote Sensing, 12(22), 3817. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12223817

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