The study examines the changes in sub-Saharan¿s natural land cover resources for a 25 year period. We assess these changes in four broad land cover classes ¿ forests, natural non-forest vegetation, agriculture and barren ¿ by using high spatial resolution Earth observing satellites. Two sets of sample images, one ¿historical¿ targeted at 1975 and a second ¿recent¿ targeted at the year 2000, have been selected through a stratified random sampling technique over the study area, targeting a sampling rate of 1% in each of the strata. The results, presented at eco-region level and aggregated at sub-Saharan level, show a 57% increase in agriculture area at the expense of natural vegetation which has itself decreased by 21% over the period, with nearly 5 million hectares forest and non-forest natural vegetation lost per year. The impacts of these changes on the environment on one site and on the socio-economy on the other site are discussed and possible pressures on human well being are highlighted.
BRINK Andreas;
EVA Hugh;
2009-10-09
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
JRC41874
0143-6228,
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/apgeog,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC41874,
10.1016/j.apgeog.2008.10.004,
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