Characterization of land use dynamics from 1997 to 2017 in the baya river basin (East of the Ivory Coast)

The landscapes of the baya watershed have evolved under the direct and indirect effect of climatic and anthropogenic factors during episodes of drought and the advent of arboriculture as well as the agrarian reforms that have affected the country since the early 1980. in this context, this study assesses the dynamics of land use over the entire watershed (6325.48 km2) between 1979 and 2017 using satellite data (Landsat images). The methodology relies on the use of remote sensing and GIS to analyze the dynamics of the major land cover classes in the study area. These classes concern agricultural plots, natural vegetation, bare soils, water surfaces and urbanized areas. The supervised classification approach of Landsat TM satellite images from 1997, 2007 and Landsat 8 from 2017 made it possible to characterize the vegetation cover with cartographic accuracies of 98% and 97% respectively. Following this treatment, it appears that forest (44.97%) and fallow land (33.41%), which were the most represented vegetation types in the basin in 2007, experienced a significant regression between 2007 and 2017 in favor of crop classes (42.58%) and bare soils or urban areas (13.15%). The regression of plant formations is due to rapid urbanization and the expansion of agricultural areas, in particular the search for fertile land with still traditional cultivation techniques