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Analysis of Four Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Semiarid Tunisia Using Google Earth Engine

Kadri, Nesrine ; Jebari, Sihem LU ; Augusseau, Xavier ; Mahdhi, Naceur ; Lestrelin, Guillaume and Berndtsson, Ronny LU orcid (2023) In Remote Sensing 15(13).
Abstract

Semiarid Tunisia is characterized by agricultural production that is delimited by water availability and degraded soil. This situation is exacerbated by human pressure and the negative effects of climate change. To improve the knowledge of long-term (1980 to 2020) drivers for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes, we investigated the semiarid Rihana region in central Tunisia. A new approach involving Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used to map LULC using Landsat imagery and vegetative indices (NDVI, MSAVI, and EVI) by applying a Random Forest (RF) classifier. A Rapid Participatory Systemic Diagnosis (RPSD) was used to consider the relation between LULC changes and their key drivers. The methodology relied on interviews with the local... (More)

Semiarid Tunisia is characterized by agricultural production that is delimited by water availability and degraded soil. This situation is exacerbated by human pressure and the negative effects of climate change. To improve the knowledge of long-term (1980 to 2020) drivers for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes, we investigated the semiarid Rihana region in central Tunisia. A new approach involving Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used to map LULC using Landsat imagery and vegetative indices (NDVI, MSAVI, and EVI) by applying a Random Forest (RF) classifier. A Rapid Participatory Systemic Diagnosis (RPSD) was used to consider the relation between LULC changes and their key drivers. The methodology relied on interviews with the local population and experts. Focus groups were conducted with practicians of the Regueb Agricultural Extension Services, followed by semi-structured interviews with 52 households. Results showed the following: (1) the RF classifier in Google Earth Engine had strong performance across diverse Landsat image types resulting in overall classification accuracy of ≥0.96 and a kappa coefficient ≥0.93; (2) rainfed olive land increased four times during the study period while irrigated agriculture increased substantially during the last decade; rangeland and rainfed annual crops decreased by 58 and 88%, respectively, between 1980 and 2021; (3) drivers of LULC changes are predominately local in nature, including topography, local climate, hydrology, strategies of household, effects of the 2010 revolution, associated increasing demand for natural resources, agricultural policy, population growth, high cost of agricultural input, and economic opportunities. To summarize, changes in LULC in Rihana are an adaptive response to these various factors. The findings are important to better understand ways towards sustainable management of natural resources in arid and semiarid regions as well as efficient methods to study these processes.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
GEE, LULC, random forest, RPSD, semiarid Tunisia, soil erosion, water scarcity
in
Remote Sensing
volume
15
issue
13
article number
3257
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85165180930
ISSN
2072-4292
DOI
10.3390/rs15133257
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: R.B. & S.J. acknowledge the support of the Strategic Research Area: The Middle East in the Contemporary World (MECW) at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. as well as the European Union Horizon 2020 program FASTER project, grant agreement No. [810812]. All the authors would also like to thank the national experts, the staff of the Regional commission for agricultural development at Sidi Bouzid (CRDA) including the territorial extension unit of Regueb (CTV), as well as the local population of Rihana. Funding Information: This research was supported by the climate change adaptation program for vulnerable rural territories of Tunisia (PACTE), a program implemented by the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture with funding from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
id
66ee2293-ef3c-45d9-be96-148fa18467cd
date added to LUP
2023-08-17 15:24:04
date last changed
2023-10-10 14:46:00
@article{66ee2293-ef3c-45d9-be96-148fa18467cd,
  abstract     = {{<p>Semiarid Tunisia is characterized by agricultural production that is delimited by water availability and degraded soil. This situation is exacerbated by human pressure and the negative effects of climate change. To improve the knowledge of long-term (1980 to 2020) drivers for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes, we investigated the semiarid Rihana region in central Tunisia. A new approach involving Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used to map LULC using Landsat imagery and vegetative indices (NDVI, MSAVI, and EVI) by applying a Random Forest (RF) classifier. A Rapid Participatory Systemic Diagnosis (RPSD) was used to consider the relation between LULC changes and their key drivers. The methodology relied on interviews with the local population and experts. Focus groups were conducted with practicians of the Regueb Agricultural Extension Services, followed by semi-structured interviews with 52 households. Results showed the following: (1) the RF classifier in Google Earth Engine had strong performance across diverse Landsat image types resulting in overall classification accuracy of ≥0.96 and a kappa coefficient ≥0.93; (2) rainfed olive land increased four times during the study period while irrigated agriculture increased substantially during the last decade; rangeland and rainfed annual crops decreased by 58 and 88%, respectively, between 1980 and 2021; (3) drivers of LULC changes are predominately local in nature, including topography, local climate, hydrology, strategies of household, effects of the 2010 revolution, associated increasing demand for natural resources, agricultural policy, population growth, high cost of agricultural input, and economic opportunities. To summarize, changes in LULC in Rihana are an adaptive response to these various factors. The findings are important to better understand ways towards sustainable management of natural resources in arid and semiarid regions as well as efficient methods to study these processes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kadri, Nesrine and Jebari, Sihem and Augusseau, Xavier and Mahdhi, Naceur and Lestrelin, Guillaume and Berndtsson, Ronny}},
  issn         = {{2072-4292}},
  keywords     = {{GEE; LULC; random forest; RPSD; semiarid Tunisia; soil erosion; water scarcity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{13}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Remote Sensing}},
  title        = {{Analysis of Four Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Semiarid Tunisia Using Google Earth Engine}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs15133257}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/rs15133257}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}