Multi-Decadal Spatial and Temporal Forest Cover Change Analysis of Nkandla Natural Reserve, South Africa
Por:
Gyamfi-Ampadu, Enoch, Gebreslasie, Michael, Mendoza-Ponce, Alma
Publicada:
26 nov 2022
Ahead of Print:
1 feb 2021
Resumen:
Forest cover change analyses have an essential role in forest
management. Thus, this study adopted Landsat satellite imagery to assess
the decadal spatiotemporal forest cover changes that occurred between
1989 and 2019 and predicted the 2029 land cover distribution of the
Nkandla forest reserve, facing encroachment threats. The support vector
machine algorithm and Land Change Modeling were utilized to classify and
detect changes that occurred between 1989-1999, 1999-2009, 2009-2019.
The Markov Chain Model and Multi-Layer Perceptron were adopted for the
future land cover prediction. Consistent changes through
inter-transitioning between the land cover types (closed canopy forest,
open canopy forest, grassland, and bare sites) were detected. The closed
canopy forest increased from 883.46 ha to 1059.23 ha, whereas the open
canopy forest declined from 1091.89 ha to 910.60 ha between 1989 and
2019. Generally, the observed changes were caused by ecological
processes and human disturbances. The future cover prediction indicated
that the closed canopy forest will decline between 2019 and 2029,
whereas the open canopy forest, grassland, and bare sites will increase.
The information provided through this study will support the management
of the Nkandla forest to ensure its continual supply of ecosystem
services of national and global importance.
Filiaciones:
Gyamfi-Ampadu, Enoch:
Univ KwaZulu Natal, Sch Agr Earth & Environm Sci, Westville Campus, Durban, South Africa
Gebreslasie, Michael:
Univ KwaZulu Natal, Sch Agr Earth & Environm Sci, Westville Campus, Durban, South Africa
Mendoza-Ponce, Alma:
Int Inst Appl Syst Anal, Ecosyst Serv & Management, Laxenburg, Austria
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Ctr Ciencias Atmosfera, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
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