Geospatial Technologies’ Concepts and Methods for Land Use Land Cover Dynamics Mapping: Evidence from White Nile State, Sudan
摘要
Transformations of the planet Earth’s landscapes in the twenty-first century have become substantial, driven by both natural processes and human activities aimed at fulfilling human life requirements. Because of climate change and population growth, there is a pressing need for efficient resource exploitation and livelihood alternatives that alleviate the undesired alterations in the physical characteristics of the land. To properly manage land and ecosystems, systematic monitoring and documentation of land use land cover changes (LULCC) are critical and decisive for informing policies. Geospatial technologies and approaches are tremendously effective tools for mapping and tracking LULCC over time and space. This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of these methods. The discussion starts by exploring the different forms of geospatial technology’s data process methods that are utilized for LULCC mapping and monitoring. Then, it characterizes approaches to categorizing geospatial data for LULCC mapping. The chapter further delves into the application of geospatial methods for LULC analysis in the White Nile State of Sudan. Satellite images obtained from ESA to analyze LULC changes over three decades, from 1992 to 2020, at intervals of 4 years. Results indicate that LULC in the study area is growingly dominated by agriculture, covering (47.43%), followed by grassland (26.71%), water bodies (2.98%), forest, shrubland, wetland, and urban areas at 10.56%, 9.94%, 0.30%, and 0.16%, respectively. From 1992 to 2020, the expanses of agriculture, forest, and urban increased by 1.93%, 0.55%, and 0.11%, consecutively, while grassland, water body, and bare areas declined by 2.28%, 0.41%, and 0.01%, respectively.