Use of remote sensing data and field data to interpret and compare land-use change in the Belhouro region of Sahelian Burkina Faso

In this study, land use in the Belhouro region in Burkina Faso in West Africa is described based upon scientific literature and Landsat-5 Multispectral scanner (MSS) data collected during the dry season of 1986. Previous research data is presented to explain and understand different components of the environment. Most Sahelian countries underwent dramatic social economic and political changes after the severe drought of the 1970's. Most of them had invested in livestock and agriculture in the 1960's to start development, but the drought revealed the inability of this agrarian system to sustain heavy programs of agricultural or industrial development.

Population and livestock pressure and ill-adapted agricultural methods upset the equilibrium of the land, and desertification became acute. The Sahel regions are presently denuded of grassy vegetation for more than six months a year. Climatic factors adversely affect this region, but denudation of the ground is aggravated by human activities such as overgrazing of bovine and ovine livestock, careless land clearing, and shortsighted economic policies and activities. To generate programs to mitigate or reverse the overwhelming denudation of the land, many scientists have used research tools in the study area to collect data and have suggested solutions based on their research. This study, in the Belhouro region of Burkina Faso, uses remote sensing as a tool to collect and compare data for the first time. The Landsat-5 MSS image shows the dramatic extent of the denuded land surface. Based on a pixel land cover analysis of Landsat-5 MSS data with a 0.8-1.1 micrometer waveband from a subset image of the study area and additional analysis of other field data, a strong ratio of denudation to increased population was observed. Using a land-classification procedure, a two-class map of the study site was obtained. A statistical analysis of the sub-pixel Landsat-5 MSS data indicates that denuded land was 86.22 percent in November, 1986 as compared to a figure of just 5.6 percent in 1955.