An Assessment of Land-Use and Land-Cover Dynamics Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in North West Cameroon

Volume 3 - Issue 4

Valentine Asong Tellen*^1,2, Yerima Bernard PK² and Che Vivian Bih³

Received:August 13, 2019;   Published:August 21, 2019

DOI: 10.32474/OAJESS.2019.02.000166

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Abstract

Background: Land-use/land-cover dynamics are occurring rapidly in tropical landscapes. This study aims to assess the trends of land-use /land-cover change around the North West Region of Cameroon during a 27-year period.

Methods: Three cloud-free Landsat images were initially analyzed through visual interpretation and expert judgment. A Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was then used to measure the vegetation vigor, followed by NDVI differencing, which estimated land-use /land-cover change.

Results: The results show that there has been a significant environmental change in the study area. On one hand, the trends of land-use /land-cover (LULC) during the period from 1988-2001 showed positive patterns for forest land (24.1 Km2), built-up areas, farmland including bare ground (302.94 Km2) and water body (13.25 Km2) and negative patterns for secondary, open or degraded forest (-230.67 Km2), Savannah and pasture land (-279.92 Km2). On the other hand, LULC trends for the period 2001-2015 indicate negative patterns of forest cover (-80.093 Km2), Savannah and pasture land (-70.66 Km2), farmland and bare ground (-534.601 Km2) and water body (-14.491 Km2) and positive patterns of secondary and open forest lands (727.469 Km2). In general, NDVI differencing show net negative patterns of forest cover (-55.88 Km2), savannah, pastureland (-350.58 Km2), farmland, bare ground (-231.65 Km2) and water body (-0.83 Km2) and a net positive pattern for secondary and degraded forest (496.80 Km2) during the 27 year period. Natural as well as anthropogenic factors occurring in different forms, accounted for the observed trend in landcover change.

Conclusion: Results revealed that there has been a significant land-use/land-cover change in the study area during the last three decades. NDVI multi-temporal analysis showed to be indispensable for detecting and monitoring LULC changes in the study area. It can be concluded that ongoing unsustainable land-use practices will cause loss and harm to natural forest vegetation systems. Thus, there is the need for a national and local scientific and policy response to reverse land misuse to permit the North West Region of Cameroon to substantively contribute to the improvement of the livelihood of the population in the region.

Keywords:Land-Use Change; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; Deforestation; Reforestation

Abbreviations:ETM+: Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus; FAO: Food And Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; FOECONS: the Forestry and Environmental Conservation Society; FAOSTAT: FAO Statistical Databases; LULC: Land-use land-cover; NDVI: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NIR: the spectral reflectance in the Near Infrared band; NWR: North West Region; OLI: Operational Land Imager; RED: the Red Band; TM: Thematic Mapper; USGS: United States Geological Survey

Abstract| Introduction| Methodology| Data collection| Results| Conclusion| Authors’ contributions| Acknowledgement| Availability of Data and Materials| References|