GC43B-1187
Assessing Land Management Changes and Population Dynamics in Central Burkina Faso in Response to Climate Change.
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Patricia Emma Kabore Bontogho1, Ibrahim Boubacar1, Abel Afouda2 and Helmschrot Joerg3, (1)WASCAL, Climate change and water resources, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, (2)West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL); Graduate Research Program of, Cotonou, Benin, (3)Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management, Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants (BEE), University of Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg, Germany
Abstract:
Assessing landscape and population’s dynamics at watershed level contribute to address anthropogenic aspect of climate change issue owing to the close link between LULC and climate changes. The objective of this study is to explore the dependencies of population to land management changes in Massili basin (2612 km²) located in central Burkina Faso. A set of three satellite scenes was acquired for the years 1990 (Landsat 7 ETM), 2002 (Landsat 7 ETM+) and 2013 (Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS) from the Global Land Cover Facility’s (GLCF) website. Census data were provided by the National institute of statistics and demographic (INSD). The satellites images were classified using object-oriented classification method which was supported by historic maps and field data. Those were collected in order to allow for class definition, verification and accuracy assessments. Based on the developed land use maps, change analysis was carried out using post classification comparison in GIS. Finally, derived land use changes were compared with census data in order to explore links between population dynamics and the land use changes. It was found in 1990 that Massili watershed LULC was dominated by Tree/shrub savannah (69%, 1802.28 km2 ), Farm/Fallow was representing 22%, Gallery forest (4%), Settlement (3%), Barre soil (1%), Water bodies (1%). In 2002, the major landscape was Farm (54%). Tree/Shrub savannas were reduced to 36% while the Gallery Forest was decreased to1% of the basin area. The situation has also slightly changed in 2013 with an increase of the area devoted to farm/fallow and settlement at a rate of 3% and Gallery forest has increased to 4%. The changes in land use are in agreement with a notable increase in population. The analysis of census data showed that the number of inhabitants increased from 338 inhabitants per km2 in 1990 to 1150 inhabitants per km2 in 2013. As shown by statistical analysis (Kendall correlation tau=0.9), there is a close relation between both dynamics.
