Impacts of Biomass Burning on the Land Use / Land Cover Dynamics in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa and Associated Alteration of Local Emission Rates

Abstract:

Biomass burning is a major anthropogenic event in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa (NSSA), which contributes 15-20% of the global annual total of particulate matter emissions from fires. This burning is mostly for agricultural, grazing or hunting purposes, and thus has a great potential for driving changes in the land use and land cover distribution in that region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard both the Terra and Aqua spacecraft have two complimentary data products to support this research: the MOD14/MYD14 active fire products measuring fire locations and strengths, and the MCD12 land cover type product, which includes the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) land-cover classification system used in this analysis. More specifically, the MCD12Q1 tiled data product at 500 m was used to match against the 1 km active fire product resolution for the current analysis. Paired data between instantaneous fire measurements and the underlying land cover types for the particular year over the study period of 2003-2013 reveals a dominant burning of savanna, followed by cropland land cover type throughout the region. There are a few indications of the interchange between savanna and cropland due to burning practices. Even though the fire activity in the whole NSSA region is decreasing at a rate of 1.4%/yr during the study period, some land cover types in parts of NSSA show an increase, including local increases in sensitive land cover types such as forest and wetland, which could have serious ecological implications. The changes in the overall redistribution of biomass burning amongst the different land cover types in NSSA dictate that there is also a redistribution of biomass burning emissions. The extent of these changes will also be covered in this presentation.