TITLE:
Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULC) in the North Talihya River Watershed (Lubero Territory, Eastern DR Congo)
AUTHORS:
Moïse Musubao Kapiri, Jonathan Ahadi Mahamba, Gloire Kayitoghera Mulondi, Walere Muhindo Sahani
KEYWORDS:
Landscape, Deforestation, Savannization, Cool Highlands, Congo-Nile Crest
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: On the Equator, the Talihya North watershed is a vast area of nearly
581.7 km2 that extends from the Cool Highlands on the Congo-Nile
Crest in Lubero Territory to the Rift Valley in the Virunga National Park in
Beni Territory. This vast territory has an agropastoral vocation. Indeed,
agricultural activities combined with the high population density in this
watershed generate modifications in the landscape structure. The objective of
this paper is to study the dynamics of land use from 1987 to 2020. To achieve
this, two Landsat TM+ and ETM+ images and one Sentinel-2 image were analyzed.
After the classification of the images based on the Maximum Likelihood
algorithm, this study shows that two processes are evident in the landscape of
the North Talihya watershed: deforestation and savannization. Forests that
occupied 253.11 km2 in 1987 have decreased to 201.12 km2 in 2001 and to 123.04 km2 in 2020. These area balances indicate that
the natural forest formations in the North Talihya watershed have been
converted primarily to croplands and fallows. The estimated annual
deforestation rate between 1987 and 2020 is 2.18%. With this high rate of
deforestation, mechanisms to restore degraded forest ecosystems in this
watershed will need to be put in place. The sustainable management of residual
forest ecosystems that have escaped human pressure is necessary for the
conservation of biodiversity for future generations.