Land Use and Land Cover Change in Northeast Gadarif State: Case of El Rawashda Forest, Sudan

Yousif Elnour Yagoub^1,2*, Zhang Bo¹, Ji Ding-min¹, Abdelraheim Elobeid Jahelnabi^1,3, Sona Mohammed Fadoul^1,2

¹College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.
²Department of Forest Conservation and Protection of Forest, Faculty of Forestry, University of Khartoum, Shambat, Sudan.
³Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Shambat, Sudan.

DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2015.72013                

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to detecting the land use and land cover change (LULC), using remote sensing techniques, then identify the reasons for rangeland and tree cover degradation in El Rawashda Forest, Gadarif State, Sudan. The study has conducted field experiment developed on an area of 20 feddans that was affected by deterioration in the forest and to assess the best method for rehabilitation of the vegetation cover in the area of study. The experimental area was divided into 5 blocks; each block consisted of 4 treatments: grass seeds and Talih (Acacia seyal var. seyal); sowing seeds just before autumn, sowing seeds after disc ploughing, sowing seeds using water harvesting technique and control (no seeding). In the present study an attempt has been made to analyze and monitor the LULC changes using multi‐temporal Landsat data deterioration in the forest and to assess the best method for restoration of the vegetation. In the present study, an attempt has been made to analyze and monitor the LULC changes using multi‐temporal Landsat data for years 1984, 1994 and 2013. LULC grades in the classification scheme are: Trees, Mechanized Rain-fed Agriculture (MRA), Grasses and Bare land. Individual classifications based on maximum likelihood of algorithm were used and the results showed a significant that extensive change of LULC patterns has occurred in all decades in the study area. The results also show Trees class was decreased, while MRA, Grasses and Bare land were increased. The seeding of the forage and Talih seeds after disc plowing gave the best results compared to the other treatments, followed by forage and Talih seed sowing under the water harvesting technique and broadcasting of forage and Talih seeds and finally the control.

Keywords

Land Use and Land Cover, Remote Sensing, Mechanized Rain-Fed Agriculture, El Rawashda Forest

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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