Detecting and Analyzing Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Region of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar, Libya Using Time-Series Landsat Data from 1985 to 2017

Abstract

The region of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar in northeastern Libya has undergone rapid, wide-ranging changes in the land use and land cover (LULC) intensified by the conversion of natural resources for food purpose, urbanization, and other socioeconomic benefits. This study examined the use of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing techniques to gain a quantitative understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC. In addition, the major factors behind LULC changes and decline of natural vegetation in the region were analyzed. A post-classification comparison approach was used to detect LULC changes in the study area between 1985 and 2017 using four Landsat images from 1985, 2000, 2010, and 2017. The observed changes were indicative of a decrease in the expanse of the natural Mediterranean forest which lost 9018 ha over 32 years, 39% of its total area, with the highest deforestation rate registered between 2010 and 2017 estimated at 513 ha. year−1. Orchards and rain-fed agriculture lands gained 4095 ha, which matches 55% of initial area, whereas the land under irrigated crops increased by 2266 ha, about 85% of the original area. The area of urban and built-up land in 2017 was more than double in 1985 and achieved the highest urbanization rate between 2010 and 2017 at 203 ha.year−1. Results indicate an unstable trend of bare and low vegetation lands which generally increased by about 50%. From the outcomes of this research, it is strongly recommended that urgent measures be taken to conserve the natural forest and to achieve a rational use of agricultural land in the region of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar.

Natural Groundwater Recharge Response to Climate Variability and Land Cover Change Perturbations in Basins with Contrasting Climate and Geology in Tanzania

“…The decrease in wetlands and grassland at the expense of increasing the agricultural land has also been reported elsewhere [54]. The expansion of urban areas at the expense of agricultural land was also reported in previous studies, highlighting some potential impacts of such land cover changes on water resources [55][56][57][58].…”

“…Reportedly, the absence of or the weakness of institutions, including inept accountability, are some of the factors that encourage the encroachment of forests by either the clearance of vegetation cover for agricultural expansion or by cutting trees for gathering firewood [59,60]. Charcoal making for cooking and business can as well be attributed to the loss of forest cover in the two study areas as discussed previously [55,57]. Forests are also affected by forest fires, which cause excessive forest and woodland degradation due to anthropogenic activities [60].…”

Assessment and Prediction of Land Use/Land Cover Change in the National Capital of Burundi Using Multi-temporary Landsat Data and Cellular Automata-Markov Chain Model

“…Similar trends of LULC change, especially deforestation and agricultural expansion, were globally addressed (FAO, 2016), and in many other developing countries (Alawamy et al, 2020;Berakhi, 2013;Henry et al, 2011;Islam et al, 2018). Interesting LULC change issues in terms of urban sprawl were recently dealt with by Patel et al (2019) in India.…”

Impact of landscape dynamics and intensities on the ecological land of major cities in Ethiopia

“…Furthermore, to measure annual urban expansion, we chose and calculated two indexes-Annual Increase (AI) and Annual Growth Rate (AGR) of urban land (Wu 2013;Meng et al 2020;Zhao and Fan 2020). Annual increase (AI) is efficient to compare the expansion rates for the same city among different periods, while annual growth rate (AGR) is more suitable for comparison among different cities (Alawamy et al 2020;Meng et al 2020). Indexes used to quantify the urban growth rates are defined using Eqs.…”