Use of Remote Sensing for Monitoring of the Deforestation in Semi-Arid Region Case of the Djelfa Forests (Algeria)

Abstract

The current study is interested in the pilot region of Djelfa steppe located in northern Algeria, where a sizable pastoral activity serves as the foundation of the social organisation and the primary source of income. Today's courses experience a severe degradation that menaces the future of pastoral activity due to the disorganisation of social fabric, the phenomenon of turning into a desert, and eolian erosion. It is in this concern that we worked out a methodological approach aiming at characterising the current ecological situation, by using efficient tools namely: remote sensing and GIS. Thus a card of occupation of the ground containing a characterisation of the various courses of the area was carried out by the use of the Landsat imagery. The results so obtained and other inherent data in the middle of study and with our problems were integrated in a Database with the purpose of placing at the disposal of the decision makers and the specialist’s rational management tools in the fodder resources.