Volume 22, Issue 4-3, December 2018
STUDY AND DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS OF FOREST COVER CHANGES OF BELEZMA-ALGERIA
Authors: Amina Barbache, Yassine Beghami, Hassen Benmessaoud
Abstract: This study aims to analyze the changes of forest cover in the region of Belezma-BATNA in North Algeria, during a period of 31 years (1986 to 2017), based on the use of remote sensing data (diachronic analysis of satellite images Landsat) by calculating indices (NDVI and NDWI). The results revealed significant changes during this period. Regressive changes in vegetation cover, particularly between 2000 and 2017. This degradation is mainly located in the southern and southeastern part of the Belezma forest resulting from several natural and anthropogenic factors. It can be considered that drought is one of the main causes causing the regressive change of forest during this period with other factors that promote this degradation such as overgrazing, fire, phytosanitary problems (caterpillar processionary), etc.
Keywords: Remote sensing; change detection; analysis of forest; forest cover; Diachronic analysis
Article info: 253-263
Received: September 07, 2018 | Revised: December 20, 2018 | Accepted: December 21, 2018