TITLE:
Ecological Zones Degradation Analysis in Central Sudan during a Half Century Using Remote Sensing and GIS
AUTHORS:
Nadir A. Hameid Mohamed, A. Bannari, Hassan Mohamed Fadul, Sumia Zakieldeen
KEYWORDS:
Ecological Zones, Climate Change, Change Detection, SPOT-VEG, NDVI, Sudan
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Remote Sensing,
Vol.5 No.4,
December
19,
2016
ABSTRACT: Since the last assessment of ecological zones of Sudan conducted in 1958 by Harrison
and Jackson, the vegetation types, cover, and its distribution have undergone remarkable
changes; this change occurs in most of the predominant ecological zones, particularly
those which are currently affected by environmental degradation and desertification
due to climate change impact on vegetation cover and rainfall amounts and
its distribution. In addition, during the last five decades, Sudan has suffered from
environmental devastating changes that have undermined food security, which is
strongly linked to human displacement and related conflicts. In this study, SPOTVEG
NDVI data acquired between 2000 and 2010 were used to produce a vegetation
cover map, which was integrated with rainfall map to produce updated ecological
zones map for the study area in 2010. This map was compared to that produced in
1958 to analyze the change during the last five decades. The obtained results showed
drastic change concerning different ecological zones. The desert class increased by
11%. The Semi-Desert class decreased by approximately 13.2%. The woodland savannah
class increased by 6.8%. While, the Mountain vegetation areas decreased approximately
by 3%. Finally, the wetland areas completely disappeared in 2010. These
results show that during the period 1958-2010, climate change impact increased desertification
process, destroyed ecological zones, especially wetland, as well the ecosystems
diversity in Central Sudan.