ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATION COVER STATUS IN DRY LANDS OF THE SUDAN USING SOCIAL AND TERRESTRIAL DATA
ABSTRACT: The current study
was conducted in 2015 in Bara Locality, North Kordofan, Sudan. The study area
has experienced recurrent drought spells since 1970s of the past century. The
main objective of this study was to assess and map the vegetation cover in the
area using social, terrestrial and remotely sensed data. To accomplish the
above mentioned objective, the study was based on qualitative and quantitative
data. In qualitative data, household survey was conducted in which 100
respondents were randomly interviewed. Quantitative data was collected using
terrestrial inventory and satellite imageries. In terrestrial inventory, 22 ground
control points (GCPs) were randomly registered using GPS in order to get
general overview of the land cover of the study area. In each GCP, tree species
by number was inventoried within an area of 1 ha. Remote sensing data, covering
the target study area, were acquainted using LANDSAT5 imageries (2014) with
spatial resolution of 30×30 m. Results of the household survey revealed that
only 13 shrub/tree species mentioned by 45% of the respondents, while only 9
woody species were identified, belonging to 8 families from terrestrial inventory.
The results of the household survey, 45% of the respondents, indicated that
vegetation cover was very good 20 years ago. The study categorized the present
land cover as woody vegetation (19%), Acacia senegal stands (5%), shrubs i.e.
Leptadenia pyrotechnica and Acacia nubica (18%), small scale farms and grasses
(19%) and sandy soil and dunes (39%). The results of the land cover
distribution indicated that vegetation cover decreased by 24% while sand/sand
dunes was increased by 21% from 1985 to 2015. The study concluded that the
study area is under threat of land degradation that may lead to depletion of
vegetation cover and decline land productivity.
Keywords: Acacia senegal, land
cover, remote sensing, sand dune, Sudan
Penulis: MOHAMMED HAMED
MOHAMMED
Kode Jurnal: jpkehutanandd160231
