Assessment of spatio-temporal dynamics of land use/cover change in the Fresco Lagoon Landscape, Cote d’Ivoire

Climate-change and/or climate-variability is affecting the temporal and spatial distribution of ecosystems and human activities at the landscape scale. There are implications of land use/cover change on ecosystems as well as human activities at the landscape scale, because of the combined actions of climate variability and human activities remains scant. Understanding these variations might improve our understanding of how to address ecosystems and human communities’ resilience to extreme climate events. The present study seeks to understand the historical dynamics in the landscape by reviewing the combined influence of nature and anthropogenic activities in the Fresco lagoon landscape (FLL). This present study employed fused layers of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Tasseled cap indices (greenness, brightness and wetness) and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) derived from Landsat 5 (thematic mapper) and 8 (Operational Land Imager (OLI) /Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)) for 1990 and 2017 respectively to map and detect variations in land use/cover in the 27 years period. Annual rates of change of the land use/cover types in the landscape were computed. The baseline year 1990 was dominated by closed forest (43%), followed by food crops and tree crops of equal proportions (20% each). In 2017, tree crops and open forest coverage had expanded by 15% and 7% respectively while closed forest dwindled to 22% and food crops lands stabilized. Within this same period, mangrove forest areas in the landscape reduced. The FLL is faced with degradation and depletion of forests and mangroves to make way for tree crops expansion. Meanwhile human livelihoods have over the years continued to center around food crops, mangrove and forest products. There is the need to enforce forest and mangrove protection for sustainable resource landscape services delivery particular for the poor. Key words: Climate change, Cote D’Ivoire, Fresco Lagoon, Land use, mangroves