Land Saturation in SE Niger: Triangulating Qualitative and Quantitative Information for Critical Assessment of Land Use Trajectories

Land

Anette Reenberg²  Issoufou Maman¹  Ibrahim Bouzou Moussa¹ 

[1] Département de Géographie, Université de Niamey, BP 418, Niamey, Niger; E-Mails:;Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Oster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark; E-Mail:

关键词: satellite image mapping;    Landsat;    land systems;    livelihoods;    Sahel;    population pressure;   

DOI  :  10.3390/land2030508

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The paper analyzes land use changes, notably cropland expansion, in SE-Niger from the mid-1980s to 2011. It scrutinizes land use trajectories and investigates how cultivation shifts between dune landscapes and valleys (bas-fonds) in response to climate, population pressure, and sociocultural opportunities, combining lenses rooted in land change science and the notions of double exposure and human-environmental timelines. Specifically, the interest is directed towards exploring the value of different methods of land use data harvesting. The importance of cropland expansion is assessed in two ways: by interpreting Landsat satellite images and by interviewing local people to obtain qualitative descriptions. The results demonstrate a glaring discrepancy between the assessed land use trends derived from these two data sources. Issues such as important developments in landscape priorities, allocation of cropland between dunes and valleys, possible land saturation, and adaptation to climate change or globalization are portrayed very differently. It is concluded that critical attention to data reliability is crucial to avoid misleading narratives in land change science, especially in places covered by sparse data.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.