Contribution of ETM+ images and GIS for detecting dynamic changes in the steppe area of Naâma, Algeria

Abstract

In this work we propose to highlight the Landsat images contribution for the dynamic monitoring of steppe area. We retained for our analysis, the changes  in the soil surface state occurred since 1957 up to 2002 from MSS, TM and ETM+ images of Landsat. From that time on, three methods of detection of changes were used so as to locate the various areas, which are affected, by a major changes and the sanding up extension inside the studied area of the department of Naâma. These images of Landsat showed an alarming of the sand extension.  Indeed, this analysis revealed that for the all the studied area, the sanding up of space surface passed from 1.38 % in 1957 to 42.9 % in 2002, that is a surface of 1 280 762 ha; what corresponds to an extension of 28 461.4 ha per year.

Keywords:  change detection, sanding Up, remote sensing, Naâma