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López, L. D., & Saavedra, G. A. (2023). Detailed Land Cover and Land Use Mapping, A New Approach: Case Study, Usumacinta Watershed, Mexico.

European Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 11(1). 408-418.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.111.12457

Land use–related research, notably for agriculture and forestry, has a long history of direct and

strong application to land management. A capacity for detecting and reporting land use change

is critical to evaluating and monitoring trends in natural resource conditions and the

effectiveness of public investment in natural resource management. The information needs for

such a synthesis are diverse; remote sensing has an important contribution to making and

documenting the actual change in land use/land cover in regional and global scales [3] and in

the last decades because of availability of high-resolution satellite, at local scales.

Understanding the dynamics of agricultural change (or agricultural trajectories) is an

important dimension of sustainability and a necessary first step to evaluating land management

strategies in relation to local livelihoods [4]. A capacity for detecting and reporting land use

change is critical to evaluating and monitoring trends in natural resource conditions and the

effectiveness of public investment in their management. Land cover change occurs at different

spatial scales, range from local to global geographical scales; moreover, there appears to be a

gap in the available information for local decision-making process and rational planning.

In Mexico, despite ongoing mapping land use - land cover efforts; there remains a need for

development of basic datasets providing quantitative and spatial land use/land cover

information, mainly a detailed scale. Rates of forest loss are accelerating due to extensive

grassing, subsistence agriculture and shifting cultivation. National Institute of Statistic and

Geography provides spatial information about land cover and land use, at the national level,

scale of 1:250,000. This information is not suitable for local planning purposes; this is

particularly evident in highlands, where farming systems are set up in small plots (between

one and five hectares); therefore, by scale limitations of products used (LANDSAT images, 30

meters spatial resolution), mapping of land use and land cover on that small plots, it is no

thinkable. In cartography products of Landsat images, agriculture on small plots are not

mapped as a separate units, and is mainly associated with grassland and secondary vegetation,

and in a lesser proportion with primary vegetation.

Recent availability of high-resolution satellite remote-sensing images coupling with advances

digital image processing techniques offers an improved opportunity to map in a more detailed

scale the land use and land cover, which will be an important tool to monitor the environment

at local scales. In these sense it is the objective of this study, conduct a detailed mapping of land

use-land cover in Usumacinta watershed, using high-resolution satellite images and analyze

changes occurred when is compared with INEGI map

METHODS

The Study Area

The Usumacinta watershed, an important trans-boundary basin encompasses 77.265 km2,

from which the 43.6% is located in Mexico (area considered in this study), 56.3% in Guatemala

and 0.04% in Belize (figure 1) In Mexico is one of the most important watersheds and includes

5 municipalities of Tabasco State, 15 of Chiapas, and one of Campeche. The area has an average

annual precipitation ranging from 1200 to 4000 mm; supports a population of about 1.000.000

inhabitants distributed in 5000 localities. The area includes 12 natural protected areas (8.500

km2).

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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 11, Issue 1, February-2023

Figure 1. Study area, Usumacinta watershed, Mexico

In the Usumacinta watershed in Mexico the native vegetation is grouped into three main

ecosystems, namely: hydric vegetation (mangroves, “popal” and “tular”), coniferous and oaks

forest (includes the mountain Mesophyll Forest) and the Tropical Forest Evergreen [5]. The

impact of human activities, mainly those related to agriculture and livestock, which in some

areas date from the time of the colony has affected in a moderate to severe such ecosystems.

The watershed is constituted by two well defined sectors: Low land (low Usumacinta) and

highland (Lacantun-Chijoy); in the low land the livestock is the principal activity (65%) and the

crops 35%. The highland area the land cover consist of coniferous and oaks forest, mountain

Mesophyll Forest and the Tropical Evergreen forest, on different stages of degradation. The

land use consists of extensive livestock and annual (mainly maize and beans) and perennial

crops (coffee, oil palm). Shifting cultivation which consists of various slash-and-burn methods,

is one of the most widespread farming systems. It is stablished in small plots (< 5 hectares) in

areas of moderate to steep land, it is dedicated to self-sufficiency with weak technology and

little capital.

Methodology

Figure 2 shows the general methodological scheme of the procedure used in this research is

shows in figure 2. The data used in this study include:

• High resolution multispectral images (30 SPOT images of spatial resolution 1.5 meters,

2013, 2014, 2016).

• Sentinel images (2021, 2022) spatial resolution 10 meters.

• LANDSAT images (2021), spatial resolution 30 meters

• Land cover and land use, series VII, INEGI, 2016 [6]

• Digital Elevation Model (spatial resolution 15 meters) [7]