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An assessment of land degradation in the Save catchment of Zimbabwe
Author(s) -
Mambo Julia,
Archer Emma
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2007.00728.x
Subject(s) - land degradation , land cover , environmental degradation , remote sensing , vegetation (pathology) , land use , vegetation cover , degradation (telecommunications) , environmental science , geography , drainage basin , catchment area , population , geographic information system , hydrology (agriculture) , cartography , geology , computer science , ecology , environmental health , engineering , civil engineering , geotechnical engineering , medicine , telecommunications , pathology , biology
The lack of reliable baseline information on land degradation is a hindrance towards its monitoring and mitigation. Of particular interest is the identification of areas susceptible to degradation. In this study, remote sensing and GIS technologies were applied to detect and map susceptibility to land degradation in Buhera district, in Save catchment, Zimbabwe. Data used included Landsat TM and ETM imagery for 1992 and 2002, agro‐ecological zones, vegetation cover and population density. The study identified five preliminary categories of degradation susceptibility ranging from very high to low.