Contribution of Landsat images to the study of land-use development over the period 1987-2018, in the SAÏSS plain in Morocco.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the evolution of land cover / use for the period (1987 - 2018). The study area concerns the Saïss plain which is a very important economic region of the country. The adopted methodology begins first with the calculation of indices (NDVI: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDWI: Normalized Difference Water Index and NDBI: Normalized Difference Built-up Index) then the classification of 4 Landsat images from 1987, 2003, 2014 and 2018 with the maximum likelihood algorithm. The precision of image segmentation is determined by the kappa coefficient using the confusion matrix (the precision varies between 0.83 and 0.87). Areas of irrigated land, olive trees and urban areas increased respectively by 123%, 136% and 115% between 1987 and 2018. On the other hand, for areas of forest, rangelands and arable land, they decreased respectively by 10%, 6% and-29%.