Approaching the Tunisian Human Environment by Using RS and the Dasymetric Method

Abstract

Among cartographic population density methods, the choropleth method is obviously one of the most used. Two reasons explain this statement: the cartographer’s ease of implementation and the reader’s ease of understanding. Nevertheless, in many cases, this cartographic method may lead to misleading and erroneous results. This happens especially when the case studies reveal high various inner densities, because of the use of calculated density means, the numbers, shapes and sizes of the counting numbers. For spaces observing a high inner heterogeneity, it was proven that the choropleth method has many lacks and deficiencies related in the literature. A few cartographers prefer the dasymetric method based on satellite images since this latter describes more closely the reality of the population distribution even though this method is more difficult to implement. In most cases studies, the dasymetric method was applied to large spaces, whether national or regional, scarcely to urban spaces. The purpose of the chapter book is to give a real idea on the human environment of Tunisia. This will be achieved through the elaboration of a 1:1000000 scale dasymetric map of the population of Tunisia. This map should be the first since similar work on the issue was never achieved on Tunisia. It would portray the great disparities characterizing spaces’ occupation: rural vs urban areas, oasis vs deserts, plains vs mountains, coast vs interior and so on.