Spatial modelling of deforestation in southern Cameroon: Spatial disaggregation of diverse deforestation processes

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of the nature of the deforestation process on an empirical spatial model of deforestation and to test a remote-sensing-based methodology to define the appropriate spatial entities for modelling deforestation. The study area is located in southern Cameroon. The study included the production and integration in a geographic information system (GIS) of a database of natural and cultural landscape variables. An empirical spatial model of deforestation was developed by relating a set of variables measuring landscape attributes to the frequency of occurrence of deforestation. The main conclusion of the study is that the definition of the spatial entities used to calibrate a spatial model of deforestation has a significant impact on the model design but not, in this case, on the predictive power of the model. The interpretation of the spatial pattern of forest/non-forest interfaces as detected by remote sensing proved to be efficient in identifying regions affected by different deforestation processes. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.