Monitoring Landcover Changes of the Niger Inland Delta Ecosystem (Mali) by Means of Envisat-Meris Data

Abstract

The Niger Inland Delta is one of the most fragile ecosystems in theSahelian zone of Africa. Annual flooding of vast plains during Septemberto December depends on water levels of the main rivers Niger and Bani.The interaction among pre-flood, flood and post-flood conditionsstrongly affects land cover patterns in and around the delta. Assessingand mapping land cover dynamics is rendered possible by systematicapplication of remote sensing and image analysis. Thus support a betterunderstanding of state and changes in the vulnerable ecosystem.Operational missions of earth observation contribute to theestablishment of multi-seasonal and multi-annual monitoring schemes.This paper aims to show the potential of spectral high-resolutionimaging spectrometry (MERIS) for monitoring spatio-temporal patterns ofland use and land cover change in the Niger Inland Delta. 5 MERISscenes, covering one vegetation-cycle from August 2002 until June 2003,have been used therefore.