Three decades of forest cover change in Senegal from remote sensing

Woody vegetation dynamics in the Sahel have been debated since the great droughts of the 1970s–1980s. Given the great importance placed on large-scale greening efforts, for example through the Great Green Wall initiative, the question remains as to whether or not significant greening, particularly in the form of increases in woody vegetation has occurred. Here, we combined high-resolution maps of individual trees, medium resolution satellite observations, and machine learning algorithms to study woody vegetation trends over the last 30 years in Senegal. Results suggest that average tree density has increased from about 12 trees/ha in the 1980s to over 15 trees/ha today. This increase is associated with climatic trends, intense efforts of forest plantations across narrow areas, and limited amounts of agro-forestry. These results have important implications for combating climate change impacts in Senegal and the Sahel in general.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Özdoğan, Mutlu, Govind, Ajit
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	2022-12-30
Subjects:	climate change, climate change adaptation, trees, forestry,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127836
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