Analysis of the stratification of vegetation classes in the Miombo forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo
RESUME
Description of the subject. This study aims at mapping and discriminating the different strata of land cover classes of the Miombo forests of the province of Haut-Katanga in DRC.
Objective. The objective of this study is to identify the vegetation classes of the Miombo forests with the sole purpose of assessing the land cover dynamics of these ecosystems in the Upper Katanga Province (DRC) which are facing important drivers of deforestation, namely: slash and burn agriculture, wood fuel exploitation (carbonization), late bushfires, and artisanal mineral exploitation and to a large extent, demographic pressure.
Methods. Landsat 8 TM, OLI images from June 2018 were processed and analyzed in this study. To ensure the quality of the accuracy of the classification of vegetation classes, 519 points from a random and stratified sampling were generated using the Random tool. In addition, high-resolution Google Earth imagery and field data were used as a reference (ground truth) during the validation analyses of the stratified vegetation class map of Miombo forests. By comparing the reference data (Ground Truth) and the spatio-map resulting from the classification, it was possible to perform a statistical validation of the map produced.
Results. The analysis on the stratification of the vegetation classes of the Miombo forests of the DRC in 2018, highlighted three (03) main strata: (1) Undegraded open forest (Primary Forest); (2) Degraded open forest (Secondary Forest); (3) Savannah zones which include shrubby savannahs, grassy savannahs, savannah forests, and agricultural zones) and (4) Other land use classes: Water and anthropized zones.
Conclusion. At the end of its analysis three main vegetation classes of the Miombo forests were highlighted, these are the strata: (1) Undegraded open forest (Primary Forest); (2) Degraded open forest (Secondary Forest); (3) Savannah zones which include shrub savannahs, grassy savannahs, savannah forests and agricultural areas).
Serge M. Kalawu, Michel K. Ngoy, Innocent Ombeni, Landing Mane, Papy-Claude Bolaluembe Boliale, Joël Tungi-Tungi, Héritier Kaki
