Land cover changes in central Sonora, Mexico

Remote sensing techniques have been demonstrated to be very effective tools to help detect, analyze, and evaluate land cover changes in natural areas of the world. Changes in land cover can generally be attributed to either natural or anthropogenic farces. Multitemporal satellite imagery and airborne videography were used to detect, analyze, and evaluate land cover changes in the central region of the Mexican State of: Sonora. Observed land cover changes were analyzed in terms of the productive activity most likely responsible. The ecological consequences for the different impact intensify, area and percent of change are also discussed. Landsat MSS images were classified into five different land cover/land use categories for two time periods (1973 and 1992) and validated using airborne video imagery and fieldwork. About 85% of the entire land cover in the study area changed during that period of time. The Sinaloan thornscrub biotic community class had the highest rate of change; more than 28% of the original class evolved into other biotic categories. The relationship between the land cover change with climatic patterns over the period of time considered is described. Future scenarios for watershed management in the region are analyzed.