Spatio-temporal mutations of land use in the rural commune of Tanda in Niger

Abstract

The spatio-temporal analysis of land use in the commune of Tanda shows that this commune, like many others in Niger, is experiencing significant changes in the evolution of its landscape, the main causes of which are anthropogenic and climatic factors. In the present study, the exploitation of multi-date Landsat satellite images and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) made it possible to trace the mutations that occurred between 1985 and 2025 and identify the general trend of this landscape dynamic. The results obtained highlight the changes that the different land use units have undergone. Thus, the wooded-shrubby savanna, water bodies and flood zones have decreased in area between 1985 and 2025, while rainfed and irrigated crops, bare or degraded soils, and human settlements have marked a spatial extension for the same period. These spatio-temporal transformations of the natural environment of this administrative entity can impact local socio-economic conditions, in particular on the availability and access to natural resources on which the populations partly depend.

Understanding these dynamics is fundamental for the sustainable management of these (natural resources) and territorial planning adapted to the environmental, demographic and climatic realities of the commune.