The Land cover of Africa for the year 2000

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The Land cover of Africa for the year 2000

• P. Mayaux, E. Bartholomé, M. Massart, C. Van
  Cutsem, A. Cabral,
• Nonguierma, O. Diallo, C. Pretorius, M. Thompson,
  M. Cherlet,
• J-F. Pekel, P. Defourny, M. Vasconcelos, A. Di
  Gregorio, S.Fritz,
• G. De Grandi , C.Elvidge, P.Vogt, A. Belward
•  

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The overall context

• 30,000,000 km2
• From dry deserts to tropical rain forests
• Evergreen (forests, deserts) and seasonal
  (savannahs, grasslands) ecosystems
• Isolated continent Þ no overlap with other
  windows
• 1 continental window (baseline map) regional
  windows (improvements)

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Characteristics of the product

• Collaboration between many institutions FAO,
  Instituto Investigação Cientifica Tropical
  (Lisbon), Université Catholique de Louvain
  (Louvain-la-Neuve), Agrhymet (Niamey), CSIR
  (Pretoria)
• Various techniques statistical averaging and
  clustering (Louvain-la-Neuve), composition on
  albedo and tree classifiers (Lisbon), clean NDVI
  NDWI profiles and clustering (CCR)
• Data used SPOT VEGETATION, ERS JERS SAR
  (flooded forests), DMSP (cities)
• Legend has put the accent on the savanna and the
  forests
• The current product is still in improvement

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Cleaning up of the NDVI profiles

• Elimination of low values
• Interpolation over long periods

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Monthly max NDVI and min NDWI
August April - January
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Maroc

• Urge agricultural areas
• Urban settlements
• Meditteranean vegetation
• Inversed vegetation cycle

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Irrigation in the Lybia desert

• Urge irrigation areas
• Urban settlements
• Desert
• Salt hardpans

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Nile Delta

• Urge cities (Cairo, Alexandria)
• Free water and swamp grasslands, and irrigated
  agriculture
• Desert

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Senegal

• Urge agricultural areas (Bassin Arachidier
• Mangroves (Saloum, Casamance)
• Urban settlements
• From sparse grasslands to woodlands
• Remnants of tropical forests (Basse Casamance)

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Chad Lake

• Chad lake
• Free water and swamp grasslands (prairie
  flottante)
• Agriculture
• From desert to closed shrublands

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Internal delta of Nile

• Urge areas of swamp grasslands, water
• From shrublands to dense woodlands

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Malawi

• Agriculture
• Miombo woodlands
• Large lake

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South D.R. Congo

• Wet miombo woodlands
• Swamp grasslands
• Shrublands and grasslands
• Woodlands mixed with agriculture

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Wet miombo woodlands
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Delta of the Okavango

• Swamp grasslands and shrublands
• From grasslands to woodlands
• Salt hardpans

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Cape Town

• Intensive agriculture (wheat, vineyards)
• Vegetation related to topography
• Large urban settlements
• High botanical biodiversity

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Forest blocks in Ghana

• Volta Lake
• Lagoons
• Urban settlements
• Forest reserves
• Forest / croplands / savanna mosaic

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Central Cuvette of Congo River

• Swamp forests
• Swamp grasslands (prairie flottante)
• Agriculture mixed with fallows and forest
• Enclosed savannas

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Congo Basin forests

• Agriculture mixed with fallows and forest along
  the former paysannats
• Penetration by the logging tracks

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Niger delta

• Mangroves
• Lowland and montane forests
• Urban settlements
• Forest / croplands / savanna mosaic
• Woodlands mixed with agriculture

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Montane forests

• Kilimanjaro, Mehru
• Montane forests
• Closed grasslands
• Agriculture

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Madagascar

• Montane and lowland rain forests
• Dry deciduous forests
• Secondary forests rural complex
• Mangroves
• Grasslands and shrublands
• Thicket

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Global land-cover maps
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The locust window

• FAO / JRC

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Qualitative validation
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Agricultural areas
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Limitations

• Confusion in the agricultural areas (mixed with
  natural vegetation)
• Seasonal cycle of the vegetation could be more
  exploited (number and period of vegetation
  cycles)
• Local legends do not fit with the continental one
  
• Necessity of regional products