The conversion of natural lands into human-dominated landscapes has dramatically accelerated during the last decades. This project will study the dynamics of processes of land use and land cover in Central Africa.

The conversion of natural lands into human-dominated landscapes has dramatically accelerated during the last decades. This transformation can have impacts on biodiversity, climate and land surface feedbacks, soil and landscape degradation, and also alter ecosystem services. Assessing the processes of land use and land cover (LULC) changes is of paramount importance to embed sustainability in development strategies, ecosystem management, and land use planning, particularly for developing countries where rates of LULC changes are highest. However, some regions are not covered with such studies.

Thanks to the aerial photographs and other archives of the Royal Museum of Central Africa, and maps and analyses derived from them, the project will be able to study the dynamics of LULC and environmental changes in a region of Central Africa that did not have any baseline studies.

The project is co-ordinated by the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), and brings together the ULB – IGEAT (E.Wolff) and the KU Leuven.

End of the project: 15/03/2021

Dates
Created on August 29, 2018