Mejdik/mapspades

Set of Jupyter notebooks and geospatial data developed by the MAPSPADES project to study desertification in the Algerian steppe using EO data. # MAPSPADES: Mapping and Monitoring Spatiotemporal Desertification Patterns in the Steppic Belt of Algeria                             --- MAPSPADES is a research project involving the University of Oran 1 (Algeria) and ITC/University of Twente (Netherlands) supported by the EO Africa R&D Facility. It provides an analytical workflow to map the spatiotemporal evolution of desertification in the Algerian steppe from 2002 to 2022 and to understand its driving factors. It takes advantage of the availability of Earth observation data, as well as statistical and machine learning techniques to detect land cover change and assess land degradation over time. The developed methodology is intended to be both reproducible and applicable to other exposed geographical areas. The implemented workflow supports decision makers to have a better view and control over the desertification progress and the areas where strong mitigation measures should be implemented. ## Contents - Context - Worflow - EO Data Sources - Notebooks - Dataset - Team Members ## Context Desertification is a major environmental issue that threatens many parts of the globe. Between the 1980s and 2000s, deserts expanded to over 9% of drylands, impacting the lives of over 500 million people in 2015 (1) . It could be defined as a type of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from climatic variations and human activities. As a result, fewer soils are able to support crops, livestock and wildlife, natural vegetation is degraded permanently, and many people have no choice but to migrate to urban areas or even beyond the country. Algeria is one of the countries most affected by desertification, as evidenced by a high loss of indigenous plant biodiversity between 1975 and 2006 (2) . Desert already occupies nearly 2 million km² (80\% of the total land area) a …