Abstract

EVANGELISTA OLIVA, Virginia; LOPEZ BLANCO, Jorge; CABALLERO NIETO, Javier  and  MARTINEZ ALFARO, Miguel Ángel. Spatial patterns of land use/cover change in the coffee crop area of the Sierra Norte de Puebla. Invest. Geog [online]. 2010, n.72, pp.23-38. ISSN 2448-7279.

The Sierra Norte de Puebla (SNP) is a region with a high biological and cultural diversity where the coffee plantations have had a relevant role in the land use cover characteristics. The objective of this study is to know the spatial patterns of the dynamics of the land use/cover change in the period 1988-2003, relating these patterns with activities of the coffee economic sector in the SNP. The change analysis was realized by means a supervised classification of two Landsat satellite images. The geographic or spatial change was evaluated overlaying the two land use/cover maps (1988-2003) obtaining a change matrix. Over the 15-year period considered, 58.4% of the study area remained unchanged and 41.6% had some class of change. The main changes were from induced grassland/agriculture to shade coffee plantations/intermediate secondary vegetation of tropical montane cloud forest or to tropical rain forest/ permanent citrus crops. The change-patterns of the land use/cover dynamics are related to the current process of the coffee-sector problematic in the region.

Keywords : Land Use Cover Change; Supervised Classification; Landsat; Cofee; Sierra Norte de Puebla.

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