Evolution of Land Use in the Beni-Belaid Wetland Ramsar Site in North-eastern Algeria

Abstract

Wetlands constitute ecosystems of great biological, ecological and socio-economic value. Despite these multiple functions and services rendered to human societies, wetlands are among the ecosystems most threatened by human activities. The use of cartography with satellite images and multi-date aerial photos allows us to characterize the current state of land use of wetlands in possible management. This study aims to make a characterization of the different ecosystems by type of land used at the level of the Beni-Belaid wetland located in the North-East of Algeria, which presents an important tool for decision-making, as regards the management and preservation of the area, as well as for the prediction of scenarios of 'probable evolution in the future. Three aerial photos (1973, 1988 and 2008) and a Google Earth satellite image (2020) were used. We proceeded to the selection of the study data, cartographic processing (scanning the maps, geo-referencing, assembly and finally the calibration), determination of the different classes of land use, and calculating the areas of the different land occupations using the Arcgis 10.8 software. The results show a fluctuation in the evolution of land use in the Beni-Belaid nature reserve; the surface area of ​​anthropogenic environments (agriculture, dwellings) increased between 1973 and 2020, to the detriment of natural environments (wooded dunes, forests, lakes, etc.), also reveal very significant threats in the short and medium term, which appear mainly to be linked to intensive agro-pastoral practices and the modification of local hydrology by excessive pumping of water from the lake