The Sdamas massif to which our contribution relates is located in West Algeria, it is an integral part of the Tiaret mountains. The aim of our study is to analyze the land cover of the Sdamas region over a 43-year interval grouped into 9 thematic classes: mineral surfaces (urban planning), wetland, vegetation, bare soils and fallow etc. The spatial and temporal dynamics of land use require regular monitoring of vegetation cover from remote sensing imagery. It is for this reason that we relied on field data to perform the diachronic analysis with three well-defined scenes 1972, 1998 and 2015, using Landsat satellite images (MSS, TM and ETM +). The analysis of these maps covering the same region shows the different changes that have taken place at ground level. We found that our natural plant space has undergone a strong degradation, disruption and regression because of different human activities, namely: overgrazing, clearing, fires, urbanization, (there has been a remarkable increase in the population of the communes of the study area). Inadequate and ineffective forestry interventionsand work, and lack of sustained protection are reasons of these processes. Factors affecting the forest ecosystem are bioclimate and human action. Indeed, the bioclimate, through atmospheric drought, is the main factor governing the diversity of these formations of the Sdamas mountains.
Land use and land cover dynamics in Leiria City: relation between peri-urbanization processes and hydro-geomorphologic disasters
