Multitemporal and Spatial Analysis of Forest Cover in Colombia during 1992-2015

Abstract

Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services and goods. Accelerated population growth and socio-econocmic activities have trigged serious environmental pressures. These pressures induce spatio-temporal variations on forests extent affecting ecosystem services and goods supply. In this work, we performed an analysis of forests cover dynamics in Colombia during 1992-2015 based on Kappa’s concordance matrix. Matrix’s components were determined from observational data of annual maps derived from satellite data by the Climate Change Initiative of the European Spatial Agency. Results suggest that forests cover in Colombia was reduced at a rate of 1.199,7 km2/year between 1992 and 2004, while was recovered at a rate of 414,7 km2/year between 2004 and 2015. The reduction during the first period was higher than the recovery of the second period, representing 9.834 km2 of net loss. The main forests-related transitions were triggered by agriculture. Furthermore, our analysis shows that departments with greater loss were Meta (3.914,9 km2), Caquetá (3.310,4 km2) y Antioquia (3.066,9 km2), while departments with greater gain were Antioquia (1.619,0 km2), Santander (1.238,4 km2) y Caquetá (1.050,2 km2). These results complement previous studies in Colombia, show the usefulness of an alternative data source, and constitute a basic input for the territories and forest management in departmental scale