A qualitative assessment of desertification change in the Tarfaya basin (Morocco) using panchromatic data of Landsat ETM⁺ and oli: sand encroachment approach

University of Cadi Ayyad, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Department of Geology, Prince My Abdellah Boulevard, BP 2390, 40000 Marrakesh, Morocco

^* Corresponding author: ayddaali@gmail.com

Abstract

The purpose of the present work is to assess desertification change in the Tarfaya basin (Morocco) based on quantifying sand dunes mass change at the corridor scale using two Panchromatic bands of Landsat ETM⁺ and OLI with 15 m of resolution covering the study area for ten years (2005–2016). In this work, the sand dunes quantification is qualitative and is based on automatic extraction and classification of sand dunes shape using co-occurence texture filters and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The statistical results show that the area covered by sand was increased during the last ten years, which reveal that desertification becomes more intense.