Applcation of geomatics to the multicriteria zoning of the Upper ALibori forest reserve in northern benin (West Africa)
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1
Zou, Laboratory of Geosciences, Environment and Applications
National University of Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (UNSTIM), Benin
2
Atlantique, Cartography Laboratory (LaCarto)
University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Benin
Submission date: 2021-11-29
Final revision date: 2022-01-09
Acceptance date: 2022-01-10
Publication date: 2021-12-31
Corresponding author
Ousseni Arouna
Zou, Laboratory of Geosciences, Environment and Applications National University of Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (UNSTIM), Benin
Geomatics, Landmanagement and Landscape 2021;(4)
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ABSTRACT
The Forest of Upper Alibori is subject to strong agricultural and pastoral pressures from year to year despite the implementation of a forest management plan. It is therefore appropriate to conduct an integrated and spatialized analysis of the effects of these pressures on plant biodiversity from a spatial planning perspective. The research objective is to establish a multi-criteria zoning of the Upper Alibori Forest Reserve that can reconcile biodiversity conservation and sustainable agropastoral exploitation. A methodological approach based on geomatics was adopted. Hierarchical multi-criteria analysis and cross-layer analysis are the main techniques adopted. The state of plant biodiversity, one of the important criteria for multi-criteria zoning. The intersection of the scientific zoning and the zoning proposed by the riparian population shows a similarity of 54%. In the central core, the similarity between the two types of zoning is 32%. Spatially, this similarity is observed along the Alibori River. At the level of the agricultural series, the two zonings show a similarity level of 23%. The elaboration of an integrated zoning made it possible to distinguish several management series. The management series delimited are made up of the central core (32%), the protection series (11%), the production series (17%), the scientific research series (2%), the service series (2%) and the agropastoral and reforestation series (36%). The implementation of such zoning is the responsibility of the forest administration.