LAND USE DYNAMICS AND SOIL VULNERABILITY TO WATER EROSION IN THE AGNEBY WATERSHED (IVORY COAST)

In Cote dIvoire, particularly in the Agneby watershed, forest degradation increases the vulnerability of soils to water erosion. This study aims to analyze the impacts of changes in land use on the vulnerability of soils to water erosion in this watershed. The data used include a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Landsat satellite images of scenes 196/055 from TM (December 20, 1987), ETM+ (09/02/2025) and OLI-TIRS (07/01/2020) scenes, as well as a FAO soil map at a scale of 1:500,000. The methodology is based on the classification of satellite images and the mapping of vulnerability to water erosion. The results indicate a decline in primary forest cover, which fell from 53.3% in 1987 to 4.4% in 2020. At the same time, the areas covered by mosaics of crops/forest and habitat/bare soil have expanded significantly. Between 1987 and 2020, these increased from 42% to 78.2% and from 1% to 16.4%, respectively. In 2020, 68.2% of the basins area is occupied by soil classes that are highly vulnerable to water erosion.