SPATIAL MODELING OF DEFORESTATION IN SOUTHERN CAMEROON - SPATIAL DISAGGREGATION OF DIVERSE DEFORESTATION PROCESSES

The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of the nature of the deforestation process on an empirical spatial model of d eforestation and to test a remote-sensing-based methodology to define the appropriate spatial entities for modelling deforestation, The stud y area is located in southern Cameroon, The study included the product ion and integration in a geographic information system (GIS) of a data base of natural and cultural landscape variables, An empirical spatial model of deforestation was developed by relating a set of variables m easuring landscape attributes to the frequency of occurrence of defore station, The main conclusion of the study is that the definition of th e spatial entities used to calibrate a spatial model of deforestation has a significant impact on the model design but not, in this case, on the predictive power of the model, The interpretation of the spatial pattern of forest/non-forest interfaces as detected by remote sensing proved to be efficient in identifying regions affected by different de forestation processes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.