Land Use and Land Cover in Irrigated Drylands: a Long-Term Analysis of Changes in the Mendoza and Tunuyán River Basins, Argentina (1986–2018)

ROJAS, FACUNDO; RUBIO, CECILIA; RIZZO, MARTÍN; BERNABEU, MARTA; AKIL, NUR; MARTÍN, FACUNDO

Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy

Springer

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020 vol. 14 p. 4 - 29

1874-463X

Processes of agricultural expansion and retreat have provoked an emerging globaldebate and driven more focused research, due to its socio-environmental consequences.This paper evaluates large-scale LU/LC changes over 32 years from 1986 to 2018 ateight-year increments, based on freely available Landsat imagery processed with opensourceQGIS tools. The results are the first quantification of surface areas and finegrainedmaps of long-term LU/LC changes in the region. Results indicate markedcropland expansion in the upper Tunuyán River basin while in the lower TunuyánRiver basin, small cultivated plots were abandoned. In the Mendoza River basin, therewas significant urban expansion onto previously cultivated land but cropland didexpand in some areas. The analysis suggests three main drivers of LU/LC change:abandonment of vineyards and orchards in the lower Tunuyán River basin, vineyardexpansion in the upper Tunuyán River basin, and peri-urbanization in the MendozaRiver basin