Dynamics of agriculturalization in the Los Colorados Antinaco Valley in the period 1976 to 2018

Abstract

The objective of this work was to characterize the dynamics of agriculturalization spatially and temporally in the Antinaco Los Colorados Valley, in the Province of La Rioja, Argentina. For this purpose, a methodology based on photointerpretation of Landsat 2 and 8 images was used, where two moments 1976 and 2018 were analyzed. To evaluate the spatial and temporal dynamics of changes, three types of land cover were classified (agricultural areas, bare soils and natural vegetation), and the method uses the analysis of a cross-tabulation matrix at different levels to distinguish those changes resulting from more frequent transitions, in order to make a more complete assessment of the most significant changes that have occurred in the territory. This resulted in a net change of 23529.06 ha of areas of natural vegetation, 2568.42 ha of soil without vegetation and 20960.64 ha of agricultural land, while there were exchanges of 1968.30 ha, 460.98 ha and 12439.71 ha, respectively.