Publication Date
Fall 2024
Abstract
Industrial presence has increased in the Ecuadorian Amazon over the past several decades, in the form of lucrative monoculture cultivation and petroleum extraction. Simultaneously, large quantities of land have been deforested. Using a combination of GIS and remote sensing tools such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and supervised classification, this study assesses the changes in vegetation, land-use, and petroleum infrastructure in the surrounding area of the Kichwa community of Loma del Tigre, between the years 2011-2024. The interactions and connections between these three landscape factors are also considered. The study region encompasses growing urban areas, African palm plantations, pasture, petroleum infrastructure and forest, among other things. Forest presence was found to decrease, while the other mentioned factors increased. These results suggest that ecosystem services have been reduced, while water and soil contamination has worsened. The findings of this study may be beneficial in the proposal of the expansion of land protection programs, such as Socio Bosque. The resulting maps from this study may also be beneficial to the community of Loma del Tigre, in pinpointing the sources of contamination in their surroundings.
Disciplines
Life Sciences
Recommended Citation
Mailhiot, Sage, "Tracing Transitions: CARTOGRAPHICAL ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGE IN THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON" (2024). Ecuador: Comparative Ecology and Conservation. 2.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/ece/2
