Patch analysis of Landsat datasets for assessment of environmental change in the Zambian Copperbelt

A gradual decline in formal economic activity in the Zambian Copperbelt has resulted in increasing levels of poverty. The impacts of poverty on the environment have been mapped using Landsat MSS, ETM and ETM+ images. Changes in the environment have been traced over a period of nearly thirty years and have been assessed by patch analysis. This approach has shown that landscape patches in the Copperbelt are becoming increasingly complex in shape and smaller in size. The natural land cover, miombo woodland, is increasingly fragmented, posing a threat to biodiversity and the well-being of local communities.