Analysis of Riparian forest buffers dynamics in Colombian basins by Landsat Time Series

Using remote sensing data, it is now possible to obtain information that allows for the identification and study of riparian forest areas. Knowing their distribution, structure and their buffers is of great relevance. This is because Riparian forests help to determine the capacity of a hydrologic system to provide a service, as well as its capacity to attenuate the effects of climate change. In this paper, we combine information from images acquired by the Landsat series with information extracted from digital elevation maps (DEM) in order to identify and study the temporal dynamics of the riparian forest buffers. This information is extracted from hydrographic basins of Colombia. The analysis carried on is in terms of the kind of land cover present in the buffers, the use of different buffer widths and the influence of the altitude and slopes. Results were compared with in-situ data collected during different campaigns, as well as with information acquired by photointerpretation. Final analysis showed that the studied region has suffered critical patterns of use. This leads to the need of attention in order to reduce the high speed with which the problem is occurring.