Spatial Variability of Land Cover and Socio-economics in the Black-belt Region of Alabama

B. R. Gyawali 1, R. Fraser 1 and W. Tadesse 2

Center for Forestry and Ecology, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Alabama A&M University (1)
Center for Hydrology and Remote Sensing, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Alabama A&M University (2)

The black-belt region of Alabama, previously known as the cotton-belt, has undergone major changes in land cover and socio-economic characteristics. The vast areas of new pine plantation and fish ponds as well as the declining but still predominant African American populations make this region distinct from other parts of the state. The majority of the lands in this region are owned by non-timber private forest owners. African Americans who make up 68% of the population in the region, own less than five percent of forestland. The current scenario in the black-belt region suggests that the abundance of natural resources may have both positive and negative socio-economic implications in the black-belt region. The recent landsat ETM image of this region indicates that most of the pine plantations are present in the northeastern area of this region showing the increasing trend from the south to the north direction. However, crop and pasture lands coverage clearly shows the trend of distribution extending to the east and the west direction from the middle of the region. This study analyzes the factors for this spatial variation of agricultural and forest cover and investigates if this variation is related to the socio-economic characteristics of the black-belt region. A combination of remote sensing, geographic information techniques, and geo-statistics concepts will be used to analyze data obtained from landsat 2000 ETM imagery and the Census 2000 demographic information.

Keywords: land cover, spatial socio-economics

(presentation)