فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Land use and land cover changes are a major driver of environmental transformation in mountain regions, where steep environmental gradients amplify impacts on water regulation, biodiversity, and agricultural systems. The upper Chicamocha River basin, located in the Colombian Andes, is a strategic socio-ecological system that sustains regional food security and water supply. In recent decades, this basin has experienced accelerated territorial reconfiguration driven by agricultural intensification, infrastructure expansion, and post-conflict land governance reforms. The study objectives were to evaluate spatiotemporal land-use changes in the Chicamocha River basin between 1986 and 2023 and examines their implications for territorial sustainability and water management.     METHODS: Multi-temporal Landsat imagery (30 m resolution; <30 percent cloud cover) from 1986, 2000, 2016, 2021, and 2023 was processed using an object-based image analysis approach in software CATALYST professional. Segmented objects were classified into 12 land-cover categories following the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies scheme, achieving overall accuracies and Kappa coefficients above 0.80. Change detection and transition matrices were generated in ArcGIS Pro, and dominant trajectories were quantified through gains, losses, persistence, and annual change rates. The resulting indicators were integrated into a atrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – Threats, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths strategic framework to derive evidence-based land-use planning recommendations.FINDINGS: Results reveal a territorial transition characterised by the coexistence of ecological regeneration and productive intensification. Agricultural land declined by 16.8 percent over the study period, while forests and semi-natural areas increased from 26.6 to 30.9 percent of the basin. Artificialised areas exhibited the highest cumulative growth (>200 percent), with urban land expanding by approximately 65 percent and mining increasing from 0.05 to 0.44 percent. After 2016, conservation and regeneration processes intensified, particularly in high-mountain ecosystems, coinciding with strengthened environmental governance.CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that sustainability in Andean basins depends on differentiated territorial zoning: consolidating forest recovery in upper catchments while strictly regulating urban expansion, extractive activities, and water-intensive agriculture in valley bottoms. The integrated remote sensing and transition-based approach presented here provides a replicable framework to support land-use planning and multi-level water governance in complex mountain socio-ecological systems.