• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.91-107
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• 2018

It is required to monitor and assess the desertification in Tunisia, where the Sahara Desert, which is located in the southern part of Tunisia, is recently expanding northward. In this study, by using remote sensed data, land cover changes were examined, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Topsoil Grain Size Index (TGSI) and Albedo are used to monitor and assess desertification in Tunisia. Decision Tree was constructed, and the frequencies and trends of each assessment indicator, desertification degree and land cover were identified. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between assessment indicators and precipitation. As a result, desertification is generally intensifying northward, especially in areas with high levels of desertification. Also, bivariate correlation analysis showed that Albedo, NDVI and TGSI were all highly correlated with precipitation. It indicates that changes in precipitation have also been shown to affect Tunisian desertification. In conclusion, this study has improved the usability of various methodologies considering the assessment indicators based on satellite imagery, Decision Tree, which is a method of evaluating them complexly, and trends of land cover change.