Spatial analysis of changes in land use, vegetation and water bodies in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, 1993-2014

To fully understand the dynamics of land use change it is necessary investigate the net change, exchanges and transitions occurring between land use categories. Therefore, this research explores the spatial and temporal trends of changes in land use, vegetation and water bodies in the state of Nayarit from 1993 to 2014. To do so, the INEGI vegetation maps (series II and IV) for both dates were validated with field observation, resampled and overlaid using TerrSet environment in order to calculate the change matrix, and from it estimate the losses, gains, net changes, total changes and exchanges between land use categories. Results indicate that of the 2,783,572.50 hectares of the total area, 58.06% remained without any change and 41.94% experienced some change. Within such area, 15.42% were exchanges between land categories whereas 26.52% were net change. Agriculture is the category that gained most area; occupying 18.17% of the total in 1993 and 22.14% in 2014. Oppositely low forest has decreased from 20.82% to 13.76% during the same period.