Chapter 2 — Question 15

What observations can be made from a visual interpretation of Figure 2.24? What chan-
ges do you ‘detect’? Which stages of change?

Answer
We repeat here the first and last illustration of Figure 2.24. We may observe at
least two types of change in this chronological sequence:

1. an increase in ‘red’ at the expense of first ‘yellow’ and later also ‘green’

2. the increase of ‘red’ seems to be in an easterly direction

As the figure legend informs us that green is primary forest, yellow is pasture
and secondary forest, and red is pasture only, the images are an indication that
in this study area forests are being replaced by pastures.
A more careful look also identifies that purple increases in time at the ex-
pense of green; this is secondary vegetation replacing primary forests.

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