{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,3]],"date-time":"2026-04-03T02:31:54Z","timestamp":1775183514193,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,28]],"date-time":"2023-02-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1677542400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Kassel (Germany)","award":["279374797"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["279374797"]}]},{"name":"Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union","award":["279374797"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["279374797"]}]},{"name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","award":["279374797"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["279374797"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Since the 1990s, Morocco\u2019s agriculture has been characterized by the co-existence and transformation of both modern and traditional smallholder systems. In the Atlas Mountains, the effects of rural\u2013urban transformation have led to intensified irrigated agriculture in some agricultural areas, while others were abandoned. To better understand these effects, this study aimed at (1) analyzing the land use and land cover (LULC) changes, (2) assessing the structure and dynamics of vegetation, and (3) comparing a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification approach with a seasonal rules-based approach. We, therefore, employed a semi-automatic supervised classification of LULC using Landsat data from the 1990s to the 2020s to distinguish between Open Canopy Vegetation, Bareland, Forest, and Water. Overall accuracies achieved ranged from 88% to 90% in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. SVM results indicated the share of Bareland as &gt;80% of the landscape in all periods. With the seasonal rules-based approach, 10% less Bareland was detected than with the SVM approach. Our findings indicate the limitation of detecting vegetation reflectance in semi-arid mountainous regions such as that prevailing in Morocco using a single machine learning method.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15051366","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,1]],"date-time":"2023-03-01T01:36:09Z","timestamp":1677634569000},"page":"1366","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Vegetation Cover Dynamics in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1037-9731","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thanh Thi","family":"Nguyen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9324-0112","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nacer","family":"Aderdour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany"},{"name":"Fundamental and Applied Geosciences, Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences A\u00efn Chock, University Hassan II-Casablanca, B.P 5366Maarif, Casablanca 20100, Morocco"}]},{"given":"Hassan","family":"Rhinane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Fundamental and Applied Geosciences, Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences A\u00efn Chock, University Hassan II-Casablanca, B.P 5366Maarif, Casablanca 20100, Morocco"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1329-1559","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andreas","family":"Buerkert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20666","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0704119104","article-title":"The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability","volume":"104","author":"Turner","year":"2007","journal-title":"Proc. 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