Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Urban Green Spaces of Bamako and Sikasso Cities in Mali

Increasing land use and land cover change (LULC) and rapid urbanization have considerable impacts on urban green spaces and their ecosystem services (ESs). These impacts result in a loss of urban green space (UGS), especially market gardening, and particularly weaken the climate resilience of the cities. The results of LULC classification analyses and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used to track the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban sprawl and its influence on the loss of green spaces in Bamako and Sikasso cities. The rates of cover, average annual change, and annual increase in the area of each land cover class were applied to analyze the evolution of vegetation formations from 1990 to 2020, while the NDVI was used to quantify the evolution of vegetation over the last 30 years (1990 to 2020). The results showed that built-up areas have increased in both cities, while farmland, high vegetation, medium vegetation (such as market gardening), low vegetation, and water bodies have regressed in the spaces occupied in both cities. The decrease in NDVI values observed in both cities indicates a decrease in green spaces, such as vegetation formation. This study recommends specific actions needed to promote the sustainable land use system, such as urban green spaces (specifically market gardening), which are crucial for the provision of ecosystem services in cities.