In Burkina Faso, forest areas are losing several hectares of their surface area every year as a result of anthropogenic pressures and climate change. The Kou watershed is no exception to this trend. The aim of this research is to assess the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation cover in the Kou watershed using Landsat images. To this end, Landsat TM, Landsat ETM+ and OLI 8 satellite images from September and March (1986 to 2021) were used. Operations on Envi 5.3, field validation output and finally mapping on ArcGIS were the steps. Discrimination was significant, with kappa coefficients of 0.76; 0.79; 0.88 and 0.88. From 1986 to 2001, open forests, gallery forests, wooded and grassy savannahs lost 4.76%, 22.24%, 23.47% and 14.74% of their area respectively. Between 2001 and 2017, the areas of gallery forest (33.53%) and wooded savannah (56.67%) declined. Between 2017 and 2021, wooded and grassy savannahs lost 25.36% and 34.54% of their area respectively. The area occupied by water has decreased considerably over the 35 years. However, during the same period, there has been an increase in areas of annual crops, irrigated crops and habitats. These results highlight the need to develop a sustainable management strategy for the watershed, given its enormous potential.

In Burkina Faso, protected areas have lost several hectares of their scope mainly due to the effect of anthropogenic pressure and climate change. In order to well understand this extreme degradation of vegetation, this study was initiated in Deux Bal