Geospatial analysis of land use and cover changes in the Ilo-Moquegua watershed

This study focuses on the evaluation of the change in land use and cover in the Ilo-Moquegua watershed, located in the Moquegua department in Peru, over a period of 51 years, from 1972 to 2023.Aerial photographs and Landsat images were used, and geoprocessing was applied using a multilayer perceptron neural network and evaluated with ArcGIS and TerrSet software to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of historical changes in land use and cover in the watershed.The results revealed significant impacts in six categories of change in land use and cover in the Ilo-Moquegua watershed: Agriculture, Water, High Andean wetlands, Urban Infrastructure, Mining, and Natural.The degradation of the high Andean wetlands cover is particularly concerning, with a reduction from 1638.55 hectares in 1972 to 1384.68 hectares in 2023.In addition, significant changes were observed in the categories of land that changed from natural to mining (5953 hectares), natural to agriculture (5369.25 hectares), and natural to urban infrastructure (2105 hectares) during the study period.This analysis has important implications for land management and environmental planning in the Ilo-Moquegua watershed.The findings underline the need to implement sustainable development strategies that address the degradation of high Andean wetlandss and properly manage land use in this region.Furthermore, it serves as a valuable resource for informed decision-making in the framework of the 2030 Agenda and the pursuit of environmental justice in Latin America.