Summary

Because the cartography is often deficient, the use of satellite images is the best way to know the land use of Africa. But to extract a reliable map from these raw data is not an easy task. The aim of this study was to find a method to map the main landscape units, a method which can be easily reproducible. Satellite images were chosen according to the agricultural calendar, among those freely available, i. e. Landsat images. The results appear satisfactory on a local scale, where ground control points have been chosen. But the generalization to the entire images shows the limits to map the landscapes from satellite images. Ground survey points are to be chosen on the entire area. Thus, the advantage of satellite images to generalize the knowledge of land use disappears. Key words: Remote-sensing; Landsat; land use; Africa; vegetation indices