Contributing to the fight against invasive aquatic plants

Lac de Tengrela is located in the village of Tengrela, around 7 km from the town of Banfora in southwest Burkina Faso. It covers an area of around 340 ha and is of ecological, cultural, social and economic value to the local population. It plays an important role in maintaining biodiversity and in agricultural, fishing and tourism activities. Despite its multiple functions, the lake is subject to heavy colonization by invasive aquatic plants, which hinder its proper functioning. Remote sensing is the tool we used to monitor the dynamics of invasive plant proliferation on the lake. The NDVI vegetation index was used to carry out this study, tracking the phenology of plants on the lake. It was extracted from 411 NDVI images of the MODIS MOD13Q1 product. This analysis shows that the dynamics of plant proliferation on the lake are contrasted from one year to the next. However, during the course of our study, we noted a high degree of vegetation cover on the lake. The average annual vegetation cover remains permanently above 70%.