The current study focused on the East part of the African Sahel in the Sudan, where land use patterns are characterised by complex vegetation covers and scattered distribution of small and large agricultural fields. This study seeks to address the potential of applying multi-sensor remote sensing data for mapping land-use/land-cover (LULC) and their trends of change. Also the impacts of the present LULC types on soil properties were assessed through soil sampling and measurements. Furthermore, the issue of soil conservation, soil management and sustainable land use were discussed reflecting the main findings that have been achieved from the field investigations. Agriculture is the main activity in the study region and practised in many forms with a variety of environmental effects and consequences. Therefore, the development of sustainable land use practises in the dryland-farming of the study area need to be improved in order to reduce the amount of soil degradation in the future.

Khalid Guma Biro Turk graduated in 1999 from the University of Gezira, Sudan, received his MSc in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Khartoum, Sudan and a PhD in Natural Sciences from the Dresden University of Technology, Germany. Since 2004 he is a Lecturer at the University of Gadarif, Sudan. His research areas of interests are applications of remote sensing in land use systems assessment, sustainable land use management and the impacts of LULC changes on soil properties.