Multi‐criteria Assessment of the Environmental Sustainability of Agroecosystems in the North‐Benin Agricultural Basin Using Satellite Data

The increasing anthropogenic pressures on rural landscapes, particularly those arising from agricultural intensification, necessitate robust methods to assess environmental sustainability. This study proposes a multi-criteria approach for evaluating the environmental sustainability of rural landscape in northern Benin, using satellite-derived land cover data. The methodology was applied to 3 sites representative of rural landscapes in northern Benin. A 12-class land cover map, produced via the Moringa processing chain, was reclassified into Human Disturbance Coefficients (HDC) based on nine weighted environmental impact criteria. These were then spatially aggregated into 1 km² grid cells to produce the Landscape Environmental Sustainability Index (LESI). Results indicate that most areas exhibit moderate anthropogenic impact (HDC and LESI values between 2.5 and 3.5), covering 63–75% (HDC) and 83–94% (LESI) of the respective sites. Areas of low impact (values between 1.5 and 2.5) account for 20–24% (HDC) and 5–13% (LESI). The LESI, derived from accessible and cost-effective satellite data, offers a scalable, reproducible, and spatially explicit tool for monitoring landscape sustainability. It holds potential for guiding territorial governance and supporting transitions towards more sustainable land management practices. Future improvements may include refining evaluation criteria and introducing variable weighting schemes by land cover or region.