Remote sensing and citizen science for assessing land use change in the Musandam (Oman)

The interior of the Musandam Peninsula in the northwest of the Sultanate of Oman is difficult to access and little detailed data exists about past land use on the plateau regions of the mountainous landscape bordering the Strait of Hormuz. An initial remote sensing survey showed 150 patches of agriculturally used areas and hundreds of ruins of domestic architecture, thus hinting towards a vibrant past subsistence economy. A citizen science survey established ground truth and found that the higher altitudes of the peninsula had been deserted. Traces of a sophisticated adaptive strategy including run-off agriculture, water-, herd- and wildlife management, as well as storage facilities were documented. The abandoning of a way of life suited for this specific ecological niche might be due to a substantial decrease in precipitation and strong increase of the Omani GDP leading to the burgeoning of a local tourism industry.