## 2 Materials and Methods
### Datasets
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Dataset** & **Source** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Temporal** \\ **Resolution** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Spatial** \\ **Resolution** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Description** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS \({}^{*}\) & USGS & 16 day & 30 m & \begin{tabular}{c} August–October 2019 imagery. \\ Tier 1 assets, 2 to 10 images, \\ 7 Bands \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Landsat 7 ETM+ V & USGS & 16 day & 30 m & \begin{tabular}{c} August–October 2001 and \\ August–October 2009 imagery at \\ 30 m resolution, Tier 1 and \\ Real-time (RT) assets, \\ 1 to 5 images, 7 Bands \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline MODIS \({}^{\$}\) Gross & \begin{tabular}{c} NASA LP DAAC \({}^{+}\) at \\ USGS EROS Center \\ \end{tabular} & 8 day & 500 m & \begin{tabular}{c} Cumulative 8-day \\ composite product \\ \end{tabular} \\ Primary Productivity (GPP) MOD17A2H V6 & \begin{tabular}{c} NASA LP DAAC \({}^{+}\) at \\ USGS EROS Center \\ \end{tabular} & 8 day & 500 m & \
\begin{tabular}{c} Cumulative 8-day \\ composite product \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline GPS points collected during ground truthing &
\begin{tabular}{c} Field observations \\ (Dedza and Nicheu) \\ \end{tabular} & - & GPS-Co-ordinates \\ \hline
**Input Variables** & & & & \\ \hline Soil texture & iSDAsoil \({}^{\#}\) & - & 30 m & \begin{tabular}{c} Soil properties generated based \\ on research from African Soil \\ Information Services (ASIS) and \\ other data sources \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Elevation (DEM) & SRTM \({}^{*}\)-NASA/USGS & - & 30 m & \begin{tabular}{c} Digital Elevation Model (DEM) \\ data from SRTM image \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Slope (degrees) & SRTM-NASA/USGS & - & 30 m & \
\begin{tabular}{c} Slope was calculated based on \\ SRTM elevation data \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Population density & NASA SEDAC \({}^{\text{b}}\) & - & 1 km (resampled
\begin{tabular}{c} Gridded Population of the World \\ (GPwv4). Estimates of number \\ of people per grid cell \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Distance from rivers & MASDAP \({}^{\text{\#}}\) & - & - & 50 m protection buffer zone from main rivers \\ \hline Distance from major roads & MASDAP \({}^{\text{\#}}\) & - & - & 30 m protection buffer zone from major roads \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* OLI-TIRS: Operational Land Imager-Thermal Infrared Sensor; V ETM: Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, (accessed on 10 January 2021) \({}^{\$}\) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): MODIS [[https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/montech/MOD17.php](https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/montech/MOD17.php)]([https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/montech/MOD17.php](https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/montech/MOD17.php)) (accessed on 30 April 2018); \({}^{*}\) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Land Processes Distributed Active Active Center (LP DAAC) at USGS Earth Resource Observation and Science Center (EROS); \({}^{\text{\#}}\) iSDA soil: [[https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/](https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/)]([https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/](https://www.isda-africa.com/isdasoil/)) (accessed on 15 April 2021); \({}^{\text{\#}}\) Shuttle Radar topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM); \({}^{\text{\#}}\) NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC); \({}^{\text{\#}}\) Malawi Spatial Data Platform (MASDAP) [[http://www.masdap.mw/](http://www.masdap.mw/)]([http://www.masdap.mw/](http://www.masdap.mw/)) (accessed on 1 April 2021).  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Satellite Datasets used for land-cover classification and input spatial variables used for LULC change modeling. Figure 3: Photographs of agricultural landscapes taken in Summer 2018 across Dedza and Ncheu District, Malawi. Figure 2: Google Earth Explorer map showing location points collected during field observations ground truthing for Dedza and Ncheu Districts in Summer 2018.