APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING FOR MONITORING LAND COVER AND LAND USE CHANGE IN PHANG-NGA PROVINCE, THAILAND

摘要

The aim of this study was to monitoring to land use and land cover change in Phang-Nga province, southern Thailand, using Land sat satellite images for years 1989, 1999 and 2002. The study was performed in three interval periods 1989-1999, 1999-2002, and 1989-2002. Newer imaged data are available with the high cost and thus limited to our study. Using the object-based concept, land use was classified into seven categories, including forest area, urban area, agriculture area, water body, other areas, cloud area, and shadow area. Majority of the land use and land cover change was analyzed. Our findings show that the forest areas have the most significant change. The forest areas decreased approximately by 20 % during an 11-year period (1989-1999) whereas a dramatic decrease was 15% within a period of four years (1999-2002). Such changes were accounted for by the increasing of agricultural expansion, 31% in 1999 and 15% in 2002, and of urban growth (17% and 51%, respectively). These suggest that continued population growth has led to an increase in requirements of natural resource uses, resulting in deforestation for agricultural expansion. In this issue, policymakers, local authorities and farmers should pay more attention on impacts of deforestation. Further studies based on the up-to-date data are needed to continue monitoring of land use and land cover change in this area, focusing on sustainable development of agriculture with the minimum expense of deforestation.