Sasithorn Wiriyanuwatkul. Assessing land use change in Thailand following the IPee land use category: Magnitude of change and their spatial distribution . Master's Degree(Environmental Technology and Management). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library.. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2009.
Assessing land use change in Thailand following the IPee land use category: Magnitude of change and their spatial distribution
Abstract:
This study focuses on land use classification and estimates of land use changes in
Thailand following 2006 IPCC guideline. The primary objectives were to apply land use
classified by the Land Development Department (LOO), to re-arrange them in a way that is
consistent with that ofthe 2006 IPCC guidelines, and to estimate the area change of forestland,
cropland, grassland, settlement, wetlands, and other lands between 2000 and 2007. The study
was conducted by re-classifying land use in 2000 and 2007 and evaluating land use and change
using Goo-Information System (GIS) with ArcGIS software. The results show that the land use
area between 2000 and 20007 has changed as follows: (1) forestland area decreased from
172,013.04 km2 to 162,571.27 km2
, or a net decrease of 1.84%, (2) cropland decreased from
285,810.98 km2 to 277,349.13 km2
, or a net decrease of 1.65% , (3) grassland increased from
12,740.48 km2 to 14,445.86 km2
, or a net increase of 0.33%, (4) wetlands increased from
14,414.11 km2 to 19,237.39 km2
, or a net increase of 0.94%, (5) settlements increased from
25,398.86 km2 to 36,922.13 km', or a net increase of 2.25%, and (6) other land decreased from
2,737.48 km2 to 2,589.17 km2
, or a net decrease of 0.03%. Thus, the most significant land use
changes in terms of magnitude are forestland, cropland and settlements. Of the total forestland
area loss, more than 75% was converted to cropland. The conversion of forest to cropland was
mainly found in the North (37%), Northeast (34%) and Southern regions (15%). For loss of
cropland area, the most significant loss was the conversion to settlements (38%), followed by
forestland (31%), wetland (15%) and grassland (14%). The conversion of cropland to
settlement was mainly found in the North, Northeast and Central regions.
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library.