Abstract
Mangrove forests play an important role in providing ecological and socioeconomic services for human society. Coastal development, which converts mangrove forests to other land uses, has often ignored the services that mangrove may provide, leading to irreversible environmental degradation. Monitoring the spatiotemporal distribution of mangrove forests is thus critical for natural resources management of mangrove ecosystems. This study investigates spatiotemporal changes in Honduran mangrove forests using Landsat imagery during the periods 1985–1996, 1996–2002, and 2002–2013. The future trend of mangrove forest changes was projected by a Markov chain model to support decision-making for coastal management. The remote sensing data were processed through three main steps: (1) data pre-processing to correct geometric errors between the Landsat imageries and to perform reflectance normalization; (2) image classification with the unsupervised Otsu’s method and change detection; and (3) mangrove change projection using a Markov chain model. Validation of the unsupervised Otsu’s method was made by comparing the classification results with the ground reference data in 2002, which yielded satisfactory agreement with an overall accuracy of 91.1% and Kappa coefficient of 0.82. When examining mangrove changes from 1985 to 2013, approximately 11.9% of the mangrove forests were transformed to other land uses, especially shrimp farming, while little effort (3.9%) was applied for mangrove rehabilitation during this 28-year period. Changes in the extent of mangrove forests were further projected until 2020, indicating that the area of mangrove forests could be continuously reduced by 1,200 ha from 2013 (approximately 36,700 ha) to 2020 (approximately 35,500 ha). Institutional interventions should be taken for sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems in this coastal region.
Highlights
Mangroves are a group of tree and shrub species naturally distributed along the intertidal coastlines at tropical and subtropical latitudes
The methodology of this study is composed of three main steps (Figure 3), including: (1) data pre-processing including geometric correction of Landsat images, digital number (DN)-to-reflectance conversion, and reflectance normalization; (2) image classification and change detection; and
The mangrove forests were more concentrated in the upper part of the region because this area was strictly managed by the local authorities as natural reserves for biodiversity conservation
Summary
Mangroves are a group of tree and shrub species naturally distributed along the intertidal coastlines at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Mangrove forests are able to filter out pollutants in the sea and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted to the atmosphere due to anthropogenetic activities [5,6,7]. They provide a wide range of wildlife habitats for large populations of fish, crabs, birds, and other organisms seeking food, shelter, and breeding and nursing areas.
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