The use of remote sensing data to monitor land use systems and forest variables of the tropical rainforest landscape under transformation in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

The transformation of land use in the tropics has received major attention in the last decades due to the rapid loss of tropical forests. In particular, large forest areas have been deforested and turned into agricultural lands. Monitoring land use systems and remaining forests in areas of transformation is therefore important, particularly within tropical rainforest landscapes. Such monitoring provides information such as the spatial distribution of land use systems, land use change, and also the quality of the ecosystem over the landscape (e.g. habitat quality, forest carbon stock, etc). This information could be a baseline for respective stakeholders to take action on sustainable landscape management. This study took place in Jambi province which is one of the hot spots of land use transformation in Indonesia, primarily in regard to forest conversion. To understand the historical land use change within study area, this study aims to analyze land use transformation in the period of 1990-2013 and the temporal dynamics of land use fragmentation. Some potential factors related to deforestation were also analyzed. Moreover, the applicability of high resolution RapidEye images was evaluated to classify land use systems and predict forest variables combined with field inventory data.