Thirty-Year Dynamics of LULC at the Dong Thap Muoi Area, Southern Vietnam, Using Google Earth Engine

Giang Thi Phuong Thao,Nguyen Ngoc An,Nguyen Cao Hanh,Dieu Tien Bui,Le Thi Thu Ha,Pham Viet Hoa,Tran Anh Phuong,Pham Viet Hong,Huynh Song Nhut,The Trinh Pham,Nguyen An Binh

doi:10.3390/ijgi10040226

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the land use and land cover (LULC) changes for thirty years, from 1990–2020, in the Dong Thap Muoi, a flooded land area of the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam using Google Earth Engine and random forest algorithm. The specific purposes are: (1) determine the main LULC classes and (2) compute and analyze the magnitude and rate of changes for these LULC classes. For the above purposes, 128 Landsat images, topographic maps, land use status maps, cadastral maps, and ancillary data were collected and utilized to derive the LULC maps using the random forest classification algorithm. The overall accuracy of the LULC maps for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 are 88.9, 83.5, 87.1, and 85.6%, respectively. The result showed that the unused land was dominant in 1990 with 28.9 % of the total area, but it was primarily converted to the paddy, a new dominant LULC class in 2020 (45.1%). The forest was reduced significantly from 14.4% in 1990 to only 5.5% of the total area in 2020. Whereas at the same time, the built-up increased from 0.3% to 6.2% of the total area. This research may help the authorities design exploitation policies for the Dong Thap Muoi’s socio-economic development and develop a new, stable, and sustainable ecosystem, promoting the advantages of the region, early forming a diversified agricultural structure.

Highlights

River deltas are considered to be some of the most favorable areas for crowded residential communities in the world, as they cover only around 5% of the total land area globally but are home to more than 500 million people [1]. These deltas have been recognized as the main places for significant land use and land cover (LULC) changes due to population growth, urbanization, anthropogenic activities, and socioeconomic development [2]
These results indicate that these random forest models fit well with the datasets at hand
This project assesses the thirty-year dynamics of land cover/land use changes in the

Summary

Introduction

River deltas are considered to be some of the most favorable areas for crowded residential communities in the world, as they cover only around 5% of the total land area globally but are home to more than 500 million people [1]. These deltas have been recognized as the main places for significant land use and land cover (LULC) changes due to population growth, urbanization, anthropogenic activities, and socioeconomic development [2]. Several works were conducted for: (1) the southern part [15,20,21], i.e., in Ca Mau province, where inland agriculture and mangrove plants are dominant; (2)

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