Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Forest Land Use Planning in Upper Ca River Basin, Nghe An Province

Abstract

In recent years, the forest cover is increasing; however, its quality in Nghe An and in upper Ca river basin in particularly has been decreasing significantly due to the impacts of the local socio-economic development and the population pressure. GIS and Remote Sensing technology were applied for this research in order to assess the forest cover changes and to propose suitable forest land use planning in the upper Ca river basin. Satellite images were used for mapping of forest cover changes from 1998 to 2007. The results of image processing were used to build up forest map with accuracy level 75% and Kappa coefficient 0,8. The forest changes indicate that the area of reforestation were larger more than that of deforestation. However, throughout the period 2003 - 2007, deforestation was higher than the figure between the years 1998 - 2003 while the reforestation area in this period declined. The multiple Criteria Spatial Analysis (MCSA) used in this paper has identified the potential orientation for the development of forest, these results can serve as the base for local suitable forest land use planning