Landscape transformation in an urbanizing area in Laguna, Philippines: Assessing trends and policy implications on the ASEAN integration

Abstract

Landscape transformation (LT) is increasingly shaping the earth’s surfaces. Despite the importance of LT analysis in land use planning and environmental management, there is paucity of informationon LT especially in developing countries such as the Philippines. The paper seeks to analyze the trend and policy implications of LT in one of the country’s urbanizing landscapes in Luzon by using landscape dynamics as its framework and geographic information system as the analytical tool. Land use-land cover (LULC) maps for the periods 2003, 2005, and 2010 were sourced from NAMRIA and digitized, geoprocessed, and recoded to determine the transformation. Nine LULC classes were identified and subjected to patch analysis to quantify their changes in number, size, and class area proportion within the period of analysis. The landscape was predominantly agriculturein 2003-2005 periods but is highly dominated bybuilt-up area in 2010, potentially reducing agricultural production and increasing inundation. Patch analysis also indicates changes in landscape configuration with reduced mean patch size and increased patch number from 2003 to 2010. These trends necessitate the implementation of a policy that ensures sustainable security of life, food, and property of the local communities to make them competitive during ASEAN integration.