Evaluation of tropical coastal land cover and land use changes and their impacts on ecosystem service values

Abstract

Understanding about land cover and land use (LCLU) changes, as well as the associated impacts on ecosystem service values (ESV) is extremely important in the management of coastal ecosystems globally. Thus, this study assessed temporal LCLU changes, the underlying socioeconomic drivers and dynamics of ESV in the coastal zone of Tanzania. The LCLU data for 2000 and 2010 were from the Globe Land 30 mapping products at 30-meter spatial resolution developed by National Geomatics Center of China, while 2016 images were produced from Landsat 8. Classification of images was done from Landsat TM/ETM+ for 2000, 2010, and 2016 years complemented with MODIS and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index time series, and Chinese HJ imagery. LCLU categories and ecosystem service coefficients were used to compute ESV on each LCLU categories. Between 2000 and 2016, farmland, shrub land, waterbody, and artificial surface expanded while forest, grazing land, and wetlands declined. The ESV increased on farmland, shrub land, and waterbody, while the decline was found on forest, grazing land, and wetlands. The ESV and the total population ratios declined from $80.4, 63.8, and $46.0 million in 2000, 2010, and 2016, respectively. Perfect positive correlation was on LCLU change and ESV, population and households in crop farming, livestock keeping, and bioenergy use. Population pressure and socioeconomic activities have amplified the degradation of the coastal ecosystems. If not abetted, there is a danger of further impairments on these ecosystems. We advise to regulate population and socioeconomic activities to avoid more negative impacts of coastal LCLU change.