Monitoring of Forest Land Use/Cover Change in Cat Tien National Park, Dong Nai Province, Vietnam Using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques

Abstract

The Cat Tien National Park in the south of Vietnam represents a protected ecological area. It is located in tropical rainforest zone. For monitoring purposes of forest land use/cover change of the park satellite images (Landsat 5, Landsat 7 and Sentinel-2A) taken in 1988, 2003 and 2019 were used. NDVI was used for the estimation of vegetation quality. Forest land use/cover were classified by 5 categories using maximum likelihood classifier algorithm in ENVI 5.3. After classification, differentiation of forest land use/cover was analyzed on every image. Deforestation took place in 1988-2003 periods and broad-leaved forest areas have undergone reduction. Currently, new policies were introduced to reduce deforestation and therefore support free growth of tropical forest areas.