Using open-source data and software to analyse land-use changes and deforestation in Marqués de Comillas, Chiapas, Mexico (Work in Progress)

Abstract

This project aimed to exploit existing open data and open-source software to allow visualising and finding spatial coincidences between three groups of indicators: 1) agricultural activity, 2) land use and forest cover changes, and 3) spatial distribution patterns of vegetation loss. This paper presents preliminary results of developing an interactive map using R, Leaflet, and QGIS to perform a simple overlay analysis of layers containing better policy and decision-making indicators. The map uses open data available through the Mexican government platforms, and all processing, storage and publication are done using free open-source software tools. The data used in this project was limited to the Marqués de Comillas municipality because of its importance in Mexico’s forest ecosystem. The maps are a work in progress and a continuation of research done for a geomatics graduate program in Centro de Investigación en Ciencias de Información Geoespacial.