Land use classification and land use change analysis using satellite images in Lombok Island, Indonesia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to classify land use and land cover status and to identify land use changes, especially of deforestation and forest degradation in the past 20 years in Lombok Island using satellite imageries to support REDD+ program implementation. Medium scale Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM+ data from 1990 to 2000 at 5 year intervals were used to extract information on land use and land use changes. A land use/cover classification system was established, based on the six broad land use categories of IPCC Good Practice Guidelines. For land use classification, a supervised classification method was applied, and a “binary change mask applied to date 2” algorithm was used for land use change detection. As of 2010, cropland dominates the land cover of Lombok, comprising 61.4% of total area. Forest is the second dominant land cover class, covering c. 118,365 ha or about 25.8% of the land. Shrubland occupies 7.5% of land area. Forested land in 1990 was estimated at c. 156,900 ha or 34% of the total land area of Lombok. Subsequently, forested land has decreased by 47,363 ha over the past 20 years. This means that, since 1990, 28.6% of forest has been converted to non-forest land use, mostly presumed to be cropland and shrubland.