Natural Resources and Land use Change of
Phuket using Remote Sensing
Results
From the satellite images, land use of Phuket can be classified into 4 main categories ( Figure 2 ) as follows: 1) built -up area: urban area, industrial area, habour, air port, golf courses, resort and waste solid disposal area. 2) forested land: inland forest, forest plantation, mangrove forest, swamp forest and degraded forest. 3) agricultural land: paddy field, rubber plantation, coconut plantation and mixed orchard and shrimp farming, and 4) miscellaneous: ex -tin mining area, beaches, mudflat and water body.
Figure 2 Present Land use Map of Phuket
It was revealed that during 8 years ( 1987 -1995 ) mangrove forest has been deteriorated about 4 sq.krn. or about 19 % caused by shrimp farming, urban expansion, tourism development and tin mining. Table 1 shows the results of mangrove forest and shrimp farming area change of Phuket during 1897 to 1995. It was found that mangrove forest decreased from 21.55 sq.krn. to 17.50 sq.krn. The increasing of shrimp farming during 1987 -1990 -1992 -1995 were 0.46 sq.krn., 1.52 sq.krn., 2.42 sq.krn. and 10.35 respectively. It can be concluded that forested land, rubber plantation, coconut and mixed orchard and paddy land will be decreased and transformed to be urbanized area for the tourism deveopment.
Table 1 Changes of mangrove forest and shrimp farming from 1987 - 1995. (unit : rai, 1 sq.km.=625 rai).
| Land Use |
Year 1987 |
Year 1990 |
Year 1992 |
Year 1995 |
| Mangrove forest |
13,468 |
12,287 |
11,400 |
10,918 |
| Shrimp farming |
288 |
950 |
1,513 |
6,469 |
Conclusion
The study reveals that the multi-dates satellite images analysis yields an exellent result of natural resources and land use change. The Landsat - TM bands 4- 5- 3/ R -G- B, recorded during January through April, diffirentiates more classes of land use pattern than other combination. The preliminary results of the study can be used as a tool for natural resources management focusing on mangrove forest conservation and protection.
Reference
-
Department of Land Development. 1991. Land Use Planning of Phuket.
Bangkok ( Thai Version ). 94 p.
- Office of Environmental Policy and Planning. 1995. Provincial State of
the Coast Phuket. Bangkok ( Thai Version ).
- Royal Forest Department. 1994. Forestry Statistices of Thailand.
Bangkok. 130 p.
