Land cover change analysis of the Yucatan Peninsula using landsat data from 1985 to 2010

摘要

Local-scale vegetation change is one of the driving forces of global climate change, and forest loss in tropical countries is among the largest contributors to carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Lately several studies have employed Landsat data for forest change mapping but mainly focused on temperate regions. This study tests the Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT) in a tropical area. The northeastern section of the Peninsula of Yucatan was analyzed using 19 images of 30m Landsat data from 1985 to 2010. Accuracy assessment using reference polygons depicted high commission and omission errors, in many cases due to differences in spatial delineation of classified and visually-interpreted change polygons. The change rates were mostly smaller than 1% and thus in correspondence to other statistical sources. For areas with available secondary information, changes were linked to disturbance types, i.e. the cause of land cover change, which is an important information for carbon modelers.