Land use change on sloping areas in Phuket Province, Thailand

Abstract

The impact of continuous land use change on the slope areas in Phuket, Thailand was investigated in the present study. Landslide disasters may occur due to heavy rain storms in the area affected by global climate changes, causing an enormous impact on the tourism industry, especially life and property. Three time periods were focused on using remote sensing data, including 2001, 2006, and 2011. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used to calculate and compere the land use and/or land cover on the steep areas and seven classes of vegetation change were proposed: High Vegetation Increase, Medium Vegetation Increase, Low Vegetation Increase, No Vegetation Change, Severe Vegetation Decrease, Moderate Vegetation Decrease, and Low Vegetation Decrease. Land use change using the NDVI comparison during the years 2001 to 2006 showed that the areas of High Vegetation Increase were highest (79.51%), followed by the areas of Low Vegetation Increase (11.05%), No Vegetation Change (3.16%), Medium Vegetation Increase (0.79%), Low Vegetation Decrease (5.33%), and Moderate Vegetation Decease (0.16%). In addition, the land use change using the NDVI comparison during the years 2006 to 2011 showed the areas of Low Vegetation Increase (40.81%), followed by the areas of Low Vegetation Decease (32.41%), Medium Vegetation Increase (10.79%), No Vegetation Change (6.77%), Moderate Vegetation Decrease (4.98%), High Vegetation Increase (2.95%), and Severe Vegetation Decrease (1.29%). A study of the difference between vegetation changes between the years 2001-2006 and the years 2006-2011 found that vegetation the during the first period increased, but the second period showed a reduction in vegetation, which might have resulted from the urbanization of those areas. It was also found that the vegetation change in Amphoe Kathu was more severe than in other areas, and that the areas of vegetation reduction in Amphoe Kathu increased from 3.30% to 72.92%, where the areas of the vegetation reduction showed the Low Vegetation Decease (59.09%), followed by the Moderate Vegetation Decease (11.61%) and Severe Vegetation Decease (2.22%). It is possible that the areas of natural forest or other plant cover have been changed to other usages, such as urban development, because Patong beach has high tourism activity. It can be implied that the slope areas of Amphoe Kathu are probably vulnerable to disaster after the heavy rain storms.