South China Tropical Forest Changes in Response to Economic Development and Protection Policies

Abstract

The destruction of tropical forests continues to attract attention from the international community. China’s National Forest Administration has adopted protective measures for tropical forests, and efforts have been developed to balance forest protection and eco - nomic development in Hainan Island, China. However, the response of natural tropical forest to local economic development and the effectiveness of forest management and protection policies remain unclear because of complexity of tropical evergreen ecosys -tems. After comprehensive analysis of spectral characteristics, spatial distribution, patch shape, and other characteristics of main forests, we developed an information extraction method based on the decision tree method, combining digital elevation model (DEM) and forest planning maps, and established flowcharts and processes for sophisticated object-based information extraction. The accuracy of our method was 92%, and the method proved to be applicable and effective in the classification of complex surface features in a tropical evergreen ecosystem. Forces resulting in the change of these forests were explored by analyzing the relationships between economic development, protec tion policies, as well as environmental factors.