An application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Analysis of
Agricultural Development-Induced Changes in Land Use:
A case study in Lao PDR
1). Graduate school of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Science, Kyushu University, Japan.
2).Department of Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lao PDR.
3). Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Japan
E-Mails: ;
By
Boundeth Southavilay
1)
,
2)
, Teruaki Nanseki
3)
The 30
th
APAN Meeting
August 2010, in Hanoi, Vietnam
1
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Statement of problems
3. Objectives
4. Materials and Methods
5. Study area
6. Results and Discussions
7. Conclusions
2
Introduction
• In the last decade, in Laos GIS and Remote sensing (RS) has not much used in
countrywide, including agriculture sector did not applied this technique for their

Materials and Methods
6
Materials
• Satellite images:
– Landsat ETM+ (25 January 1999), LIG
format
• Resolution
– 30 m (band 1-5,7)
– 15 m panchromatic
– Landsat ETM+ (12 March 2004), BIL
format
• Resolution
– 25 m (band 1-5,7)
– 15 m panchromatic
• GIS data bases with thematic maps (Road
networks, River networks, Village points,
Contour line, DEM and Ground check point-
from GPS)
• Topography map 1:100,000
(Schema F-47-142 and F-47-130)
• Software: ArcView3.2a and Idrisi 32
7
Methods
1. Geometric correction- to georeference maps to a map
coordination system
– Image 1999 was registered to local topography maps with 15
ground control points. root-mean-square (RMC) error = 0.45
pixels.
– Image 2004 was registered with registered of image 1999
(image to image). RMC= 0.14 pixels.

Study area
300msl
1250msl
The area is located in the northern Laos,
Lat: 65º07'16" to 67º59'13"
Long: 222º79'96" to 225º56'22".
43 villages
• Area 696 km2
• Watershed boundary area = 22 km2
• Elevation from 300 to 1,235 msl
• The lowland farms are located between 300 to 450 msl.
10
Results and Discussions
• The result of interpretation of two images ETM+1999 and ETM+2004, it provided two
land use maps of 1999 and 2004. In each map was classified into 11 categories of land
use/land cover types
Land covers 1999
Land covers 2004
Intensive of changed areas
11
Results of Maximum Likelihood
Classification of two images
1999 and 2004
land use classes
1999 2004
Km2 % Km2 %
Dark evergreen forest 199.54 28.66 148.7 21.4
Bright evergreen forest 173.94 24.99 134.8 19.4
Disturbed forest/fallow 164.27 23.60 305.1 43.8
Bamboo 22.98 3.30 12.4 1.8

Cheng detection
• The change detection is the process of identifying differences in the
state of an object or phenomenon by observing it at different times
(Singh, 1989).
• The change detection of land use and land cover of the study area
was analyzed by cross-classification technique-
– by overlaid of two land use maps
+ =
1999
2004
13
=
The change detection provides the characteristic changes of each land use type
Legend:
DT‐

Disturbedforest/fallow
EF‐

Evergreenforest
FC‐

Fieldcrop
BB‐

Bamboo
BL‐Bareland
WPD‐

Wetpaddy

were changed to
shifting cultivation:
18,100ha
Land use changed in watershed boundary
16
Dense forest
Open forest
Shifting cultivation
Bamboo
Field crop
Wet paddy
Bare land
Shrub land/other
Dense forest
Open forest
Shifting cultivation
Bamboo
Field crop
Wet paddy
Irrigated paddy field
Reservoir
Shrub land/other
May,1999 March, 2004
Land use types
1999 2004
Hectares % Hectares %
Irrigated paddy (dry season) 0.00 0.00 202.44 0.92
Reservoir 0.00 0.00 467.82 2.14
Bare land/wet soil 551.38 2.51 0.00 0.00
Field crop 830.69 3.79 46.44 0.21

Groundinformation GISdata RemoteSensing
Landuse/land
cover
Composite/NDVI
maps
Combinelanduse
type/landholding
in the villages
Rastermaps:Slope,
DEM
Populationand
village location
WatershedZonation
map
Vector maps:river,
boundary
DecisionSupport
Landuse
p
lannin
g

• The zone was created by overlaid of three physical information (Ground data,
GIS data and satellite imagery data)
• The zonation can be regarded as a tool for sustainable agricultural
development in the watershed area.
18
Developmentzone
Bufferzone
Conservationzone

The existing of land cover in the study area
21
Development zone
Buffer zone
Conservation zone
Conclusions
For 1
st
objective
1.The total areas of the fallow forest were doubly increased from 16,427
ha in 1999 to 30,510 ha in 2004. This land use type was high potential to
be mixed by different types of land use such as disturbed forest/fallow
forest/shifting cultivation/rubber plantation.
2.Based on our results suggest that after irrigation dam was constructed,
several types of land use areas were changed (decreased/increased) and
fragmented (field crop, evergreen forest, fallow forest) as a result of both
farmers who lost their lands and turned to clear-cut forest areas for upland
rice cultivation, and private investment on commercial tree (rubber
plantation).
22
Conclusions (cont.)
For 2
nd
objective
1.The tool for decision support system in sustainable of agricultural
development in this study is the land use zoning was created by GIS
and remote sensing technique. By created 3 main land use zones.
1. Conservation zone
2. Buffer zone
3. Development (Agricultural) zone