Mangrove forests changes and responses to sea level rise based on remote sensing and GIS in PKWS, Cambodia

Abstract

Mangrove forests in Cambodia can be found along the coastline 435 km. Recently, mangroves have declined by anthropogenic activities and threatened to Sea level rise (SLR) caused by climate change. SLR was estimated to rise 40 to 60 cm in Koh Kong province by the end of the twenty-first century. Mangroves in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary (PKWS), Cambodia, will extract from 2015 to 2020 using sentinel-2 multi-temporal data with Random Forest classification. Moreover, the changes in mangroves also conducted using MOLUSCE. To predict the vulnerable mangroves area in 2020 due to future SLR based on Geospatial Model and SLR scenarios (40 cm, 60 cm, and 1 m). Mangroves in PKWS were estimated about 7157.90, 7495.21, 7337.47, 6436.26, 6761.66, and 7045.64 ha in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Furthermore, mangroves were increased by 337.31 ha during 2015-2016 but decreased about 157.74, 901.21 ha in 2017 and 2018. However, mangroves undertake to increased 325.40, 283.98 ha in 2019 and 2020. The total changes of mangroves were extremely decreased 112.26 ha from 2015 to 2020. When SLR by 40 and 60 cm, mangrove areas are projected to be inundated about 40.44 ha and reached 53.14 ha by 1 m, respectively.