AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY LANDSCAPE SUSTAINABILITY EVALUATION USING SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR, LAMTAKHONG WATERSHED, NAKHON RATCHASIMA, THAILAND
Keywords:
Land use and land cover, landscape sustainability, sustainability indicator (SUSI), Lamtakhong watershed, Nakhon RatchasimaAbstract
Landscape sustainability plays a vital role in maintaining ecological security and promoting regional ecological sustainable development. The main objectives of the research are to classify and assess the landscape types and the changes to them and to evaluate agricultural and forestry landscape sustainability using sustainability indicators in the Lamtakhong watershed, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. In this study, the extracted and predicted land use and land cover data during 1993 to 2025 were used to classify landscape types by the majority of land use and land cover. The derived landscape types were then applied for status and change assessment and sustainability evaluation. The results showed that during 1993 to 2025 the most dominant landscape was agricultural landscape and the least abundant landscape was miscellaneous landscape. Meanwhile, the development of landscape types indicated that urban, agricultural, and miscellaneous landscapes had continued to increase but forestry landscape had successively decreased. The overall sustainability level of the agricultural and forestry landscape during 1993 to 2025 was moderate. However, the sustainability of agricultural and forestry landscape had continuously declined in term of gains and losses in the past and would continue to do so into the future. With these results, it might be concluded that the sustainability of agricultural and forestry landscape in the Lamtakhong watershed will be decreased in the future. The findings of the study can be used as the basis for regular monitoring of the use of the land and can be a guide for biodiversity conservation and forest rehabilitation.
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