Forest Cover Change Detection From Sentinel-2 Imager Using Vector Change Analysis, A Case Study Of Phu Quoc Island During The Period Of 2019 - 2023

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to detect forest changes in Phu Quoc Island during the period of 2019 – 2023 using Vector Change Analysis. Phuc Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam, located off the coast of Southern Vietnam, in the Gulf of Thailand. Phu Quoc has been experiencing drastically fast economic growth thanks to the tourism sector. As its tourism grows, its natural resources are continuously pressured and exploited to build new infrastructure projects such as hotels and resorts, including forests. This study can be helpful for sustainable forest management practices by providing the necessary information like an overall picture of how vegetation in the island changes and highlight the regions where we should pay attention to for decision-making. In this project, Sentinel-2 images in 2019, 2020 and 2023 with resolution of 20 meters collected from Copernicus were used in the analysis. The results of this project showed a significant loss of forest in Phu Quoc Island. This island has suffered from deforestation. However, most of the the protected forest areas were still intact.