Quantifying Land Use Changes for Greenhouse Gas Inventory Purpose in Thailand between 2000 and 2007

Abstract

This study quantifies the magnitude of land use change in Thailand during 2000-2007. Land use categories classified by the Land Development Department (LDD) were re-arranged to be consistent with the land use categories defined by the IPCC’s in its 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. During this period, there were the net losses of forest and cropland areas of 9,441.77 km2 (from 172,013 to 162,571 km2 or a decrease of 5.5%), and 8,461.85 km2 (from 285,811 to 277,349 km2 or a decrease of 3.3%), respectively. On the other hand, there were the net increases in the areas of grassland (1,705 km2 or 13%), wetland (4,823 km2, or 34%) and settlement (11,523 km2 or 45%). The loss of forest land was mainly through the conversion to cropland, and the loss of cropland was through conversion to settlements and forest. The conversion of forest land was mainly found in the northern region while cropland loss occurred mainly in central, east and southern regions. Conversion of land into settlement was found to increase in all regions of the country.