Wetland monitoring in the Plain of Reeds using Landsat images

Abstract

The Plain of Reeds is considered to be a typical inland wetland in the Mekong Delta with seasonally inundated grassland and flooded forests ecosystems. In this study, two Landsat
images, recorded in 1990 and 2020, respectively, were classified using supervised classification methodology with the Maximum Likelihood Classifier to monitor the wetland change. The
classification accuracy was 90.50% and 93.60% for 1990 and 2020, respectively. The result shows the significant decrease of 88.6% of the area classified as wetlands in 1990 compared
with 2020, mainly due to the conversion into agriculture (rice paddy) and orchards and perennial trees. It is hoped that these results will contribute to providing a solid foundation for
policy planning to preserve the last remaining patches of seasonally inundated grasslands and flooded forests in the Plain of Reeds.