SILKROAD SKILL CALCULATOR LVL 120 DRIVERS
In particular, SLR was identified as one of the main underlying drivers however, the rapid changes were directly driven by policies on land-use for economic development in the region. The interaction of a set of environmental and socioeconomic factors were responsible for the dynamics.
Our findings show that the substantial increase in aquaculture ponds is at the expense of mangroves, forested wetlands, and rice fields/other crops, while shoreline erosion significantly affected coastal lands, especially mangrove forests. Although mangrove forests slightly increased for the period 2013/2020, the overall trend was also a reduction of 5%. The findings showed that the critical changes over the period 1995/2020 included the expansion of marine water into coastal lands, showing 129% shoreline erosion a remarkable increase of 345% in aquaculture ponds and a reduction of forested wetlands and rice fields/other crops by 32% and 73%, respectively. The accuracy of the wetland maps was relatively high, with overall accuracies ranging from 86–93%. Wetland maps from the years 1995, 2002, 2013, and 2020 at a 15 m spatial resolution were derived from Landsat images with the aid of a hybrid classification approach.
The present study aims to determine the long-term dynamics of wetlands in the south-west coast of the MD using remote sensing approaches, and analyse the potential factors driving these dynamics. However, documented information and research on the dynamics and drivers of these important wetland areas remain limited for the region. These wetlands have experienced critical changes due to the increase in regional anthropogenic activities, global climate change, and the associated sea level rise (SLR). Coastal wetlands in the Mekong Delta (MD), Vietnam, provide various vital ecosystem services for the region.