Detection of Deforestation Using Low Resolution Satellite Images in the Islands of Sumatra 2000-2012

In the last two decades, the international community has given great attention to the issues of deforestation and degradation. In Indonesia, these issues had been a very critical as they were related to the Indonesian government's commitment in reducing greenhouse gases by 2020 through the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism. This paper describes the use of low resolution satellite imagery, i.e., MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) for monitoring deforestation in Sumatra during the period of 2000-2012. The main objective of the study was to derive rapid forest and land cover change information from low resolution imageries in Sumatra between 2000 - 2012. This study used level 2 Terra MODIS (MOD13Q1) imageries, acquired in 2000, 2006 and 2012 as the main data source, where the 16-day composite imageries were derived from NAS