Land cover changes in SEA of port development in the Vung Tau area (South Vietnam)

The Vung Tau area, especially the area near the Thi Vai River downstream of Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau City, in the South of Vietnam, is one of the fastest growing and developing areas of the country. Many ports and port related industry (steel industry, food industry etc.) have been developed or are planned for the near future. This has major consequences for the land use in the area. Using 3 SPOT images (1995, 2000 and 2005), land use changes were studied using ENVI 3.6 and ArcGIS 8.1. Fifteen different classes of land use have been identified, including aquaculture, settlement, plantation, natural forest, annual crops, etc. The results show (1) an increase of 62% of the urbanisation areas, especially near the national road, which connects the port developments, but also in Vung Tau City (2) a shift from agricultural land to industrial land (industry, ports, etc.) (3) an increase of planted mangrove forest by 95% and a decrease of the natural forest by 50%. In conclusion, the port developments have complex and vast impacts on the land use, mainly in the field of urbanisation and industrial land use. The new master plan will strengthen this evolution.status: publishe