Longitudinal analysis of the road network development and land-cover change in Lop Buri province, Thailand, 1989–2006

Land use and land-cover change (LUCC) is mainly a consequence of human activities such as road network development. In Thailand, the explicit objective of road network development has been to foster economic and social development. The extent of change in roads and land-cover change in Lop Buri between 1989–2006 is analyzed. We hypothesized that road development is a key driver of land-cover change and will cause, substantial changes in areas of forest cover, cultivated food and cash crops. We used land-cover classifications of Landsat imagery and resultant class trajectories to measure change. We then analyzed the relationships between roads, land-cover types, and land-cover trajectories. Overall, cash crops increased while forest and food crops declined between 1989–2006. The relationships between distance to roads and land- cover trajectories indicate that as the distance to roads increase, there are fewer changes in LUCC. The results suggest that in this case study, an increase in road network contributes to an increase in upland crops. In turn, the increase in upland crop production is one of the factors linked to economic development.

► We examined the relationships between road network development and land-cover change.
► Almost 50% of the landscape has changed and mostly from forests to upland crops and rice to upland crops.
► Most of landscape change occurs within 6 km of roads. The amount of land-cover change reflects the amount of roads developed.