Multi-Decadal Forest-Cover Dynamics in the Tropical Realm: Past Trends and Policy Insights for Forest Conservation in Dry Zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Forest-cover change has become an important topic in global biodiversity conservation in recent decades because of the high rates of forest loss in different parts of the world, especially in the tropical region. While human interventions are the major cause, natural disasters also contribute to forest cover changes. During the past decades, several studies have been conducted to address different aspects of forest cover changes (e.g., drivers of deforestation, degradation, interventions) in different parts of the world. In Sri Lanka, increasing rates of forest loss have been recorded during the last 100 years on a regional basis, especially in the dry zone. However, Sri Lanka needs detailed studies that employ contemporary data and robust analytical tools to understand the patterns of forest cover changes and their drivers. The dry zone of Sri Lanka encompasses 59% of the total land area of the country, ergo, the most extensive forest cover. Our study analyzed forest cover dynamics and its drivers between 1992 and 2019. Our specific objectives included (i) producing a forest cover map for 2019, (ii) analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of forest cover changes from 1992 to 2019, and (iii) determining the main driving forces. Landsat 8 images were used to develop forest-cover maps for 2019, and the rest of the forest cover maps (1992, 1999, and 2010) were obtained from the Forest Department of Sri Lanka. In this study, we found that the dry zone had undergone rapid forest loss (246,958.4 ha) during the past 27 years, which accounts for 8.0% of the net forest cover changes. From 2010 to 2019, the rates of forest loss were high, and this can be associated with the rapid infrastructure development of the country. The findings of this study can be used as a proxy to reform current forest policies and enhance the forest sustainability of the study area.

Satellite-Based Meteorological and Agricultural Drought Monitoring for Agricultural Sustainability in Sri Lanka

“…This can be done by introducing drought-tolerant crops, changing crop patterns, making minor changes during the growing season, etc., so that sustainable agriculture can continue. Sri Lanka's forest cover has decreased significantly over the past few decades [81], which could have a significant impact on the increasing severity of droughts in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, a previous study [82] showed an increasing trend of annual rainfall in Sri Lanka.…”

Spatial Analysis of Urbanization Patterns in Four Rapidly Growing South Asian Cities Using Sentinel-2 Data

“…GEE has become popular as a cloud computing platform to process earth observation data due to several advantages, including flexibility, efficiency, availability, bulk downloading, ingesting, and processing capabili-ties [61]. GEE helps to extract cloud-and shadow-free images [62]. There are several past studies worldwide that have been conducted using GEE [43,44,63].…”

Sustainability of Village Tank Cascade Systems of Sri Lanka: Exploring Cascade Anatomy and Socio-Ecological Nexus for Ecological Restoration Planning

“…During the past two decades, the integrity and functions of VTCSs have been degraded significantly affecting the provision of ecosystem goods and services. For example, deterioration of micro-land use components and upstream catchment forest has had a significant impact on biotic diversity (species diversity, functional diversity and vegetation structure), abiotic heterogeneity (soil erosion and land degradation) and imbalance of water budget (soil moisture, evaporation, surface runoff), leading to a significant reduction in the capacity of supplying and regulating ES in the VTCS [87][88][89][90]. Thus, the study examined the identified causal factors and their interactive relationships [27,28] within the framework of resilience, adaptive capacity, and the vulnerability (RACV) concept [29], while incorporating exposure and sensitivity indices specific to Mahakanumulla VTCS.…”

“…Recent studies have shown that various factors impact the ecological productivity of the VTCSs. For instance, agricultural expansion into ecologically sensitive areas of the major VTCS zones due to demographic changes and urbanization has led to a drastic reduction in forest cover during the last two decades [8,89,90]. The degradation of the integrity and functionality of the cascade ecology has resulted in the reduction of capacity to supply ES and increased severity of droughts [6].…”