Quantification of Green Space Landscape Structure for Sustainable Land Use Planning in Pasir Mas, Kelantan

Abstract

Globally, the amount of green space in urban areas has significantly decreased because of fast urban expansion. Urbanization may modify the spatial structure of a landscape and have an impact on its ecological function. The research aims to quantify the landscape structure changes of green space in the years 1994, 2004, and 2014 in Pasir Mas using remote sensing, GIS and landscape ecology approach. Three satellite images were classified into five land use land cover (LULC) which are forest, agriculture area, cleared land, water bodies and built-up area. The results show that the highest percentage of area in year 1994 is forest followed by agriculture, built up area and water bodies. However, in year 2014 the percentage of land use are vice versa. In the period from 1994 to 2004, 1.92% of forest was converted into built up areas in Pasir Mas district. However, in the period of year 2004 to 2014, the percentage of forest area that has been converted into built up area is increase about 4.32%. Forest shows significance increase in the transition into agriculture area by 49.63% in the year of 1994 and 2004. For the period of year 2004 and 2014, the conversion of forest area into agriculture area also in high percentage which is 17.66%. Landscape structure changes analysis show that there are significant changes of Euclidean nearest neighbour distance (MNN) indicating that there is fragmentation and isolation between patches. Similarly, the size and shape of forest patches also decreased indicating by percentage of area (PAREA) and landscape shape index (LSI). Therefore, using remote sensing, GIS, and landscape ecology, this project will help understand the spatial structure of green space and the impact of urban expansion in Pasir Mas, Kelantan, in order to give the knowledge necessary for sustainable land use planning.