The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) - Building Capacity through a Comprehensive Land Cover Change Analysis

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1 International Symposium Sustaining Food Security and Managing Natural Resources in Southeast Asia - Challenges for the 21st Century - January 8-11, 2002 at Chiang Mai, Thailand The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) - Building Capacity through a Comprehensive Land Cover Change Analysis Suteera Nagavajara 1, Lars Bromley 2, Honda Kiyoshi 3, John Musinsky 4, Marc Steininger 4 1 Pacific Rim Initiative, Directorate for International Programs American Association for the Advancement of Science, snagavaj@aaas.org 2 Ecology and Human Needs, Directorate for International Programs American Association for the Advancement of Science, lbromley@aaas.org 3 Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS) Asian Institute of Technology, honda@ait.ac.th 4 Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, j.musinsky@conservation.org, m.steininger@conservation.org Abstract The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) is a proposed collaborative effort led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Conservation International (CI) and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The MRSI project will create a comprehensive, satellite-derived database of land use/land cover changes over the past 40 years in the Mekong River Basin (MRB) while implementing capacity building activities among stakeholders in the use of this decision making tool. The goal of this program is to place region-wide, satellite-based imagery and data into the hands of policymakers and other stakeholders. This will help empower people in the region to base decisions about future environmental and socio-economic development plans on the best historic and current land-use information. 1 Introduction The countries of the Mekong River Basin (MRB) faces numerous challenges as they seek to rapidly develop their economies while meeting present and future resource needs. With economic development outpacing sustainable resource management strategies, coordinated basin-wide scientific efforts and infrastructure for studying resource management problems are urgently needed. A strategy to help alleviate these problems is the creation of integrated, basin wide information sources for resource

2 2 The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) management. One potential information source to develop is an extensive database of land use and land cover change in the entire MRB. Creating this database while proactively including of a wide range of stakeholders in development and application of the data can help fill critical knowledge gaps in the MRB. The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia and the eighth largest river in the world in terms of annual runoff (World Resource ). The headwaters of the river are in the Tibetan Plateau and flow into the South China Sea. Six countries share the MRB: Cambodia, China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam. The MRB is vital to the livelihoods of approximately 60 million residents as a source of food, drinking water, irrigation, transportation, and commerce. The MRB is one of the most biologically and culturally diverse watersheds in the world. The watershed supports the largest freshwater fishery in the region and its most productive rice-growing areas. Despite abundant resources millions of people in the basin still live in dire poverty. Economic disparity among and within the riparian countries has influenced political dynamics and conflicts in resource management in the MRB. In the past few decades, economic growth pressures among countries in the MRB have led to increasing ecological disturbance. The construction of dams, industrial development, rapid urbanization, population growth, deforestation, intensive agriculture, and aquaculture activities produce serious consequences for the health and viability of communities in the basin. The MRB has experienced increasing loss of biodiversity, salinity, flooding, soil erosion, water and air pollution, as well as social problems accompanying the resettlement of communities around hydropower projects, transboundary migration of workers, prostitution, HIV epidemics, and loss of livelihood and cultural integrity. Each country in the basin depends on and seeks to maximize its use of resources in the MRB. The majority of Lao PDR's 5.4 million people live along the river and depend heavily on its water for household consumption, food, and agriculture. Twentyeight percent of Lao PDR s national income comes from the sales of hydropower to its neighbouring countries, up from less than 10% six years ago (ADB, August 2001). Southern Vietnam and most of Cambodia are situated in the Mekong Delta where rice is cultivated, with up to three harvests per year, and fish constitute the main source of protein intake. Thailand, the most industrialized nation with the highest per capita income in the basin, increasingly needs hydropower to fuel its economy.

3 Nagavajara et al. 3 This shared use of the Mekong River by multiple nations provides additional challenges and obstacles to the promotion of sustainable development. Transparency and communication are often lacking between parties, consequently information and knowledge sharing amongst the stakeholders is difficult to promote, leading to multiple knowledge gaps. A major knowledge gaps facing scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders in the MRB has been the lack of reliable multidisciplinary, quantified information about basic ecosystem health and landscape change in the basin as a whole. Filling this gap is important as a multidisciplinary approach can produce novel and innovative responses and deeper understanding of the connections between natural and human behaviour. Using the watershed as the unit of analysis best applies multidisciplinary information as it serves to bring together related ecosystems and human populations, work past obstructing geopolitical boundaries, and define sustainability criteria for the use of important resources. Publicly releasing more multidisciplinary watershed-level information can greatly aid sustainable resource management within the basin (Watersheds of the World). This information can include satellite images gathered since the 1960's which can be developed into land use / land cover change (LULCC) databases. In simple terms, LULCC data describes what covers the land, how the land is used, and how the land use changes at relatively fine scales. LULCC data has potential applications across a very wide range of policy fields and scientific disciplines as any government or organization concerned with environmental, economic, agricultural, and social conditions would find it useful. Policymakers can use it to assess environmental impacts of development while scientists use it to model important ecological and socioeconomic variables. Accompanied by a proactive capacity building effort, the data can also be of use to more local level organizations concerned with the use of their natural resources, agricultural conditions, and other issues. An international project has been proposed which seeks to undertake these LULCC data generation and capacity building activities. The International Directorate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) ( in Washington, DC, together with the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI) ( in Washington, DC, and the Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS) of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) ( in Bangkok, Thailand, will carry out the proposed two-year Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI). Through the MRSI project, AAAS hopes

4 4 The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) to improve decision making in natural resource management in the MRB by generating the data and building the regional capacity of scientists and stakeholders within a participatory framework. These actions will help promote international and regional cooperation in natural resource management and ultimately improve scientific understanding of the relationship between humans and their environment in the MRB. Efforts such as these will help enable a balance between economic development and environmental sustainability in the MRB. 2 Project Description The MRSI project will compile, analyze, and distribute satellite images and data on LULCC covering the entire MRB over the last 40 years while simultaneously building user capacity and carrying out knowledge dissemination and application activities. Creation of this data while promoting further applications, further research studies, and spin-off projects will increase local and regional capacity to make use of these advanced tools. The project will utilize a participatory methodology to involve local, national, and international science, policy, and community stakeholders from the six riparian countries of the MRB. These stakeholders include scientists, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students from multiple scientific fields, as well as government officials, agencies, municipal services administrators, and policymakers. In addition, businesses, civil sector organizations, students and teachers in elementary and high schools, rural farming organizations, local communities, and the general public will be asked to take part in training, workshops, and other activities. The participatory process will both engage and draw from the stakeholders as they learn ways to utilize the MRSI data products while also providing accuracy assessments and focal points for the data generation itself. The participatory methodology will help leverage expertise and experiences within the region and elsewhere. The project will feature two main types of activities: generation of the knowledge base and knowledge dissemination activities. These activities will occur simultaneously, with the generation of the knowledge base complementing the dissemination activities and vice versa. The two types of activities will together increase resource management capacity at multiple levels. Knowledge base generation includes acquisition and compilation of highresolution satellite imagery from five time periods within the last 40 years as well as classification of this imagery into dominant land cover types. The MRSI project will

5 Nagavajara et al. 5 obtain remotely sensed imagery from the US Department of Defence Corona satellites and the NASA Landsat Program available through the EROS Data Center of the US Geological Survey and elsewhere. Corona satellites represented the first efforts by the US military to photograph activities within the Soviet Union and elsewhere during the Cold War. This intelligence gathering began in 1960, and yielded over 800,000 panchromatic images of the world with a resolution of two meters or better by the time it ceased operations in 1972 (CORONA). Corona data used in the MRSI project will provide quantification of major land cover types in the 1960s. The Landsat Program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of imagery of the earth from space. The first Landsat satellite was launched in 1972; the most recent, Landsat 7, was launched on April 15, 1999, and together the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of multispectral images of the Earth with a resolution of between 30 and 80 meters (Landsat Program Summary). The MRSI project will utilize Landsat imagery to quantify land cover from the 1970s until Deriving the LULCC databases from the raw satellite imagery will involve extensive processing of hundreds of images. This 18-month processing period will first rectify all imagery to a common coordinate system, correct the imagery for spectral, terrain, and sensor distortions, then code all the land cover depicted in the imagery into specific classes, and finally determine areas of changes in land cover. The satellite imagery will come from five specific years within the four-decade time period, and will be classified into multiple classes of land use and land cover categories. Initial research on data availability indicates that the most likely years analyzed will be 1965, 1978, 1985, 1991, and These multiple time periods make it possible to calculate changes between one years data with another, and given the fine resolution of the data MRSI will readily detect land cover changes, such as forest clearance, as small as one hectare. The method to be used in MRSI for mapping land cover changes is based on direct classification of multi-date imagery. Typically specialists will view a single date colour composite, where different spectral bands are assigned to different colours on the computer screen, while labelling training sites for classification. The MRSI method will view multi-date colour composites, assigning the middle-infrared channels from each image date to a different colour. This is a rapid way to view areas of spectral change. The training sites are used for intensive processing and classification by a specialist, and the results of this training are used to classify the spectral signatures throughout the imagery. MRSI will produce a series of training sites for various sub-

6 6 The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) classes of forest (e.g. forest on sunlight vs. shaded slopes, forest that extends into the hazy part of an image, etc), as well as the other land cover classes. Specialists will apply a maximum-likelihood classification algorithm using all channels of data from all image dates. Data will be merged into a time series that allows further correction of land cover classes in particular dates as well as estimates of change rates and transition matrices. The database derived from the 2001 Landsat 7 data will feature eight land use and land cover classes: 1) urban/ built-on land; 2) rice agriculture 3) upland crops agriculture; 4) aquaculture; 5) fallow; 6) forest; 7) wetlands; and 8) water. The three agriculture classes found in the 2001 Landsat 7 data will be reduced to one class in the earlier Landsat periods to expedite the data processing period. Determining specific crop locations in previous decades will not be done at this stage as it requires excessive time and resources. Thus the six classes for time periods between 1970 and 1995 will be 1) urban/ built-on land: 2) agriculture; 3) fallow; 4) forest; 5) wetlands; and 6) water. The database derived from the 1960s Corona data will feature fewer classes as this data is panchromatic and presents numerous challenges for processing. The Corona database representing 1965 will thus feature four classes: 1) forest; 2) nonforest; 3) urbanized; and 4) water. In addition to these five databases depicting land cover and land use at specific times, databases will be generated which indicate the changes in land use and land cover between the time periods. Field verification of the data will play a dual role in generating the data and disseminating knowledge. The MRSI scientists will use the field verification process to ground-truth the satellite imagery while at the same time undertaking capacity building efforts with schools, community groups, and local scientific counterparts. A major part of the field verification efforts will be carried out with the help of counterpart organizations, including educational organizations. Involving counterpart organizations will build their capacity by hosting and accompanying field verification and learning about verification and potential applications for the data. By specifically involving educational groups in field verification the MRSI project will provide future generations and their communities with advanced information technologies and skills which can help them better monitor and manage natural resource use. Involving local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will ensure knowledge dissemination into local communities and enhance communities' sense of project ownership. In addition to the field verification activities, knowledge dissemination will take the form of scientific exchanges, technical training sessions, stakeholder workshops,

7 Nagavajara et al. 7 media outreach activities, data distribution, and promotion of applications. These activities will help meet the project s objectives by introducing a range of stakeholders to the data, informing them of possible applications to their specific needs, incorporating their input into the data, and enabling them to make effective use of the data in local resource management. Knowledge dissemination in the MRSI project will maximize its impact by increasing the number of potential users and applications of the data products. Scientific exchanges will take place between project principals. Staff and scientists from the respective organizations, namely AAAS, CI, and AIT will work along with their counterparts in other countries for three weeks to obtain consistent standards of image processing and accuracy assessment. In addition to building technical capacity, bringing scientists together will enhance data accuracy, create synergies, and facilitate international scientific cooperation. Two-week technical training sessions will also be conducted to provide detailed instruction in the use of remote sensing data to a select group of stakeholders. Participants will be trained in the principles of analysis, attributes of data, obtaining quantitative information from images, and image interpretation. The trainees will spend each morning at lectures and each afternoon working with software including ER-Mapper, ARC/INFO, and ARC/View. Participants will take course materials home with them, including a CD with all the data used in the class. Training sessions will provide opportunities for at least forty regional scientists to become qualified in image processing and the use of remote sensing tools and other geographic data. In addition to technical training, one day stakeholder workshops will introduce remote sensing and its potential applications to key groups of stakeholders generate ideas and public responses, receive stakeholders' input, and increase the use of satellite imagery by the targeted groups in their activities. There will be four of these workshops, each hosting at least 40 stakeholders from different sectors and regions of the MRB. An initial workshop will target a broad, multi-stakeholders audience, and the MRSI project staff will demonstrate LULCC products and applications to the stakeholders who can consequently explore collaborative research and development activities. A second workshop will present potential uses of the databases for environmental and socio-economic to policymakers and government agencies. A third workshop will inform the civil sector, specifically NGOs and community-based organizations of potential data uses in promoting environmental education, natural resources management, social development, and other public policy campaigns. A

8 8 The Mekong Remote Sensing Initiative (MRSI) final workshop will allow scientists and the academic community, including local schools, to exchange their experiences and methodologies and learn about the potential benefits of remote sensing and the MRSI databases. To complement these activities, the project will seek to make data freely available to the science and policy communities via the MRSI Data Distribution Center located at AIT in Bangkok, Thailand. This data distribution center will be undertaken by AIT as part of their ongoing Digital Asia and Digital Mekong initiatives. These initiatives seek to provide organizations and individuals with easy access to geo-spatial information regarding Asia and the MRB, and the MRSI Data Distribution Center will initially create an Internet site and later a hardcopy distribution system to allow access to the LULCC datasets. The MRSI products and other data showing maps of borders and towns will be viewable via the Internet. Users who need the raw databases will be able to gain access after a registration process. The MRSI project will ensure data availability to users without internet connections by eventually creating a semiautomated delivery system. This system will extract data from the MRSI datasets based on user requests, and either transfer that data to a CD-ROM or print maps and images onto poster sized pieces of paper for mailing to schools, NGOs, and other organizations. In addition, the MRSI project will use the extensive networks of partner organizations in the region to inform stakeholders about the project through their listservers, websites, and electronic and print newsletters. The MRSI project will also develop brochures for distribution at the MRSI workshops and events hosted by other organizations. These brochures will be translated into six languages: Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, Mandarin Chinese, and Burmese. The MRSI project will also encourage local and regional organizations to incorporate the MRSI data into their activities to extend the MRSI project s impact beyond its life span. Cooperation is anticipated with the Mekong River Commission (MRC), the Greater Mekong Subregion Academic Research Network, the GLOBE Project, the International Crane Foundation, the SEA- BASINS Project, RECOFTC, and other regional and local NGOs. Lastly, the MRSI project will integrate itself into existing data infrastructure projects such as the US Federal Governments Digital Earth project and its proposed regional spin-offs such as Digital Asia and Digital Mekong, the commercially led Geography Network, the NASA Global Change Master Directory, and the worldwide network of World Data Centers. Data will also be distributed via CD-ROMs to the MRC, national

9 Nagavajara et al. 9 governments and planning agencies in the region, and multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. 3 Conclusion The countries of the MRB must contend with multiple converging resource management challenges as they seek to develop their economies while promoting healthy ecosystems. The creation of basin wide, multidisciplinary LULCC information from satellite imagery can help meet these challenges by providing the quantified data necessary for science and policy research. Further, engaging organizations in participatory capacity building activities will better enable them to make use of this data and create an information rich decision making environment. The MRSI project will add value to existing natural resource science and policy initiatives and contribute to the scientific infrastructure which will allow sustainable development in the MRB. References CORONA, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, Vol 61, No. 6, June 1995 The Lao People's Democratic Republic Country Economic Review, Asian Development Bank, August Landsat Program Summary, NASA, Managing the Mekong River: Will a Regional Approach Work?, World Resources , People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life, pp World Resources Institute, Watersheds of the World