Figure 6. Land Cover for Site 1-B in 1987.
Statistics detailing the changes over the fourteen
year time span are included in Table 4. Pixels
classified as cloud, if present in 1973 or 1987,
were excluded from the calculations of change in
land cover.
Table 4.
Change in
Land Cover* for
the Six
Sub-sites
(in percent).
1-A
1-B
1-C
CLOSED F.
to OPEN F.
3.4
11.8
3.1
CLOSED F.
to NONFOREST
0.1
0.1
1.3
OPEN F. to CLOSED F.
3.7
2.6
0.2
OPEN F. to NONFOREST
0.1
1.1
3.8
NONFOREST
to CLOSED F.
2.2
1.4
0.3
NONFOREST
to OPEN F.
4.0
48.1
4.0
No Change
86.5
34.9
87.3
* * *
* * * *
* * * *
* *
* *
1-D
1-E
1-F
CLOSED F.
to OPEN F.
15.5
6.7
23.4
CLOSED F.
to NONFOREST
0.9
1.0
1.9
OPEN F. to CLOSED F.
1.6
0.4
1.1
OPEN F. to NONFOREST
7.6
19.1
18.8
NONFOREST
to CLOSED F.
1.1
0.1
0.2
NONFOREST
to OPEN F.
10.0
4.2
6.7
No Change
63.3
68.5
47.9
Figure 7. Land Cover for Site 1-C in 1973.
/
Figure 8. Land Cover for Site 1-C in 1987.
*Pixels classified as clouds in 1973 or 1987 were
excluded from the analysis.
Change in Land Cover for SITE 1-A
Within the 43,200 hectare sub-site, 86 percent of
the area remained unchanged over time, with
approximately 96 percent of the area classified as
closed rain forest experiencing no change over the
fourteen year period of this study. These
results, combined with visual image
interpretation, suggest that the large, contiguous
patches of rain forest in this portion of the
study area have not been subjected to
deforestation. Site 1-A experienced very little
reduction in forest cover over this period with
less than 0.1 percent of the cloud-free portion
of this sub-site changing from CLOSED FOREST to
NONFOREST area. Most of the change (four percent)
appears as scattered individual pixels throughout
the main body of the rain forest changing to OPEN
FOREST. The regularity in the line spacing
associated with seme of the pixel "scatter" may be
attributed to radiometric distortions (striping)
which are minimized but are not totally
eliminated. Hence, some of the "forest change"
should not be interpreted as change at all but
rather as radiametrically-induced uncertainty.
However, some of the CLOSED FOREST which changed
to OPEN FOREST may refer to thinning of the rain
forest.
Land area classified as OPEN FOREST in 1973
changed to CLOSED FOREST (3.7 percent). The
geographic distribution of these changes suggests
that these pixels classified as OPEN FOREST in
1973 my have been sections of rain forest with
small openings in the canopy (borderline CLOSED
FOREST/OPEN FOREST classification).
Overal 1, six percent of the area mapped as
NONFOREST in 1973 was designated as a forest
vegetation in 1987 thereby suggesting possible
change from immature plantations among the
agricultural fields to mature plantations in 1987.
Change in Land Cover for SITE 1-B
Site 1-B experienced the greatest amount of change
in land cover (over 65 percent of the area). This