Multisensor mapping of land use/land cover pattern in mangrove ecosystems: a case study in Cần Giờ Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam

Spectral responses captured by satellites can be adapted for a wide range of questions and applications relevant to land use/land cover (LULC) analysis. The multitude of existing and upcoming satellites can significantly advance the study of cause-effect relationships due to climate and human drivers. This interdisciplinary synthesis study aims at capturing the spatial patterns of the landscape, mainly on natural and built-up units and at characterizing the continuum of ecosystem structures in the rapidly changing area of the Cần Giờ Mangrove Biosphere Reserve in Vietnam. This study area of about 300,000 ha was observed with different satellite data: beside operational Sentinel 2 data, a strip of three adjacent PRISMA images and two tiles of CosmoSkyMed images were acquired. To investigate the LULC units, the satellite observations were integrated with field measurements and synthesized through consolidated algorithms to examine six target zones: water surfaces (W), aquaculture ponds (A), natural (N) and seminatural vegetation (SN), urban and artificial areas (U) and soil-sediments presence areas (SS). The LULC map is presented in terms of accuracy of classes detection, especially on the number of vegetation typologies retrieved such as mangroves and crops types. This study is not only to improve the LULC classification with multi-sensor data, but also to examine potential impacts of landscape fragmentation and of land use feedback on ecosystem services such as food provision, recreational uses and biodiversity conservation.