Forest cover depletion and land use/land cover change in Bac Kan province, Vietnam

Forests have an important role in climate regulation, carbon sequestration, and protecting land resources from natural calamities. Deforestation is a significant contributor to global climate change. In Bac Kan province, Vietnam, forest cover has declined dramatically between 1992 and 2022 due to agricultural deforestation and unauthorized logging. This study employs remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) techniques to monitor negative changes in forest cover and land use and cover categories. Landsat 5-TM and Landsat 9-OLI/TIRS images from 1992, 2010, and 2022 were classified using the maximum likelihood classification method, and the post-classification accuracy was assessed using kappa coefficient statistics. Additionally, to detect changes in forest cover, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) were utilized. The results indicate an increased in agricultural land from 70.97 km2 (1.46 %) in 1992 to 575.24 km2 (11.84 %) in 2022, accompanied by a decreased in forest area from 4640.53 km2 (95.50 %) in 1992 to 4196.54 km2 (86.36 %) in 2022, with a total forest area lost of 443.99 km2 (9.14 %) during this period. The findings suggest that agriculture, settlements, and waterbodies have expanded while forest cover and bare soil/rock have declined. Overall, deforestation has severely reduced forest cover in the area, mainly due to indiscriminate logging and the expansion of agricultural land at the forest's periphery.