Estimation and Analysis of Change Detection, Forest Canopy Density, and Forest Fragmentation: A Case Study of the Indian Sundarbans

ABSTRACT

In this paper, satellite imagery is classified into four categories using the fuzzy c-means algorithm of the Indian Sundarbans due to its forest density changes. The categories are dense forest, sparse forest, water bodies, and wetlands. The study reveals that net forest areas declined by 3.75% from 932 km² in 1975 to 847 km² in 2018 and the rate of deforestation was 1.96 km² year⁻¹. The correlation statistic shows that the deforested areas were converted to wetland and water bodies. The results of the forest canopy density (FCD) model show that areas, with canopy density of 60–100% gradually declined from 42% (939 km²) in 1975 to 36% (814 km²) in 2018. Moreover, we also observed that maximum canopy density was >80% in 1990 and 60–80% in 1975. The results of the forest fragmentation model show that forest patch and edge areas progressively increased by 253% and 28%, respectively, while perforated forest areas slowly decreased with 11%. We find that most forest fragmentation happened in patch, edge, perforated, and core forest with an area >4 km². Therefore, this study may be helpful in monitoring land cover changes of the Indian Sundarbans for sustainable mangrove forests.

KEYWORDS:

• Change detection
• fuzzy c-means
• forest canopy density
• forest fragmentation
• accuracy assessment

Acknowledgments

The authors express their sincere gratitude to the esteemed anonymous reviewers and editor for their constructive comments. The authors would also like to thank the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for providing the free satellite data. The authors thank the members of faculty and staff of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at GCETT, Serampore and University of Kalyani, Kalyani as well as DST PURSE II, University of Kalyani, Kalyani for their immense support and assistance in carrying out this research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

The authors declare that no conflict of interest. This paper has not been published in any form and not under consideration in any journal.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.