Change Detection and Land Suitability Analysis for Extension of Potential Forest Areas in Indonesia Using Satellite Remote Sensing and GIS

The objective of this research was to detect changes in forest areas and, subsequently, the potential forest area that can be extended in the South Sumatra province of Indonesia, according to the Indonesian forest resilience classification zones. At first, multispectral satellite remote sensing datasets from Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI were classified into four classes, namely urban, vegetation, forest and waterbody to develop Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) maps for the year 2003 and 2018. Secondly, criteria, namely distance from rivers, distance from roads, elevation, LULC and settlements were selected and the reclassified maps were produced from each of the criteria for the land suitability analysis for forest extension. Thirdly, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was incorporated to add expert opinions to prioritize the criteria referring to potential areas for forest extension. In the change detection analysis, Tourism Recreation Forest (TRF), Convertible Protection Forest (CPF) and Permanent Production Forest (PPF) forest zones had a decrease of 20%, 13% and 40% in area, respectively, in the forest class from 2003 to 2018. The Limited Production Forest (LPF) zone had large changes and decreased by 72% according to the LULC map. In the AHP method, the influential criteria had higher weights and ranked as settlements, elevation, distance from roads and distance from rivers. CPF, PPF and LPF have an opportunity for extension in the highly suitable classification (30%) and moderately suitable classification (41%) areas, to increase coverage of production forests. Wildlife Reserve Forests (WRFs) have potential for expansion in the highly suitable classification (30%) and moderately suitable classification (52%) areas, to keep biodiversity and ecosystems for wildlife resources. Nature Reserve Forests (NRFs) have an opportunity for extension in the highly suitable classification (39%) and moderately suitable classification (48%) areas, to keep the forests for nature and biodiversity. In case of TRF, there is limited scope to propose a further extension and is required to be managed with collaboration between the government and the community.