Assessing land use change and its impact on ecosystem services in northern Thailand Sunsanee Arunyawat* and Rajendra P. Shrestha Natural Resources Management Program, Asian Institute of Technology E-mail: anyaey@gmail.com* Abstract-The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being pursued by all the countries as priority actions to achieve by 2030. This study assessed land use change and its impact on ecosystem services, which is relevant to SDG 15 that aims to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Conducted in Wang thong watershed in Northern Thailand, we assessed the land use change and ecosystem services from 1989-2013 using GIS and projected the future land uses under different scenarios with varying options for enhancing ecosystem services. Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model was used to map and quantify a set of ecosystem services. CLUMondo, a dynamic spatial model, was used to project future land uses for three policy scenarios. In business-as usual scenario, there is a general decrease in ecosystem services by the year 2033. In two other scenarios viz integrated land use and biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services will increase by about 6% and 20% repectively due to the effect of assumed respective land use policies. The study findings, which present a trend of ecosystem services and options for enhancing ecosystem services, can serve as the guideline for sustainable land use planning in the study area and thus can be helpful in improving management of environmental resources of the watershed. Scenario results provide opportunities to implement appropriate land use options directly addressing SDG to protect ecosystems. Similarly, the comprehensive methodology used in the study can easily be replicated in assessing the ecosystem services of other watersheds or basins. Keywords: Land use change, Ecosystem services, InVEST, CLUEMondo models, northern Thailand I. INTRODUCTION In the past, Thailand has constantly enjoyed agricultural growth with a number of agricultural commodities for international export due to high technological practice including inputs mostly brought about by land use conversion and improved agricultural practices 1. A substantial increase in agricultural areas occurred from forest conversion despite a national logging ban in all natural forest areas being implemented in 1989 2. In the recent past, agricultural land use conversion from the food crops for subsistence to commercial crops (particularly cash crops in agriculture) has been very rapid Proceedings of the International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the 135 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
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