Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability

The assessment of environmental sustainability is of utmost importance for the forests and plantations in Borneo, given the critical need for environmental protection through the identification and mitigation of potential risks. This study was conducted to assess the environmental sustainability of...

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Main Authors: Stanley Anak Suab, Hitesh Supe, Albertus Stephanus Louw, Alexius Korom, Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib, Yong, Bin Wong, Ricky Anak Kemarau, Ram Avtar
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/1/ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf
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author Stanley Anak Suab
Hitesh Supe
Albertus Stephanus Louw
Alexius Korom
Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib
Yong, Bin Wong
Ricky Anak Kemarau
Ram Avtar
author_facet Stanley Anak Suab
Hitesh Supe
Albertus Stephanus Louw
Alexius Korom
Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib
Yong, Bin Wong
Ricky Anak Kemarau
Ram Avtar
author_sort Stanley Anak Suab
collection UMS
description The assessment of environmental sustainability is of utmost importance for the forests and plantations in Borneo, given the critical need for environmental protection through the identification and mitigation of potential risks. This study was conducted to assess the environmental sustainability of tropical forest and plantations landscape, a case study in northern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Applications of the latest high-resolution multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA are cost-effective and useful for large-scale environmental sustainability assessment. The land use land cover (LULC) of the study area was mapped with synergistic use of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Sentinel-2 optical and high-resolution PlanetScope satellite imageries, resulting in overall accuracy of 87.24%. Five sustainability indicator layers: slope erosion protection, river buffer, landscape connectivity and quality, high conservation value (HCV), and water turbidity were developed from the LULC map, ancillary datasets of SRTM, and forest operation basemap with reference to standards from the Environment Protection Department (EPD), Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and Forest Management Plan (FMP) for the analysis using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) model. The results revealed that overall, the study areas are in the high sustainability category at 61%, medium at 31%, and low at only 8%. We analyzed the environmental sustainability of five land use boundaries, and the results showed that Industrial Tree Plantations (ITP) and Village Reserve are mostly in the high category. Meanwhile, oil palm plantations, rubber plantations, and forest reserve (FR) are the majority in the medium category. Both oil palm and rubber plantations are a majority in the medium class due to monocropping land use type having low landscape connectivity and quality individual sustainability indicator layer. The study presented the concept of use of multi-sensor remote sensing for LULC mapping with geospatial MCDA for environmental sustainability assessment useful to stakeholders for improving the management plan also contributing toward the progress of achieving UNSDGs and addressing REDD+.
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spelling ums.eprints-407652024-08-21T08:44:34Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/ Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability Stanley Anak Suab Hitesh Supe Albertus Stephanus Louw Alexius Korom Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib Yong, Bin Wong Ricky Anak Kemarau Ram Avtar GE1-350 Environmental sciences SD1-669.5 Forestry The assessment of environmental sustainability is of utmost importance for the forests and plantations in Borneo, given the critical need for environmental protection through the identification and mitigation of potential risks. This study was conducted to assess the environmental sustainability of tropical forest and plantations landscape, a case study in northern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Applications of the latest high-resolution multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA are cost-effective and useful for large-scale environmental sustainability assessment. The land use land cover (LULC) of the study area was mapped with synergistic use of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Sentinel-2 optical and high-resolution PlanetScope satellite imageries, resulting in overall accuracy of 87.24%. Five sustainability indicator layers: slope erosion protection, river buffer, landscape connectivity and quality, high conservation value (HCV), and water turbidity were developed from the LULC map, ancillary datasets of SRTM, and forest operation basemap with reference to standards from the Environment Protection Department (EPD), Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and Forest Management Plan (FMP) for the analysis using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) model. The results revealed that overall, the study areas are in the high sustainability category at 61%, medium at 31%, and low at only 8%. We analyzed the environmental sustainability of five land use boundaries, and the results showed that Industrial Tree Plantations (ITP) and Village Reserve are mostly in the high category. Meanwhile, oil palm plantations, rubber plantations, and forest reserve (FR) are the majority in the medium category. Both oil palm and rubber plantations are a majority in the medium class due to monocropping land use type having low landscape connectivity and quality individual sustainability indicator layer. The study presented the concept of use of multi-sensor remote sensing for LULC mapping with geospatial MCDA for environmental sustainability assessment useful to stakeholders for improving the management plan also contributing toward the progress of achieving UNSDGs and addressing REDD+. Frontiers Media S.A. 2024 Article NonPeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/1/ABSTRACT.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf Stanley Anak Suab and Hitesh Supe and Albertus Stephanus Louw and Alexius Korom and Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib and Yong, Bin Wong and Ricky Anak Kemarau and Ram Avtar (2024) Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 7. pp. 1-15. ISSN 2624-893X https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2024.1337535
spellingShingle GE1-350 Environmental sciences
SD1-669.5 Forestry
Stanley Anak Suab
Hitesh Supe
Albertus Stephanus Louw
Alexius Korom
Mohd Rashid Mohd Rakib
Yong, Bin Wong
Ricky Anak Kemarau
Ram Avtar
Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title_full Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title_fullStr Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title_short Assessing Borneo’s tropical forests and plantations: a multi-sensor remote sensing and geospatial MCDA approach to environmental sustainability
title_sort assessing borneo s tropical forests and plantations a multi sensor remote sensing and geospatial mcda approach to environmental sustainability
topic GE1-350 Environmental sciences
SD1-669.5 Forestry
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/1/ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40765/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf
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