Title
Human Disturbance on the Land Surface Environment in Tropical Islands: A Remote Sensing Perspective
Abstract
Geographically isolated islands are under great stress due to global climate change, as well as the social and environmental issues relating to human activities. It is necessary to monitor and analyze the spatial-temporal changes of the land surface environment in species-rich tropical islands in order to realize the sustainable development and protection of island areas. In this study, we extracted the land cover and coastline information of three tropical islands from 1990 to 2020 based on the Google Earth Engine platform and the Random Forest algorithm. The results showed that: (1) different tropical islands have similar characteristics in terms of land surface environment changes, with the amount of artificial surface and cultivated land increasing, the forest and mangrove areas decreasing, and the amount of artificial coastline increasing; (2) human disturbance plays an important role in changes in the land surface environment. Population growth, immigration policies, food security, and human activities related to achieving economic profits are likely responsible for these land cover changes; and (3) the main factors driving coastline changes include natural processes (topography, ecological ecosystems, sea-level rise, sea waves, and storms) and human activities (sand mining, tourism, port construction, aquaculture expansion, and mangrove deforestation). Understanding these changes will help tropical islands and coastal zones to make suitable policies for land management and respond to climate change and sustainable development challenges.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.3390/rs14092100
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
DocType
Volume
land cover, use, coastline, GEE, small islands, Sri Lanka, Timor, Palawan, sustainable development
Journal
14
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
9
2072-4292
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Tianmeng Fu100.34
Li Zhang23517.57
Bo-Wei Chen326230.12
Min Yan400.34