See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/330532291

GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring

Chapter · January 2019

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81955

CITATIONS READS

18 5,695

3 authors:

Hamdan Omar Muhamad Afizzul Misman

Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)
116 PUBLICATIONS 933 CITATIONS 30 PUBLICATIONS 149 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Samsudin Musa
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)
20 PUBLICATIONS 54 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

REDDES View project

ALOS KYOTO & CARBON INITIATIVE (K&C) PHASE 4 View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Hamdan Omar on 22 January 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 We are IntechOpen,
the world’s leading publisher of
Open Access books
Built by scientists, for scientists

3,900
Open access books available
116,000
International authors and editors
120M Downloads

Our authors are among the

154
Countries delivered to
TOP 1%
most cited scientists
12.2%
Contributors from top 500 universities

Selection of our books indexed in the Book Citation Index

in Web of Science™ Core Collection (BKCI)

Interested in publishing with us?

Contact book.department@intechopen.com
Numbers displayed above are based on latest data collected.
For more information visit www.intechopen.com
Chapter

GIS and Remote Sensing for

Mangroves Mapping and
Monitoring
Hamdan Omar, Muhamad Afizzul Misman and
Samsudin Musa

Abstract

Malaysia is one of the few South East Asian counties with large tracts of man-
groves. They provide ecosystem goods and services to the environment and the
surroundings regarding shoreline stabilization, storm protection, water quality
maintenance, micro-climate stabilization, recreation, tourism, fishing and supply
of various forest products. Despite extensive distribution of the mangroves, threats
posed by different land use activities are inevitable. Therefore, knowledge on man-
groves distribution and change is importance for effective management and making
protection policies. Although remote sensing (RS) and geographic information sys-
tem (GIS) has been widely used to characterize and monitor mangroves change over
a range of spatial and temporal scales, studies on mangroves change in Malaysia is
lacking. Effective mangrove management is vital via acquiring knowledge on forest
distribution and changes to establish protection policies. This chapter will elaborate
technically how GIS and RS were utilized to identify, map, and monitor changes
of mangroves ecosystem in Malaysia. It also highlights how GIS can enhance the
current governance and regulations related to forestry in Malaysia.

Keywords: mangrove ecosystem, Landsat satellites, monitoring, deforestation,

carbon emission

1. Introduction

Mangroves act as frontiers that protect the coastal land against destruction of
ocean waves, tsunamis and storms. Mangroves also provide habitat for various
aquatic life forms and function as natural filter, which improves the quality of
water. Mangroves also play important roles as a significant carbon sink in coastal
environment. It is interesting fact that despite only 0.05% of plant biomass stored
in the ocean and coastal areas out of the total plant biomass on land, it can absorb
a comparable amount of carbon every year. A study demonstrated that primary
productivity in mangroves is higher than other types of forests. Biomass carbon in
mangroves stands is among the highest in the tropics. Mangroves can store up to four
times more carbon (C) as compared to other tropical forests around the world [1].
A mangroves ecosystem has an ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and store
carbon 40% more than the dry land forest ecosystem. Due to this ability, the total
carbon deposited in a square kilometer of mangrove ecosystem is 50 times faster

1
Geographic Information Systems

than those of the same area in a dryland tropical forest ecosystem. The absorbed
CO2 is stored not only in the plants, but in layers of soils underneath [2]. Therefore,
mangroves are playing a crucial role in global carbon budgets and thus mitigating
climate change.
However, despite being realized the importance of mangroves in the global
carbon cycle and climate change, the extents of mangroves have inevitably declined
since the last few decades. Unfortunately, the declines have been resulting mainly
from human activities such as aquaculture expansion, coastal development, and
over-harvesting [3]. Malaysia is one of the countries in South East Asia that has
among the largest extents of mangroves. Despite its extensive distribution of man-
grove ecosystem, this forest is inevitable from threats by various land use activities.
The total area of mangrove forest was approximately 2% (650,000 ha) of the total
land area in Malaysia in the 1990s [4].
However, the mangroves in Malaysia have been gradually diminishing, where
the total area of mangrove forest has reduced to approximately 580,000 ha in
the last decade [5]. Other reports indicated that the extent of mangrove areas in
Malaysia is decreasing, from about 700,000 ha in 1975 to 572,000 ha in 2000 due
to the intensive harvesting and natural wave actions [6, 7]. Globally, mangroves
have also declined from 18.8 million ha to 15.6 million ha between years 1980 and
2005 [8]. Overall Asia was the largest net loss of mangroves since 1980, with about
1.9 million ha have loss, mainly due to conversion of mangrove forest to other land
uses. However, there has been a slowdown in the annual rate of mangrove loss, from
about 187,000 ha in the 1980s to 102,000 ha between 2000 and 2005. This reflects an
increased awareness and an improved management system in mangroves ecosystem.
Major threats towards the mangroves that are triggered by human activities can
generalized into six [9], which are (i) conversion to other uses, (ii) overharvest-
ing, (iii) overfishing, (iv) pollution, (v) sedimentation and (vi) alteration of flow
regimes. Direct conversion to other uses was identified as the major factor that
changes the world’s mangroves. This includes conversions to (i) urban and industrial
areas, (ii) aquaculture, and (iii) agriculture. Additionally, natural phenomena such as
coastal erosion, storm and lightning strikes are also the natural impacts that kill man-
groves in Peninsular Malaysia, including the tragic tsunami on 24 December 2004.
Despite widespread concern and numerous case studies describing local issues
and challenges, comprehensive information on the global extent of mangroves
and trends of deforestation is largely lacking [10]. It is because determining the
precise area of mangroves is not always easy. Measurement is affected by varying
definitions of what constitutes mangroves; inclusion only on the basis of official
recognition such as gazetted forest reserves; scattered or sparse areas considered too
inconsequential for inclusion; and the accuracy of the returns made by the respon-
sible authorities. Each of these can create uncertainty and produce significant
variation depending on the timing and purpose of the assessment exercise.
Recently, RS satellites have been widely used for mangrove monitoring. They
greatest reasons why is because the RS can (i) acquire information over large areas,
(ii) produce repeated measurement over a place, and (iii) make full use of electro-
magnetic spectrum for quantitative and qualitative measurements over mangroves
[11]. Satellites also provide information on spatial distribution and temporal
changes of mangrove forests. When this information is gathered over decades, the
mangrove monitoring over the large area will become possible. There are studies
on the assessment of mangroves changes and identifying threats, for example in
Terengganu [12], Selangor [13], and Peninsular Malaysia [14]. However, these stud-
ies are unable to represent the holistic conditions at national level. Therefore, this
study was conducted to provide the information pertaining status of mangroves and
changes that occurred since the last three decades.

2
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

2. The identification from remotely sensed data

2.1 The study area

The study area covers the entire mangroves ecosystem in Malaysia, which can be
divided into two regions, which are Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (i.e. Malay
Borneo). Forests in these regions can be divided into three major types, which are
inland dipterocarps (dryland), peat swamp, mangrove forests (wetlands). The man-
grove forest is a unique ecosystem and the second largest wetland forest type after
the peat swamp forest. Ecologically based on elevation the mangrove forest is located
at the lowest elevation, which is equivalent to the sea level. The mangrove forest is
generally found along sheltered coasts where it grows abundantly in saline soil and
brackish water dominated mainly by trees from the Rhizophoraceae family. Mangroves
are fringing the coastlines (up to 5 km landward) and major estuaries of the regions
and they reside on wetlands ecosystem of not more than 20 m land altitude.

2.2 Satellite data

Images from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic

Mapper (ETM+), and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite were used
in this study. Images from three different epochs, which are 1990, 2000 and 2017
were acquired to conduct the work. For the respective years were utilized in this
study. All images are available at https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ and were down-
loaded free of charge. At least 23 scenes of Landsat images were used for a single
epoch (Figure 1). Therefore, to complete the series, the study has acquired at least
69 scenes of Landsat images, assuming that all images are free from cloud cover.
However, cloud cover are presence on some of the images, hence, more than one
scene of images over the same year were acquired to remove the clouds.

2.3 Production of seamless mosaic images

Cloud cover is inevitable on the images acquired by the satellites. However, cloud
patching process can eliminate the cloud covers that appear on a single-date observa-
tion data. Images of particular scenes that were acquired on different dates were
used for cloud patching process as shown in Figure 2. F_mask algorithm was used to
perform this process [15, 16]. Seamless mosaics product (i.e. images without cloud
covers and atmospherically corrected) were used as input for subsequent processes.

Figure 1.
Landsat scenes that were used for the classification. Numbers within the scene boundary indicates path/row ID
of Landsat satellites.

3
Geographic Information Systems

Figure 2.
Cloud detection and removal process. Individual Landsat scene that was captured on 26 January 2017 (a) was
merged with that captured on 14 June 2017 (b), where both produced a cloud-free images for the year 2017 (c).

2.4 Images classification

Appropriate enhancement techniques were applied to the images to make the

mangroves appear better on the images [17]. In addition to the individual spec-
tral bands of Landsat images, vegetation indices such as Normalized Different
Vegetation Index (NDVI), Green Atmospherically Resistant Index (GARI), and
Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII) were also derived from the images to
improve quality of classification. The vegetation indices that were used in this study
are summarized in Table 1.
Most spectral-based image classifications are performed using traditional
methods such as maximum likelihood, linear discriminant analysis, and spectral
angle mapper classifiers. These methods are applied to the spectral bands to
produce a classified feature in images [18]. Instead of using these approaches, this
study attempted a new approach to classify the images. R Package, which is free,
open source software with the RandomForest algorithm [19] was used.
RandomForest implements Breiman’s RandomForest algorithm, based on
Breiman and Cutler’s original FORTRAN code for classification and regression [20].
It can also be used for assessing proximities among data points without necessarily a
training set. All sampling points that were collected on the ground were connected
to the corresponding pixels on the image through this algorithm. Classification was
done by searching the most important variables i.e. which spectral bands are used in
decision tree approach [21–23]. RandomForest applies four major steps of looking at
the importance of variables as follow:

1. Step 1: to determine the significance of the mth variable. In the left out cases
for the kth tree, randomly permute all values of the mth variable. Put these new
covariate values down the tree and get classifications.

2. Steps 2 and 3: for the nth case in the data, its margin at the end of a run is the
proportion of votes for its true class minus the maximum of the proportion
of votes for each of the other classes. The 2nd measure of importance of the
mth variable is the average lowering of the margin across all cases when the
mth variable is randomly permuted as in Step 1. Step 3 then count the margins
that was shrank.

3. Step 4: the splitting criterion used in RandomForest is the Gini criterion, a

mechanism that can measure the most to least importance of variables used in

4
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

Vegetation Formula Description

indices
NDVI Commonly used to delineate vegetation
from other features on images and to
measure vegetation vigor. It is sensitive to
atmospheric effects

GARI Normally used for detection of green

pigment concentration and differentiate
chlorophyll levels. It is more sensitive
to chlorophyll concentrations than the
atmospheric effects
NDII It uses near- and mid-infrared bands to
detect changes in plant biomass and water
stress in wetlands like mangroves
Note: NIR = near infrared, G = green, B = blue, R = red, and MidIR = middle wave infrared channels.

Table 1.
Vegetation indices that were used derived from the images.

decision tree. At every split, one of the mth variables is used to form the split
and there is a resulting decrease in the Gini. The sum of all will decrease the
forest due to a given variable, normalized by the number of trees.

All images have been classified to distinguish mangroves from the other land
uses. The classification results were transformed into vector shapefile for further
refinement and editing. The accuracy of the classification results were assessed
by using a number of ground truth points. The GIS platform was used to carry
out post-classification analysis. Post-classification analysis is usually used for
quantifying changes of land uses. Changes of mangroves were identified from the
conversions of mangroves to other landuse classes, which are (i) urban, settlement,
and industrial areas, (ii) agricultural, (iii) aquaculture activities, and (iv) coastal
erosion.

2.5 Estimation of CO2 emission

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is defined as natural, colorless and odorless greenhouse

gas that is emitted when fossil fuels (i.e. natural gas, oil, coal, etc.) are burnt. In
this study, the CO2 emission is expressed as C loss, assuming that the gas is emit-
ted when deforestation occur. The units of metric tons C was converted to CO2 by
multiplying the ratio of the molecular weight of carbon dioxide to that of carbon
(44/12 = 3.67) [24].
The CO2 resulted from deforestation is one of the important elements in green-
house gases emissions. Therefore, it is also essential to quantify the contribution of
mangrove deforestation towards the CO2 emission. Net emission as resulted from
deforestation of mangroves can be estimated based stock-difference method, which
can be expressed as Eq. (1) as follow [24];

(Ct1 − Ct2)
∆ C = ________
t −t
(1)
( 2 1)

where ∆C is changes in carbon stock (Mg C yr−1), Ct1 and Ct2 (Mg C) is carbon
stock at time t1 and t2 (year), respectively. In this case, the Ct1 and Ct2 was quantified
from the changes analysis that have been carried out earlier this study.

5
Geographic Information Systems

3. Mangroves mapping and monitoring in Malaysia

3.1 Production of seamless image mosaic

F mask algorithm successfully removed almost 100% of cloud covers and their
shadows on the images. The algorithm also managed to detect thin, low temperature
clouds in the high altitude by thermal sensors onboard the Landsat TM, ETM+ and
OLI. The algorithm somehow failed to detect small scattering clouds that occurred
in small patches on the images. Nevertheless, the algorithm has facilitated the
cloud removal process and make the mangroves mapping and monitoring work at
landscape-level practical. Figure 2 shows a portion of mangroves on two different
images that were captured on different dates with clouds. These images were used to
produce seamless mosaic of images without cloud covers.

3.2 Identification of mangrove ecosystem and images classification

The study indicated that the suitable spectral bands for species discrimination
varied with scale. However, near-infrared (700–1327 nm) bands were consistently
important spectrum across all scales and the visible bands (437–700 nm) were more
important at pixel and crown scales. By using the RandomForest algorithm, the
most important bands in the classification were represented by a mean decrease
Gini values. The most important bands in mangroves discrimination, from most to
least, are; MidIR, NIR-2, NIR, Green, Blue, Red. Spectral profile of the images also
showed that the NIR channels separate the mangroves from the other land covers
very well (Figure 3). On the other hands, the vegetation indices that were used in
this study played similar important role in mangroves classification.
The image classification approach that has been applied in this study was found
to be effective only at large coverage of mangroves. The accuracy for all classifica-
tions were ranging from 83 to 91%, which were acceptable and reliable for monitor-
ing purpose. Mangroves are normally appear dark on any combination of spectral
bands of multispectral image. This is due to the natural ecosystem of mangroves,
which is covered by swamps and sometimes inundated by tidal water. The chloro-
phyll content of the mangrove leaves, which is higher than those of trees and crops,
tends to make them appear darker on satellite images [25], as depicted in Figure 4.
Each mangrove species has a unique configuration of trunks, prop roots and

Figure 3.
Spectral profiles of several land covers extracted from the images. Channel 1 through 6 on the y-axis are blue,
green, red, NIR, NIR-2 and MidIR, respectively.

6
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

Figure 4.
Images showing (a) combination of bands 5, 6 and 4 of Landsat-8 OLI and (b) combination of vegetation
indices, NDVI, GARI and NDII. These images were selected for the classification process.

pneumatophores that works as a different drag force therefore resulting in a differ-

ent reduction rate of sea waves (Figure 5). Not only this, the wet floor of the forest
gives special spectral characteristics on satellites images that can be differentiated
easily from other features (Figure 6).

3.3 Spatial data editing for mangroves mapping

The classification results were further edited to refine the shapes and accuracy.
This process was conducted manually on the vector shapefile by visual interpre-
tation on GIS platform. Finally the spatial distribution of the mangroves were
mapped properly (Figure 7). The mangroves in Malaysia were mostly found in
Sabah (60%), followed by Sarawak (22%) and Peninsular Malaysia (18%). Table 2
summarizes the total extents of mangroves in the respective regions that have been
produced from the classification. It is notable that the total extents of mangroves
have been decreasing throughout the monitoring period. Figure 8 shows spatially
explicit map of mangroves distribution in Malaysia as of year 2017. Mangroves are
found mainly along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, west coast of Sarawak
and the east coast of Sabah.

3.4 Monitoring of mangroves changes

Table 3 reports the changes of mangroves that occurred over the 27 years of
monitoring period. The total loss of mangroves was about 21,274 ha where major-
ity of the mangroves loss were outside the Permanent Forest Reserve or within the

Figure 5.
Roots and successive stands of Rhizophora apiculata in a common mature mangrove forest.

7
Geographic Information Systems

Figure 6.
Mangroves as they appeared on Landsat-8 image. The dark green areas represent the mangrove areas. The
image classification process, either automated or manual digitizing, is usually easier for mangrove areas than
for other vegetation. The image is displayed using a combination of bands 543 (RGB) over the Kapar area
in Klang, Selangor. The central bottom is Klang port complex and the bottom left is Pulau Klang, which is
predominantly covered by mangroves.

Figure 7.
Mangroves appear dark green on the original image (left) and the classified mangroves, indicated as red
polygons (right).

stateland areas. These areas are actually the land bank for the states developments,
which are principally included in the State’s Structural Planning. Example of
mangroves changes detected from the multi-temporal mapping process is shown in

8
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

Region Mangroves 1990 Mangroves 2000 Mangroves 2017

(ha) (ha) (ha)
Peninsular Malaysia 116,746 114,353 110,953

Sabah 385,630 382,448 378,195

Sarawak 147,936 145,263 139,890

Total 650,311 642,063 629,038

Table 2.
Extents of mangroves in Malaysia.

Figure 8.
Distribution of mangroves in Malaysia over the year 2017.

Region Mangrove Mangrove Rate of Rate of Average rate of

loss loss deforestation deforestation deforestation
1990–2000 2000–2017 1990–2000 2000–2017 1990–2017
(ha) (ha) (ha yr−1) | (ha yr−1) | (ha yr−1) |
(% yr−1) (% yr−1) (% yr−1)

Peninsular 2393 3400 239 | 0.20 200 | 0.17 215 | 0.19

Malaysia

Sabah 3182 4253 318 | 0.08 250 | 0.07 275 | 0.07

Sarawak 2673 5373 267 | 0.18 316 | 0.22 298 | 0.21

Total 8227 13,190 823 | 0.13 776 | 0.12 793 | 0.13

Table 3.
Mangroves deforestation in Malaysia between years 1990 and 2017.

Figure 9. From this information, it can be concluded that the annual decrease rate
of mangroves was about 788 ha per year or about 0.13% per annum since year 1990.
Major factors that contributed to these changes have been identified as: (i) direct
conversion to other land uses (Figure 10), predominantly for commercial-scale

9
Geographic Information Systems

Figure 9.
Changes of mangroves that occurred between 1990 and 2017 overlaid on GIS platform.

agriculture (Figure 11) and aquaculture (Figure 12), and (ii) coastal erosion
(Figure 13). The other factors such as overharvesting and pollution affect the
mangroves to a lesser degree.
Although coastal erosion was identified as one of the factors of mangroves loss,
there were some accretions occurred in some other places. Erosion and accretion is a
dynamic process and takes place along the coastlines and major estuaries, where sus-
pended sediments are likely to settle. These phenomena also lead to species succession
when the existing plant species die due to unsuitable soil and new species emerge.
Besides, mangrove roots can act as wave breaker and promote flocculation and sedi-
mentation, eventually forming mudflats that allow positive accretion (Figure 14).
Coastal erosion occurs when the waves hit perpendicular to the coastlines and when
the rapid flow of sea currents wash away the sand or soil particles. The frequency and
height of waves hitting the coastlines contribute to the harshness of coastal erosion.
Thus, the presence of mangroves can reduce the coastal erosion significantly. This
condition is obvious particularly in the areas facing the sea [26, 27].

Figure 10.
Land developments on mangroves. Reddish color represents newly opened areas for development purposes that
were cleared from the original mangroves areas (dark green color).

10
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

Figure 11.
Expansion of oil palm plantation on mangroves. Reddish color represents newly opened plantations from the
original mangroves areas (dark green color). The bright green represents existing plantations.

Figure 12.
Expansion of aquaculture industries on mangroves. Dark blue patches represents newly opened aquaculture
ponds from the original mangroves areas (dark green color).

Figure 13.
Shoreline changes that resulted from coastal erosion along the coast of south Pontian, Johor. The study indicated
that 14.2 km stretches have been facing serious coastal erosion within the last two decades with the rate of
erosion ranging from 3.2 to 12.5 m per year.

3.5 The estimated carbon emission

A study has indicated that the average C stock (aboveground and belowground)
in mangroves in Malaysia is about 181 Mg C ha−1 [28]. The extents of mangroves loss
for each epoch were multiplied by this average carbon stocks. The study demon-
strated that the total loss of carbon due to the loss of mangroves was about 2.6 million

11
Geographic Information Systems

Figure 14.
Positive accretion of mangroves at estuaries. The new formations at the river mouths were colonized by
mangroves trees forming a naturally generated forest.

Region Mangrove Carbon loss CO2 emission Rate of CO2 emission

loss (ha) (Mg C) (Mg CO2) (Mg CO2 yr−1)
Peninsular 5793 1,048,567 3,848,242 142,527
Malaysia

Sabah 7435 1,345,672 4,938,617 182,912

Sarawak 8046 1,456,288 5,344,578 197,947

Total 21,417 3,876,409 14,226,422 526,905

Table 4.
CO2 emission resulted from mangroves loss between years 1990 and 2017.

Mg C. Subsequently, this has led to the CO2 emission at about 14.2 million Mg CO2,
with an average of about 0.5 million Mg CO2 emission per year, along the monitoring
period. Table 4 summarizes the impact of mangroves loss in terms of CO2 emission.
Although the figures are generally crude, the study provided some ideas for further
studies, especially which related to carbon cycles and climate change.

4. Conclusion

This study has successfully assessed the current state of mangroves and deter-
mined the rate of mangroves loss in Malaysia since the last decade. Total mangroves
in Malaysia has decreased from 650,311 ha in 1990 to 629,038 ha in 2017. Total defor-
estation was accounted at 21,274 ha or 3.3% with the annual rate of deforestation of
788 ha yr−1 or 0.13% yr−1, between 1990 and 2017. The study also quantified the C
stock changes and estimated CO2 emission due to the loss of mangroves in Malaysia.
Total emission caused by the mangroves deforestation was accounted at about 14
million Mg CO2 with annual emission rate of around 0.5 million Mg CO2 yr−1.
The study found that the Landsat-based mapping and monitoring of mangroves
was very practical. It provides a reliable information on mangroves distribution, both
qualitatively and quantitatively. Landsat missions provide a very useful RS tool for
monitoring changes of mangroves over time. The study suggests that appropriate
actions should be taken by the Government of Malaysia to protect the mangroves and
keep their ecosystem intact forever. The most effective way to conserve the mangroves
is to gazette the remaining stateland forest as Permanent Reserved Forests (PRFs).
These PRFs should then be maintained as amenity for current and future generations,
while contributing to the mitigation of climate change impacts at the local level. Any
development in PRFs should be prohibited or implemented with caution.
Overall, there is great potential in the application of Landsat-based data with
appropriate GIS technique for mapping and monitoring of mangroves in Malaysia.

12
GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

Although there are cloud covers problems on some of the images, this has not hin-
dered the assessment of mangroves at landscape and regional levels. The accuracy
and precision also vary depending on the objective of the application. However,
the ability to detect major changes in the ecosystem that can cause profound and
irreversible damage far outweighs a perfectly or highly accurate and precise RS
based method at this point.
Currently, Malaysia has reserved about 85% (~535,000 ha) out of the total areas
of mangroves as Permanent Forest Reserve and State/National Parks. The remaining
15% is under the state-lands and alienated lands. By far, the most effective way to
preserve these mangroves is through gazzeting into permanent forest reserves.

Acknowledgements

This work has been carried out under the Research and Development Committee
on Mangroves (JTRD) led by FRIM. Special thanks for the Forestry Department
Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM), Sabah Forestry Department (SFD), and Forest
Department Sarawak (FDS) for the supports on the ground data collection
activities.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no ‘conflict of interest’ for this chapter.

Author details

Hamdan Omar*, Muhamad Afizzul Misman and Samsudin Musa

Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia

*Address all correspondence to: hamdanomar@frim.gov.my

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

13
Geographic Information Systems

References

[1] Daniel CD, Kauffman JB, Murdiyarso [9] Spalding M, Kainuma M, Collins L.
D, Kurnianto S, Stidham M, Kanninen World Atlas of Mangroves. UK:
M. Mangroves among the most carbon- Earthscan; 2010
rich forests in the tropics. Nature
Geoscience Letters. 2011;4:293-297 [10] Giri C. Observation and monitoring
of mangrove forests using remote
[2] International Union for Conservation sensing: Opportunities and challenges.
of Nature (IUCN). IUCN Red List of Remote Sensing. 2016;8(783):1-8
Threatened Species™. Version 2011.1.
2011. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org [11] Cárdenasa N, Karen Y, Joycea E,
Maiera SW. Monitoring mangrove
[3] Giri C, Long J, Abbas S, Murali RM, forests: Are we taking full advantage
Qamer FM. Distribution and dynamics of technology? International Journal
of mangrove forests of South Asia. of Applied Earth Observation and
Journal of Environmental Management. Geoinformation. 2017;63:1-14
2015;148:101-111
[12] Sulong I, Mohd-Lokman H,
[4] Azahar M, Nik M, Shah NM. A Mohd-Tarmizi K, Ismail A. Mangrove
Working Plan for the Matang Mangrove mapping using Landsat imagery and
Forest Reserve, Perak: The Third aerial photographs: Kemaman District,
10-Year Period (2000-2009) of the Terengganu, Malaysia. Environmental
Second Rotation. Ipoh: State Forestry Development and Sustainability.
Department of Perak; 2003 2002;4:135-152

[5] Roslan A, Shah NM. A Working [13] Khali Aziz H, Hamdan O,

Plan for the Matang Mangrove Forest Shamsudin I, Ismail H. Digital change
Reserve, Perak: The First 10-Year Period detection of mangrove forest in Selangor
(2010-2019) of the Third Rotation. Ipoh: using remote sensing and geographic
State Forestry Department of Perak; information system (GIS). The
2014 Malaysian Forester. 2009;72(1):61-69

[6] Food and Agriculture Organization [14] Hamdan O, Khali Aziz H,

(FAO). Asia-Pacific forestry sector Shamsudin I, Raja Barizan RS. Status
outlook study. Country report— of Mangroves in Peninsular Malaysia.
Malaysia. In: Working Paper Series Kepong, Selangor: Forest Research
(FAO):7/FAO Bangkok (Thailand). Institute Malaysia; 2012. p. 134
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific;
1997 [15] Zhu Z, Woodcock CE. Object-based
cloud and cloud shadow detection in
[7] Aizpuru M, Achard F, Blasco F. Landsat imagery. Remote Sensing of
Global assessment of cover change of Environment. 2012;118:83-94
the mangrove forests using satellite
imagery at medium to high resolution. [16] Zhu Z, Wang S, Woodcock CE.
EEC Research Project No. 15017-1999- Improvement and expansion of the
05 FIED ISP FR. Ispra, Italy: Joint Fmask algorithm: Cloud, cloud shadow,
Research Centre; 2000 and snow detection for Landsats 4-7, 8,
and Sentinel 2 images. Remote Sensing
[8] Food and Agriculture Organization of Environment. 2015;159:269-277
(FAO). The World’s Mangrove 1980-2005.
FAO Forestry Paper 153. Rome: FAO; [17] Hesham AM, Smith SE. A new
2007 approach for estimating mangrove

14
 GIS and Remote Sensing for Mangroves Mapping and Monitoring
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81955

canopy cover using Landsat 8 [25] Hamdan O, Norsheilla MJC, Ismail

imagery. Computer and Electronics in P, Samsudin M, Norhaidi Y. Assessing
Agriculture. 2017;135:183-194 the rate of deforestation and changes of
carbon stock on mangroves in Pahang,
[18] Matthew LC, Roberts DA, Clark Malaysia. The Malaysian Forester.
DB. Hyperspectral discrimination of 2016;79:174-179
tropical rain Forest tree species at leaf
to crown scales. Remote Sensing of [26] Khairuddin B, Yulianda F, Kusmana
Environment. 2005;78:24-47 C, Yonvitner. Degradation mangrove
by using Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8
[19] Liaw A, Wiener M. Classification OLI image in Mempawah regency, West
and regression by RandomForest. R Kalimantan Province year 1989-2014.
News. 2002;2:18-22 Procedia Environmental Sciences.
2016;33:460-464
[20] Breiman L. Manual on Setting
Up, Using, and Understanding [27] Kanniah K, Sheikhi A, Cracknell
RandomForests V3.1. 2002. http:// A, Goh H, Tan K, Ho C, et al. Satellite
oz.berkeley.edu/users/breiman/Using_ images for monitoring mangrove cover
random_forests_V3.1.pdf [Accessed: changes in a fast growing economic
21st Nov 2010] region in southern peninsular Malaysia.
Remote Sensing. 2015;7:14360-14385
[21] Lawrence RL, Wood SD, Sheley
RL. Mapping invasive plants using [28] Ibharim NA, Mustapha MA, Lihan
hyperspectral imagery and Breiman T, Mazlan AG. Mapping mangrove
cutler classifications (RandomForest). changes in the Matang mangrove Forest
Remote Sensing of Environment. using multi temporal satellite imageries.
2006;100(3):356-362 Ocean & Coastal Management.
2015;114:64-76
[22] Adam E, Mutanga O, Rugege D,
Ismail R. Discriminating the papyrus
vegetation (Cyperus papyrus L.) and its
co-existent species using RandomForest
and hyperspectral data resampled
to HYMAP. International Journal of
Remote Sensing. 2012;33(2):552-569

[23] Mansour K, Mutanga O, Everson

T, Adam E. Discriminating indicator
grass species for rangeland degradation
assessment using hyperspectral data
resampled to AISA Eagle resolution.
ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing. 2012;70:56-65

[24] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC). In: Eggleston HS,
Buendia L, Miwa K, et al., editors. IPCC
Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories; Prepared by the
National Greenhouse Gas Inventories
Programme. Hayama, Japan: Japan
Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies; 2006

15

View publication stats