Impact of land use and land cover changes on carbon stock in Aceh Besar District, Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

The international community affirms the critical role of forests in climate change mitigation, which includes reducing emissions from degradation and deforestation, carbon stock conservation, sustainable forest management, and increasing carbon stocks in developing countries. It relates to land use and land cover changes. This study aims to review land use and land cover changes (LULC) in two decades, namely 2000–2010 and 2010–2020, and the impact on carbon stocks. Landsat satellite imagery in 2000, 2010, and 2020 are classified into six categories: built-up area, cropland, forest, water body, bareland, and grassland. This classification uses supervised classification. The accuracy kappa coefficient values obtained for the LULC 2000, LULC 2010, and LULC 2020 maps were 89.61%, 83.90%, and 87.10%, respectively. The most dominant systematic LULC change processes were forest degradation in 2000–2020; the transition of forest to cropland (349.20 ha), forest to bareland (171.19 ha), and forest to built-up area (661.68 ha). Loss of using the forest for other uses was followed by a decrease in carbon stock. There was a high decrease in carbon stock in the forest category (11,000 Mg C∙y–1). The results showed a significant change in land use and cover. The decline in the area occurred in the forest category, which decreased from year to year. Meanwhile, the built-up area increases every year. Carbon stocks also decrease from year to year, especially forests as the most significant carbon store, decreasing in the area.

Keywords

• aceh besar district
• carbon stock
• forest
• land use and land cover
• landscape