Assessing the effect of upland vegetation fragmentation in Carrascal Bay: Basis for crafting community environmental education programs and alternative livelihood training

Abstract

This study presents the result of class metrics derived from remotely sensed data which aims to assess the changes in upper vegetation cover from 1997-2019 in Brgy. Adlay, Carrascal Bay, Surigao del Sur Philippines. The land cover were classified using SAGA GIS (3.2.3), for the period 2013 to 2018 (LANDSAT 8) through object based segmentation and ground validation. Class level metrics were derived from the classified satellite images in FRAGSTATS 4.2. A total of six (6) for class metrics level viz. total area (CA), percentage of landscape (PLAND), total edge (TE), fractal dimension mean (FRAC_MN), perimeter area fractal dimension (PAFRAC), and clumsiness (CLUMPY) respectively to uncover the influence of upper vegetation fragmentation to water quality. The class metrics of the study area revealed that the total area of sparse vegetation (908.55m in 1997, 484.29m in 2019 ) , bare ground (485.64 m in 1997, 524.16m in 2019) , vegetation, (195.03m in 1997, 669.51m in 2019). Fragmentation analysis revealed that the percentage of non-vegetative cover is 48.56% (1997) while the vegetation cover is 51.43% (2019). The study also showed that there is a notable change in land cover of the area from 1997 to 2019.