Long-term Monitoring of Mangroves Conversion Along the Nothern Coast of West Java Province, Indonesia Using Multi-temporal Landsat Satellite Images

In this study, we monitor the land use conversion of mangroves to the fish pound or in Indonesian call “Tambak” along four districts situated in the north coast of West Java Province every 2 decades using multi-temporal Landsat Satellite images. A total of 17,028 ha mangroves areas in those districs recorded in 1972/73 that drastically decreased to 9,063 ha in 1993/94 and then drop to 6.003 ha in 2012/13. Mangroves were heavily converted to tambak between 1972/73 and 1993/94 with decreasing rate of 398 ha/year, but rather slower as 153 ha/year between 1993/94 to 2012/13. In the same periods, the tambak areas increased from 17,064 ha to 27.721 ha and to 42.610 ha, respectively, with the increasing rate of 533 ha/year (1972/73 -1993/94) and 775/ha/year (1993/94-2012/13). The loss of the dense mangrove cause severe beach erosion in all districts with rate of 1-10 km/year and the intursion of seawater up to 17 km. Beach erosion damaged many tambaks and houses of the coastal comunities. Efforts to restore the damaged mangrove have been made by various parties. A small fraction of the effort is successful, but most of the others failed, because of the improper in replanting mangroves. The 16th International Symposium of Geospatial Information Science and Urban Planning (GISUP). Hal. 3-13 ISBN 978-4-9907633-0-5