What question did this study set out to answer?

The research aims to identify and quantify the drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia over time.

March 10, 2026International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation0 citationsOpen Access

Drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia

SCShijuan ChenYale University CWCurtis E. WoodcockBoston University HGHanfeng GuBoston University

Key Points

The research aims to identify and quantify the drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia over time.
Mapped forest disturbance drivers using Landsat time series (2000-2021)
Applied Continuous Change Detection and Classification - Spectral Mixture Analysis (CCDC-SMA)
Utilized object-based image analysis for land cover classification
Estimated areas of different drivers with less than 26% margin of error
Shifting cultivation affected 231,927 ± 45,009 km² (4.7% ± 0.9%) of Southeast Asia
New plantation area measured at 186,457 ± 40,487 km² (3.8% ± 0.8%)
Deforestation accounted for 3.0% ± 0.8% of Southeast Asia (148,511 ± 37,547 km²)
New plantations saw a significant rise during 2006-2010, followed by a decline after 2010
Deforestation showed a slight increase from 2010 to 2020, while shifting cultivation trends moderately increased

Abstract

• We mapped and analyzed forest disturbance drivers in the entire Southeast Asia. • We applied a Landsat time series method, CCDC-SMA, combined with auxiliary data. • We estimated the area of different drivers over time. • The margins of error of our area estimates for all classes are all less than 26%. • New plantation and shifting cultivation have the largest areas among the drivers. Although Southeast Asia is a hotspot of forest disturbance, there is a lack of fine-resolution and long-term analysis of drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia. Here, we present a study of mapping and analyzing drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia at 30-meter resolution from 2000 to 2021. We used a combination of Continuous Change Detection and Classification − Spectral Mixture Analysis (CCDC-SMA), object-based image analysis, and land cover classification to attribute the drivers of forest disturbances. The overall accuracy of the map of drivers of forest disturbance reached 76.3% (77% before area-adjusted estimates). The margins of error of our area estimates for all classes are all less than 26%. We found that shifting cultivation affected 231,927 ± 45,009 km 2 , which accounted for 4.7% ± 0.9% of Southeast Asia. The area of the new plantation is 186,457 ± 40,487 km 2 (3.8% ± 0.8% of Southeast Asia). Deforestation accounted for 3.0% ± 0.8% of Southeast Asia, equivalent to 148,511 ± 37,547 km 2 . Shifting cultivation has the lowest uncertainty among the change classes. Shifting cultivation mainly occurs in Myanmar, Laos, and Indonesia. New plantations mainly occur in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Deforestation mainly occurs in Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos. New plantations increased significantly in 2006–2010 compared to 2001–2005, and then decreased after 2010. The area of deforestation decreased slightly from 2001 to 2010 and increased slightly from 2010 to 2020. Shifting cultivation has a moderately increasing trend over time. Our study provides important information on drivers of forest disturbance in Southeast Asia, which helps to improve decision-making for forest conservation and land management.

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