DETERMINATION OF FOREST AND NON-FOREST IN SERAM ISLAND MALUKU PROVINCE USING MULTI-YEAR LANDSAT DATA

Abstract

Seram Island is one of the islands in Maluku Province. Forest in Seram Island still exists because there is Manusela National Park, but they should be monitored. The forest and non-forest information is usually obtained through the classification process from single remote sensing data, but in certain places in Indonesia it is difficult enough to get  single Landsat data with cloud free, so annual mosaic was used. The aim of this research was to analyze the stratification zone, their indices and thresholds to get spatial information of annual forest area in Seram Island using multi-year Landsat Data. The method consists of four stages: 1) analyzing the base probability result for determination of stratification zone 2) determining the annual forest probability by applying indices from stage-I, 3) determining the spatial information of forest and non-forest annual phase-I by searching the lowest boundary of forest probability, and 4) determining the spatial information of forest and non-forest annual phase-II using the method of permutation of three data and multi-year forest rules. The results of this study indicated that Seram Island  could be coumpond into one stratification zone with three indices. The index equations were B2+B3-2B for index-1, B3+B4 for index-2, and -B3+B4 for index-3.   The threshold  of  index 1, 2, and 3 ranged between -60 and 0, 61 and 104, and 45 and 105, respectively. The lowest boundary  of forest probability in Seram Island since 2006 to 2012 have a range between 46% and 60%. The last result was the annual forest spatial information phase II where the missing data on the forest spatial information phase I decreased. The information is very important to analyze forest area change, especially in Seram Island.