Village Settlement and Land Cover Change in a Frontier Region: A 50 Year Retrospective

Barbara Entwisle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Stephen J. Walsh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jeffrey Edmeades, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pramote Prasartkul, Mahidol University

The proposed paper uses aerial photographs and digital image mosaics for 1954, 1967-1968-1969, 1982-1983-1984, and 1994, data collected in a village survey, and spatially referenced data about topography, hydrography, roads, and villages to explore the dynamic relationship between village settlement and land use/land cover change over the past fifty years in Nang Rong, a district in Northeast Thailand. It considers topography, proximity to water sources, proximity to the main highway (built in the late 1960s), and proximity to other villages as factors affecting the establishment and siting of villages. It uses aerial photographs to present a decadal perspective on the consequences of village settlement for land use/land cover change and its spatial structure.