Mangroves are one of the most valuable and productive coastal ecosystems. Previous studies show a severe loss of mangroves around the world over the last several decades due to natural and anthropogenic activities. Mangroves located in the southeastern part of the Mekong River Delta (MRD) are also affected by these activities. Shrimp farming is considered as one of the main drivers causing the rapid loss and degradation of mangroves. The goal of this study is to assess the spatiotemporal changes in land use and distribution of mangroves in the Soc Trang and Bac Lieu provinces of the southeastern part of the MRD. Multi-temporal Landsat data were used for land use and land cover (LULC) classification using the maximum-likelihood classification algorithm. The changes in mangrove forest areas were monitored using medium spatial resolution (Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager) satellite imageries from 1988 to 2018. In the study area, there were seven major LULC types namely, dense mangroves, sparse mangroves, aquaculture farms, arable land with crop cover, arable land without crop cover, settlements, and water bodies. The overall accuracies of the LULC maps in 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2018 were 81.2%, 83.3%, 78.3%, and 81.9%, respectively. This study reveals that dense and sparse mangrove forests have decreased by 90% from 5495 hectares (ha) to 515 ha and by 55% from 14,105 to 6289 ha, respectively from 1988 to 2018. On the other hand, the aquaculture farm has increased at the rate of 5024 ha/year for a period of 30 years. This rapid growth of aquaculture farming activities caused the rapid loss and degradation of mangroves in the MRD. Quantitative information about mangrove change obtained by this study is considered to be useful for future coastal management and relevant policies in the MRD.

中文翻译：

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监测越南湄公河三角洲东南部土地利用和红树林分布的变化

红树林是最有价值和生产力最高的沿海生态系统之一。先前的研究表明，由于自然和人为活动，过去几十年来世界各地的红树林严重丧失。湄公河三角洲（MRD）东南部的红树林也受到这些活动的影响。虾类养殖被认为是导致红树林迅速流失和退化的主要驱动力之一。这项研究的目的是评估MRD东南部Soc Trang和Bac Lieu省的红树林土地利用和分布的时空变化。使用最大似然分类算法，将多时态Landsat数据用于土地利用和土地覆被（LULC）分类。从1988年到2018年，使用中等空间分辨率（Landsat-5专题测绘仪和Landsat-8实用土地成像仪）卫星图像监测了红树林的变化。研究区域共有7种主要的LULC类型，即茂密的红树林，稀疏的红树林，水产养殖场，有农作物覆盖的耕地，无农作物覆盖的耕地，居住区和水体。1988年，1998年，2008年和2018年LULC地图的总体准确度分别为81.2％，83.3％，78.3％和81.9％。这项研究表明，从1988年到2018年，茂密和稀疏的红树林森林分别从5495公顷（公顷）减少到515公顷，减少了90％，从14105公顷减少到6289公顷，减少了55％。另一方面，水产养殖场在在30年的时间内，每年的使用率为5024公顷。水产养殖活动的迅速增长导致了MRD地区红树林的迅速丧失和退化。通过这项研究获得的有关红树林变化的定量信息被认为对MRD中的未来海岸管理和相关政策有用。