Author(s)

Slady Akike^1*, Sailesh Samanta²

¹Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture, Morobe Mining, Lae, Papua New Guinea.
²GIS Section, Department of Surveying and Land Studies, The PNG University of Technology, Private Mail Bag, Lae, Papua New Guinea.

This study aims to examine the use of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) technology in land use/land cover mapping to aide sustainable planning and development in the Wafi-Golpu project area. At the same time, this study examines an existing method of Forest Canopy Density (FCD) model to estimate forest canopy density of the proposed deforestation site, which is known as the Advanced Exploration Feasibility Study Activities (AEFSA) area within the Wafi-Golpu Project site. The FCD model calculates the forest canopy density using the three (3) indices of vegetation, soil and shadow from the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite image of year 2013. In this study an attempt has been made to monitor the forest loss or degradation during deforestation in a natural forest stand of the Wafi-Golpu project area using forest FCD mapping and monitoring model and the findings of the study will assist the project planners and developers with their work on forest rehabilitation and reforestation for the purposes of sustainable forest management. The result of the work shows that a considerable amount of forest loss will be undertaken during the AEFSA deforestation exercise and also the findings show that a reliable land use/land cover map will greatly assist sustainable development in a resource project development period.

Remote Sensing, GIS, FCD Model, Land Use/Land Cover, Forest Land Management

Akike, S. and Samanta, S. (2016) Land Use/Land Cover and Forest Canopy Density Monitoring of Wafi-Golpu Project Area, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 4, 1-14. doi: 10.4236/gep.2016.48001.