Long-term Change in Land-use and Tropical Rain Forest in the Panama Canal Watershed Between 2001 and 2017 Using Satellite Remote Sensing

We investigated the long-term change in land-use and tropical rain forest in the Panama Canal watershed (3300km²) between 2001 and 2017 with satellite remote sensing. There, deforestation had largely been carried out for the burned agriculture in the late twentieth century. The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean for maritime trade and two artificial lakes, the Gatun Lake and the Alajuela Lake, supply water with the canal. Since land-use change including forest growth has impacts on hydrological processes such as evapotranspiration, rainfall interception and erosion, it is necessary to monitor land-use and forest change for better water management.

We used satellite data on both land-use and Leaf Area Index (LAI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer (MODIS) at 500m spatial resolution. The target period is from 2001 to 2017. Land-use product is annual composite and LAI product is 8-days composite. Digital elevation model (DEM) data is collected from the HydroSHEDS to extract watershed boundary of the canal.

Analysis results on land-use and LAI show no significant land-use change from forest area to urban area between 2001 and 2017. Long-term trend in areal average LAI slightly increased in the canal watershed. LAI significantly increased around two lakes during this period. It is suggested that rainfall interception increases with forest growth might cause the decrease in potential water resources in the watershed ant furthermore it might lead to shortage of water in the Panama Canal.