Land use changes in Ornamental Plants Village, Canal 15, Amphoe Ongkharak, Changwat Nakhon Nayok

Abstract

The study of land use changes around Ornamental Plants Village, Canal 15, Amphoe Ongkharak, Changwat Nakhon Nayok aimed to analyze land use changes around the village to understand the pattern of changes, since it is an important agricultural and tourist area. The study focused on ornamental plants production area, as ornamental plants are important economic crops. Arial photographs from Google Earth Professional from 5 available years; namely 2006, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2019, were collected. The spatial information on land use was digitized into the Geographic Information System (GIS) database. Landscape changes and landscape configuration were analyzed. The results showed that urban area tended to slightly increase. Housing area increased 34.4%. The comparison among areas of various agricultural types showed that ornamental plant production areas increased up to +191%, especially during 2009-2013, while areas of other agricultural types tended to decrease. The area decreasing rates of other agricultural types from high to low were as follows: vegetable/herbaceous plot -27.4%, orchard -17.1% and paddy field -8.3%. The expansion of ornamental plants production areas was towards the northern part on both sides of Rd. 3012. Community leaders and farmers were interviewed to find the reasons for the expansion direction of ornamental plant production areas. The interview results showed that these areas were privately owned, could be easily accessed with not-too-expensive rental fees. The big flood in 2011 was the stimulating factor for the ornamental plant growers’ offspring who lost their jobs from the nearby factories to come back and produce ornamental plants, as it madea lot of income. The research results, both the physical database and the statistics of area changes, can be used for infrastructure and facilities development of Amphoe Ongkharak to fit with both agricultural and tourist activities as well as integrated into urban and regional planning.