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State of the art agricultural land cover maps for the Lao People's Democratic Republic​

Part of the Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS)

Year of publication 2021

Place of publication Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic ;

Pages 8p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The leaflet presents the activities of the second component of the project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR”. In collaboration with The Department of Agricultural Land Management (DALaM) under the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) has, with financial support of FAO Laos and technical support from International FAO experts, produced the first national agricultural land cover map in the country. It has been generated using a random forest machine learning approach to identify different land uses from satellite imagery and is in both, technical standard and accuracy, state of the art. The map includes major production systems of Lao PDR, including shifting cultivation. In its first released version, the following land cover classes are depicted: paddy rice, annual crops, steep slope agriculture (shifting agriculture), maize, cassava, sugarcane, tea plantations, coffee plantations, orchards and other plantations, sparse natural vegetation, dense natural vegetation, bare areas, built-up areas, and water surfaces. The pixel resolution of the map is 10m, while for temporal resolution images across the whole year of analysis are used. It is calibrated with 2,740 field observation data and has currently an estimated error of 10%, the acceptable norm based on FAO expertise.

Cite this content as:

​FAO. 2021. State of the art agricultural land cover maps for the Lao People's Democratic Republic​: Part of the Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS)​. Vientiane.

Language English

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