Although land use/land cover (LULC) information plays a critical role in the maintenance of living
standards with a balance among the environment, development, and sustainability, it remains little
comprehensive understanding in the entire Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). In this study, we used the
random forest algorithm, Landsat images, ancillary and empirical reference data to carefully analyse the 15
years’ spatiotemporal changes (2005 - 2020) of LULC in the VMD region. Results show that agriculture has
been the most dominant land, accounting for approximately half of the whole region during the fifteen years.
Remarkably, most of the LULC categories have undergone dramatic transformation with the proportion of
the wetland area decreasing from about 16% in 2005 to 5% in 2020, whereas that of the aquaculture area
sharply increased from about 12% to 19% over the same period. Meanwhile, there was a marked increase
in the area of perennial crops and built-up lands. These results of LULC maps and change detection helps
understand the impact of past policies and the role of several factors such as socio-economic trends and
environmental changes in this region.
Keywords: Agricultural expansion, landsat images, land use/land cover changes, Mekong delta,
wetland change