Clark Labs, in partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and in support of the Foundation’s Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative, is mapping an inventory of pond aquaculture and coastal habitats in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Landcover maps are in development for the years 1999, 2014, and 2018 for these countries. The landcover maps for 2014 and 2018 are based on Landsat 8 imagery from 2013-2015 for the 2014 mapping and the years 2017 to 2019 for the 2018 mapping. The 1999 data are based on Landsat 5 imagery from 1997-1999. Additionally, the database includes a mapping of present-day vulnerability for further conversion to pond aquaculture and a mapping of the risk of landcover conversion to pond aquaculture by 2050. See below for more detail on the vulnerability and risk maps. Note: not all countries and dates are available at this time. As these become available and if there are any updates to previously published maps, they will be posted here.
For mapping purposes, the coastal zone study area is defined as:
- a 10 km buffer from the coastline on the ocean except for islands >200 km from the mainland
- a 10 km buffer on land as well except if <5 m elevation and <60 km from the coast
Land cover classes include:
- Pond Aquaculture including Integrated Mangrove‐Shrimp
- Mangrove Forest
- Wetland
- Open Water
- All Other Land Cover
- Missing including Clouds and Shadow
The landcover maps are at a 15m resolution while the vulnerability and risk layers are at a 30m resolution. The data are copyright © 2020 by Clark Labs, Clark University. You are free to use these for non-commercial purposes only. All other applications require permission.
All files are in raster format and distributed as compressed GeoTIFF files. Each zipped archive contains text files describing the spatial referencing system and the legend or data values. For information on the procedures used and accuracy/skill of the mapping, please see the Reports section below.
In addition to downloading the data you can explore the data using an interactive web map.
Land Cover Data
Bangladesh
Cambodia
Ecuador
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Myanmar
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Vietnam
Change Persistence Maps
The change persistence maps were created from the landcover maps above and show critical change categories between 1999-2014, 1999-2018, and 2014-2018. All files are in raster format and distributed as compressed GeoTIFF files. Each zipped archive contains text files describing the spatial referencing system and the legend or data values. For information on the procedures used and accuracy/skill of the mapping, please see the Reports section below. The 15 change persistence categories include:
1. Mangrove Persistence 6. Pond Mangrove 11. Wetland Pond
2. Mangrove Pond 7. Pond Other 12. Wetland Other
3. Mangrove Other 8. Pond Water 13. Water Persistence
4. Mangrove Water 9. Other Pond 14. Water Mangrove
5. Pond Persistence 10. Wetland Persistence 15. Water Pond
Bangladesh 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Cambodia 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Ecuador 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
India 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Indonesia 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Malasia 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Myanmar 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Sri Lanka 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Thailand 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Vietnam 1999, 2014, and 2018.zip
Version Table
The version number and date for both the Change Persistence Maps and Land Cover Data
| Country | 1999 | 2014 | 2018 |
| Bangladesh | v.1- 1/2020 | v.2- 1/2020 | v.2- 1/2020 |
| Cambodia | v.2- 10/2019 | v.3- 10/2019 | v.1- 10/2019 |
| Ecuador | v.3- 8/2020 | v.3- 8/2020 | v.3- 8/2020 |
| India | v.1- 12/2019 | v.2- 12/2019 | v.2- 12/2019 |
| Indonesia | v.2- 8/2020 | v.3- 8/2020 | v.3- 8/2020 |
| Malaysia | v.1- 10/2020 | v.1- 10/2020 | v.1- 10/2020 |
| Myanmar | v.4- 9/2020 | v.4- 9/2020 | v.3- 9/2020 |
| Sri Lanka | v.1- 10/2020 | v.1- 10/2020 | v.1- 10/2020 | Thailand | v.4- 7/2020 | v.5- 7/2020 | v.3- 7/2020 |
| Vietnam | v.5- 1/2020 | v.4- 1/2020 | v.2- 1/2020 |
Vulnerability of Land Conversion to Pond Aquaculture
The following layers were developed by relating historical transitions to pond aquaculture to covariates such as elevation, proximity to the coast, proximity to existing pond aquaculture and situational information (such as land cover and soil type) as encapsulated in Landsat TM reflectance data from 1988-1990 for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Historical transitions were established by comparing the 2013-2015 land cover to a classification of Landsat TM data from 1988‐1990 for mangroves, cropland, stabilized sand and sea salt production – the primary classes from which pond aquaculture is developed. The empirical modeling procedure used was the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network in the TerrSet software system (Clark Labs). The resulting maps express the vulnerability to transition from each of these four classes to pond aquaculture on a 0-1 scale. Technically, the numbers represent the probability of transition assuming an equal prior probability of transition or persistence. A simpler understanding is that it represents a measure of the vulnerability to transition irrespective of how prevalent the rate of transition is.
Vulnerability Cropland to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Vulnerability Mangrove to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Vulnerability Sea Salt Production to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Vulnerability Stabilized Sand to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Risk of Land Conversion to Pond Aquaculture by 2050
These layers express the probability of conversion to pond aquaculture by 2050 for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are derived from the vulnerability maps (above) by means of prior correction that recognizes the expected quantity of transition given the historical rate of change. The procedure is based on the basic Markovian assumption of a constant rate of change and the rate of change determined from 1988-1990 to 2013-2015 (a 25 year span).
Risk Cropland to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Risk Mangrove to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Risk Sea Salt Production to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Risk Stabilized Sand to Pond Aquaculture.zip
Aquaculture and Coastal Habitats Reports
These reports review the methodology for mapping, monitoring and reporting of land cover of coastal habitats in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Focus is on mangrove and pond aquaculture land classes including vulnerability and risk analysis of pond conversion.
A Baseline Mapping of Aquaculture and Coastal Habitats in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam: Report 1
Mapping Vulnerability and Risk of Land Conversion for Pond Aquaculture in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam: Report 2
A Baseline Mapping of Aquaculture and Coastal Habitats in Myanmar: Report 3
Mapping Vulnerability and Risk of Mangrove Conversion to Pond Aquaculture in Myanmar: Report 4
A Mapping of Pond Aquaculture, Mangroves and Coastal Wetlands in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar in 1999 and Comparison to 2014: Report 5
