environments Article Land Use/Land Cover Change Detection and Urban Sprawl Analysis in the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve Watersheds and Buffer Zone, Philippines Merlyn Soriano 1,*, Noba Hilvano 2, Ronald Garcia 3, Aldrin Joseph Hao 4 , Aldin Alegre 5 and Cristino Tiburan, Jr. 6 1 Geospatial Integration Division-Resource Data Analysis Branch, National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, Taguig City 1634, Philippines 2 Environmental Science Department, Eastern Samar State University-Salcedo Campus, Salcedo 6807, Eastern Samar, Philippines;
[email protected] 3 College of Agriculture, Southern Luzon State University, Lucban 4328, Quezon, Philippines;
[email protected] 4 Institute of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines;
[email protected] 5 Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems, College of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines;
[email protected] 6 Environmental Remote Sensing and Geo-information Laboratory, Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, College of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
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[email protected]; Tel.: +63-917-818-1857 Received: 21 September 2018; Accepted: 18 November 2018; Published: 24 January 2019 Abstract: Ecologically Valuable Areas play an important role in providing ecosystem services, however, human activities such as land conversion and urban sprawl pose pressures and threats to these areas. The study assessed the land use/land cover and urban sprawl in the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve (MMFR) Watersheds and Buffer Zone from 1992 to 2015 using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS).