Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

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Ecological Indicators
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind

Zoning eco-environmental vulnerability for environmental

management and protection
Anh Kim Nguyen a,b , Yuei-An Liou c,d,e,∗ , Ming-Hsu Li a , Tuan Anh Tran f
a
The Graduate Institute of Hydrological and Oceanic Sciences, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 32001,
Taiwan, ROC
b
Institute of Geography, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Rd., Cau Giay District, Hanoi Viet Nam
c
Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City 32001, Taiwan, ROC
d
Taiwan Group on Earth Observations, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC
e
Taiwan Geographic Information System Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
f
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Rd., Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Viet Nam

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Eco-environmental vulnerability assessment is crucial for environmental and resource management.
Received 13 November 2015 However, evaluation of eco-environmental vulnerability over large areas is a difficult and complex process
Received in revised form 26 February 2016 because it is affected by many variables including hydro-meteorology, topography, land resources, and
Accepted 12 March 2016
human activities. The Thua Thien – Hue Province and its largest river system, the Perfume River, are
vital to the social-economic development of the north central coastal region of Vietnam, but there is
Keywords:
no zoning system for environmental protection in this region. An assessment framework is proposed to
Vulnerability
evaluate the vulnerable eco-environment in association with 16 variables with 6 of them constructed
Eco-environment
AHP from Landsat 8 satellite image products. The remaining variables were extracted from digital maps.
GIS Each variable was evaluated and spatially mapped with the aid of an analytical hierarchy process (AHP)
Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS (operational land and geographical information system (GIS). An eco-environmental vulnerability map is assorted into
imager and thermal infrared sensor) six vulnerability levels consisting of potential, slight, light, medium, heavy, and very heavy vulnerabilities,
Remote sensing representing 14%, 27%, 17%, 26%, 13%, 3% of the study area, respectively. It is found that heavy and very
heavy vulnerable areas appear mainly in the low and medium lands where social-economic activities
have been developing rapidly. Tiny percentages of medium and heavy vulnerable levels occur in high land
areas probably caused by agricultural practices in highlands, slash and burn cultivation and removal of
natural forests with new plantation forests. Based on our results, three ecological zones requiring different
development and protection solutions are proposed to restore local eco-environment toward sustainable
development. The proposed integrated method of remote sensing (RS), GIS, and AHP to evaluate the eco-
environmental vulnerability is useful for environmental protection and proper planning for land use and
construction in the future.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The Thua Thien – Hue Province and its largest river system, the
Perfume River, are vital to the social-economic development of the
north central coast region of Vietnam. The Perfume River is also a
very attractive and valuable tourism destination. Since 1993, the
∗ Corresponding author at: Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research,
National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli District, Taoyuan City
32001, Taiwan, ROC. Tel.: +886 3 4227151x57631.
E-mail addresses: kimanh.nguyen2010@hotmail.com
(A.K. Nguyen), yueian@csrsr.ncu.edu.tw (Y.-A. Liou), mli@cc.ncu.edu.tw (M.-H. Li),
tuan.ig@gmail.com (T.A. Tran).
Thua Thien – Hue Province has been declared as an integral part of
the World Heritage site (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/678). How-
ever, in recent years, the quality of the eco-environment of the
Thua Thien – Hue Province has significantly declined because of
human activities, such as built-up of a cement factory and its col-
lateral enterprises, fishing industry, small metal-based industry,
agriculture, sand and granite extraction, and floating villages. The
most current concerns of the Thua Thien – Hue Province are urban-
ization and industrialization tendencies that have created a very
heavy pressure on sustainable use of the environment. This coastal
province has a complex topography and usually suffered from haz-
ardous climate conditions. That makes the province a good study
target for this kind of study (Tran and Shaw, 2007).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.03.026
1470-160X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117
Performing eco-environmental vulnerability assessment aims
to identify the vulnerability status of the regions of interest in both
quality and quantity, which are essential to ecological restoration
and society management for understanding the current status and
evaluating the effectiveness of planned measures (Tran et al., 2007;
Adger, 2002; Wang et al., 2008). The eco-environmental vulnera-
bility is defined and governed by four factors: hydro-meteorology
signatures, land resource, social economics (human activities), and
topography condition, which can be classified into two categories:
internal and external vulnerabilities. Internal vulnerability results
from the structure of eco-environment itself and is less impacted
by external vulnerability, which is influenced by human activities.
Assessing eco-environmental vulnerability requires plentiful and
comprehensive data from various sources and fields (Ying et al.,
2007; Li et al., 2007). A variety of techniques have been found
useful for data analysis, such as spatial principal component anal-
ysis (SPCA) method with support of GIS (geographical information
system) (Li et al., 2006), fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP)
method with triangular fuzzy numbers, artificial neural-network
evaluation method, and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) through
pair-wise comparison to establish the matrix relationship of vari-
ables (factors) (Thanh and De Smedt, 2011; Song et al., 2010;
Ying et al., 2007; Li et al., 2009; Park et al., 2004). Unlike the
other methods, the previously mentioned methods require many
variables that are not always easy to acquire. To conquer such
difficulty, the AHP proposed by (Saaty, 1980) was advanced by
(Bhushan and Rai, 2004). AHP is nowadays one of the most com-
monly used assessment methods because of its simple structure
to effectively deal with complex decision making. Procedures of
the AHP involve selecting variables in decision hierarchy, making
comparisons between possible pairs in a matrix to give a weight
for each variable, and calculating consistency ratio (CR) for con-
sistency check to reduce bias in the decision making process. The
subjective evaluations are converted into numerical values ranked
in a numerical scale (Saaty, 1980; Bhushan and Rai, 2004).
Since AHP has many favorable features, it was applied in quan-
titative research for various fields, including nature, society, and
economy (Li et al., 2007; Li et al., 2006; Park et al., 2004; Sener
et al., 2010a,b; Fahmy, 2001); and eco-environmental vulnerability
studies (Li, 2007). In studies relevant to eco-environmental vulner-
ability assessment, it was criticized that the variables were mainly
constructed from ground measurements, and conventional and
digital maps with remote sensing data used superficially. A com-
mon example in the previous studies was to use remote sensing
data to extract the land cover or NDVI (Normalized Difference Vege-
tation Index) for eco-environmental assessment (Wang et al., 2008;
Li et al., 2006; Li et al., 2009; Sener et al., 2010a,b; Xu et al., 2012;
Peche and Rodríguez, 2012). Since the first generation of Landsat
satellite was launched in 1972, numerous studies were conducted
for the concerns of Earth environment by using images acquired
by satellite, thus, remarkably contributing to the socio-economy
development and the monitoring, prevention, and reduction of nat-
ural and man-made hazards (Dao and Liou, 2015; Liu and Zhang,
2011; Patterson and Yoo, 1998; Gupta and Joshi, 1990; Hay et al.,
1990; Chen et al., 2006). Currently, Landsat 8 (launched into orbit
on February 11, 2013) opens up a new diverse range of data for sci-
entists to conduct research for practical applications (Knight and
Kvaran, 2014). This type of earth observation satellites provide
data for various socio-economy development planning, natural and
man-made disaster studies, and resources monitoring (Dao and
Liou, 2015; Liu and Zhang, 2011; Chen et al., 2006; Zeng et al.,
2000), and supports the evaluation of magnitude, dynamics and
trends, and spatial distribution of eco-environment using satellite-
derived environmental and climatic variables (Roy et al., 2014; Li
et al., 2013; Liou et al., 2015a,b; Hsu et al., 2015; Gowrie, 2003;
Zhang et al., 2014).
101
In this paper, an assessment framework composed by 16 vari-
ables with six of them constructed from Landsat 8 data is proposed
to evaluate eco-environmental vulnerability in the Thua Thien
– Hue Province. The 16 variables were organized following a
hierarchical structure into four groups, including meteorology-
hydrology, society-economics, land resource, and topography. The
Landsat 8 data are OLI and TIRS (operational land imager and ther-
mal infrared sensor) level-1 products with high spatial resolution
(30 m) and a repeat cycle of 16 days. The OLI and TIRS are incor-
porated with technical advancements over the previous Landsat
sensors, such as improved geometric fidelity, radio-metric reso-
lution, and signal-to-noise characteristics (Roy et al., 2014). The
proposed assessment framework will be expected to answer the
questions: Which regions or sectors are most vulnerable to the
environmental change and require appropriate measures to restore
and sustain the eco-environment?
2. Materials and method
2.1. The study area
The Thua Thien – Hue Province covers an area of 5054 km2
in central Vietnam with coordinates of 15◦ 59 –16◦ 48 N and
106◦ 25 –107◦ 51 E, comprising two basins of four rivers and Hue
city as the provincial capital as shown in Fig. 1. It is prone to
extremely high rates of precipitation that is unevenly distributed
throughout the year due to diverse topography (Tran and Shaw,
2007) with weather patterns having frequent and unpredictable
extreme microclimates (Beckman, 2011; Thanh and De Smedt,
2011; Tran et al., 2007). The unexpected climate extreme intensi-
fies the cycle of poverty in the inhabitants and increases the poverty
rate, particularly in the flood-prone areas (Tran et al., 2007). This
coastal province has become the subject of recent studies focus-
ing on issues of natural disasters (flood, storm, and landslides) and
environmental management in association with climate change
(Tran and Shaw, 2007; Beckman, 2011; Tong et al., 2012). Among
the four rivers in the Thua Thien – Hue Province, the Perfume River
is the largest one and plays a vital role in water resource manage-
ment and social-economic development. Landform is characterized
by mountain ranges, and stretches of plain have the direction of
northwest – southeast, parallel to the coastline, so that the topog-
raphy is gradually becoming lower from the west to the east. A
narrow delta with many divided small plains is situated at the east
side of the Truong Son mountain range.
In terms of climate patterns of the Thua Thien – Hue Province,
the temperature increases gradually from the west to east; the pre-
cipitation decreases from the west to the east and from the south
to the north. The average annual temperature ranges from 21 ◦ C
to 26 ◦ C. The highest temperature (approximately 41.3 ◦ C) occurs
normally in June, July, and August, while the lowest temperature
(12 ◦ C) occurs in November, December, and January. The average
relative humidity is around 84–85%. The lowest humidity around
50–60% occurs in July, while it is high (e.g. often over 90%) with
drizzle during many days in November and December. The annual
precipitation is around 3200 mm with large fluctuations not only
depending on year, but also location. Annual average precipitation
may reach 2500–3500 mm in the plains and 3000–4500 mm in the
mountains. In some years, precipitation may be much higher and
reaches more than 5000 mm in the mountains (Tong et al., 2012;
Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam, 2014; TTHPPC, 2005). In winter,
the northeast wind dominates in the mountain ranges that act as
a barrier to change the wind direction from northeast to north-
west. The cold air mass stays in the east of the Truong Son range,
causing heavy rain and severe floods by the end of October. In sum-
mer, the mountain ranges cause the “Foehn wind” effect leading to
102 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117
Fig. 1. The map of Asia showing Vietnam and the Thua Thien – Hue Province; Landsat 8 image acquired on 27 April 2014.
extremely dry and hot weather, likely leading to the occurrence
of drought. In general, the number of storms hitting Thua Thien –
Hue and Quang Binh provinces accounts for 27% of total storms that
affect Vietnam and cause many difficulties for all socio-economic
activities. As a result, the Thua Thien – Hue Province is the most
vulnerable to tropical cyclones in Vietnam (UNDP, 2003; MoNRE,
2003).
In recent years, meteorological observation records collected
from Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology of Vietnam depict
that there were significant changes in precipitation patterns in all
three stations (A Luoi, Nam Dong, and Hue) of the Thua Thien – Hue
Province (increase in precipitation during the rainy seasons from
August to December, lessen extent from April to May, and decrease
in precipitation during the drier June to July period). This trend
implies that there will be very likely more floods and droughts in
the Thua Thien – Hue Province in the future (Adger, 2002; UNDP,
2003; MoNRE, 2003; Tran et al., 2007).
2.2. Materials
The primary data used in this study consist of:
(1) Remotely sensed Landsat 8 OLI image captured on April 27,
2014 (depicted in Fig. 1),
(2) Topographical and cadastral maps provided by Vietnam
Publishing House of Natural Resources, Environment, and Car-
tography with scale of 1:50,000,
(3) Soil fertility map provided by Institute of Geography, Vietnam
Academy of Science and Technology (IG, VAST), with a scale of
1:50,000,
(4) Three types of forest maps including special-use forest, protec-
tion forest, production forest, and none forest land with scale
of 1:1,000,000 acquired from Forestry Department of the Thua
Thien – Hue Province,
(5) Land use map provided by Vietnam Publishing House of Nat-
ural Resources, Environment, and Cartography with scale of
1:50,000,
(6) Digital elevation model (DEM) with resolution of 20 meters
provided by Vietnam Publishing House of Natural Resources,
Environment, and Cartography, and
(7) Rainfall monitoring data provided by Center of Information
and Hydro-Meteorological Data, Vietnam National Hydro-
Meteorological Services.
For further processing the original data, the following steps were
taken. Firstly, Landsat 8 OLI image was used to retrieve environ-
mental variables, including normalized difference moisture index
(NDMI), land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117
built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference water index (NDWI),
and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Landsat data
was also used to update land cover/land use types. Cadastral and
topographic maps were used to extract social-economic variables,
such as residential areas, market areas, and road networks. A DEM
was utilized to extract slope angle, slope aspect, terrain eleva-
tion, and hydrological network. Soil fertility map was classified
into five levels by IG, VAST consisting of very low, low, medium,
high, and very high fertility. To determine the impact of social eco-
nomic activities on the eco-environment, the buffer distances of
social-economic variables were calculated and classified. Spatial
distribution of rainfall was obtained by interpolating station moni-
toring data with the Inverse Distance Weight method (Watson and
Philip, 1985). All variables/factors were converted into grid format
with resolution of 100 m × 100 m and set up in the coordinate of
WGS 84, zone 48 north in the ArcGIS version 10.2.
2.3. Methodology
Eco-environmental vulnerability is the result of complex pro-
cesses affected by hydro-meteorology, society economics, land
resources, and topography. Based on data availability and vul-
nerability status of different areas, there is no general rule for
selecting how many variables are required to evaluate the eco-
environmental vulnerability (Song et al., 2010; Li et al., 2006;
Wang et al., 2008; Lai et al., 2001). In our study (Fig. 2), 16 vari-
ables were taken into account and organized into four groups (1)
hydro-meteorology, (2) social-economics, (3) land resource, and (4)
topography.
The framework of eco-environmental vulnerability assessment
is proposed to integrate AHP approach, remote sensing, and GIS
techniques as shown in Fig. 2. There are four steps for data
processing:
(i) Preprocessing Landsat 8 image and calculation of environmen-
tal variables (detail of this step is presented in Section A.1 in
Appendix),
(ii) Extraction of variables from digital maps and calculation of
buffer distance and classified values of each layer,
(iii) Calculating the weight for every variable/factor/layer, and
class, and
(iv) According to variable’s weight, applying algebra computations
in ArcGIS to produce maps of four group variables as well as
the synthesis map.
A detailed description of key steps is summarized in the follow-
ing sections.
As illustrated in Fig. 2, the AHP technique is used to deter-
mine the weight for each variable and class. The overall scheme
of the AHP can be simplified by six steps (Saaty, 1980; Saaty
and Vargas, 2001; Bhushan and Rai, 2004). Firstly, the decision
making problem is deconstructed into a hierarchical structure
with “eco-environmental vulnerability” as final product, which is
deconstructed into four groups consisting of hydro-meteorology
(B1 ), society-economics (B2 ), land resources (B3 ), and topography
(B4 ). Each factor and sub-factor is further separated into its own
attributes that are grouped together at the same level. Secondly,
decision tables at each level of the hierarchical decomposition are
made. They exhibit a series of pair-wise comparisons using a pref-
erence scaling approach from 9, 8, 7, . . ., 1/7, 1/8, to 1/9 where 9
means the most important, 8 the second most important, and so
on down to 1/9, the least important. Thirdly, the scaling numbers
that reveal the relative importance of all decision variables at step
2 are organized into a square matrix with 1 as the value of the
diagonal variables. The criterion for the ith row is more important
than the jth column if the value of variable (i, j) is more than 1;
103
otherwise the criterion for the jth column is more important than
the ith row. Note that the (j, i) variable of the matrix is the reciprocal
of the (i, j) variable. Fourthly, weights were determined by normal-
izing the eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue (max )
of the judgment matrix, and the largest eigenvalue is shown in Eq.
(1) (Saaty, 1980; Saaty and Vargas, 2001; Bhushan and Rai, 2004):
n n 
i (aij wj )/wi
i=1 j=1
max = . (1)
n
Fifthly, the degree of consistency of the square matrix order n
is evaluated. Comparisons made by this method are subjective and
the AHP tolerates inconsistency through the amount of redundancy
in the approach. If this consistency index fails to reach a required
level then answers to comparisons may be re-examined. The con-
sistency index (CI) is calculated as:
CI = (max − n)(n − 1) (2)
This CI can be compared with a random matrix, RI, defined as
the average of resulting consistency index depending on the order
of the matrix. The consistency ratio (CR) was calculated by CI/RI.
It is suggested that the value of CR should be less than 0.1 and
the matrix had a reasonable consistency (Saaty, 1980; Saaty and
Vargas, 2001; Bhushan and Rai, 2004). In this study, RI = 0.89, and
CR = 0.023 < 0.10.
Finally, the rating of each class is multiplied by the weights of the
variables and aggregated to get local ratings with respect to each
variable. The local ratings are then multiplied by the weights of the
group variable and aggregated to obtain global ratings (Bhushan
and Rai, 2004).
In this study, every variable was assigned with different ratings
on a scale of 1. The eco-environmental vulnerability assessment
(EVA) map was created based on generated stack and each com-
ponent’s weight with support of the algebra computation is given
in Eq. (3). The higher the EVA value, the more vulnerable the eco-
environment is:

EVA = (B1 ∗ W1 + B2 ∗ W2 + B3 ∗ W3 + B4 ∗ W4 ) (3)
where B1 is the hydro-meteorology, B2 is the society-economics, B3
is the land recourses, B4 is the topography, and Wi , i = 1, 2, 3, 4 are
their corresponding weights as shown in Table 1. B1 , B2 , B3 , B4 are
calculated by using Eq. (4):

n
Bi = vi wi (4)
i=1
where v is the value of each variable, wi is the weight of each vari-
able as show in Table 1, n is the total number of variables in group
Bi , and i = 1, 2, 3, . . ., n.
The classification is extremely important as it should be objec-
tive and logical to evaluate the eco-environmental vulnerability. To
decide the vulnerability levels and the intervals, histograms were
used to reveal the statistical distribution of the calculated vulnera-
bility values from grid cells as shown in Fig. 3. It is shown that the
value of EVA ranges from 1 to 5.57 with mean 2.78 and standard
deviation 0.67. Based on the concentration of values in different
ranges, the eco-environmental assessment is performed to give
larger weights to variables with more influence – higher values
indicate higher vulnerability. In total, five points located at 2.0, 2.6,
2.9, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 were identified from the cumulated frequency
distribution for dividing the vulnerability into six levels, namely
potential, slight, light, medium, heavy, and very heavy.
104 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

Fig. 2. The proposed eco-environmental vulnerability assessment framework (NDMI is normalized difference moisture index, NDWI is normalized difference water index,
LST is land surface temperature, NDBI is normalized difference build up index, NDVI is normalized difference vegetation index, and LU/LC is land use/land cover).

Table 1
Weightings of group variables and variables used for the calculation of eco-environmental vulnerability for the Thua Thien – Hue Province.

Group variables/factors (Bi ) Global weight (Wi ) Variables/factors (Ci ) Local weight (wi )

B1 . Hydro-Meteorology 0.200 C1 NDMI 0.254

C2 NDWI 0.049
C3 LST 0.119
C4 Precipitation 0.502
C5 Distances from hydrological network 0.076

B2 . Society-economics 0.329 C6 Distances from road network 0.097

C7 Distances from market areas 0.165
C8 Distances from residential areas 0.399
C9 NDBI 0.399

B3 . Land recourse 0.142 C10 NDVI 0.384

C11 Land use/Land cover 0.191
C12 Three types of forest 0.300
C13 Soil fertility 0.126

B4 . Topography 0.329 C14 DEM 0.611

C15 Slope angle 0.347
C16 Slope aspect 0.134

Fig. 3. Histogram of eco-environmental vulnerability in the Thua Thien – Hue Province and cumulated frequency distribution (black line).
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117
2.4. Variable/factor description
2.4.1. Hydro-meteorology (B1 )
To evaluate the impacts of hydro-meteorology on the environ-
ment including soil and plant growth, five variables were selected
including precipitation, NDMI, LST, distances from hydrological
network, and NDWI. They are described in detail in Section A.2
and illustrated in Fig. A1 in Appendix. Every variable was classi-
fied and weighted using AHP as shown in Table A2 in Appendix
and converted into a grid map with 100 m × 100 m resolution.
2.4.2. Society-economics (B2 )
There are four variables in this group including road networks,
market areas, built-up index, and residential areas to evaluate the
impact of human activities. These variables indicate the levels of
development of land resource, and also reflect the dynamism or
deterioration of an ecological system. It is relatively easy to rec-
ognize that urban expansion and built up or industrial factories
development can directly result in environmental pollution and
other degrading consequences. One of the most important issues
is that they lead to degrading pressure upon natural resources and
environment. Four variables of this group are descripted in Section
A.3 and illustrated in Fig. A2 in Appendix.
2.4.3. Land resource (B3 )
Four variables were selected to evaluate influence of land
resource including soil fertility, land use/land cover, three-type
forest, and NDVI because land resource conditions play a signif-
icant role in protecting biological diversity and improving the
eco-environmental quality. Note that soil fertility is fundamental
to the environmental ecosystem. Four variables are described in
detail in Section A.4 and illustrated in Fig. A3 in Appendix.
2.4.4. Topography (B4 )
To evaluate topographical conditions, terrain elevation, slope
angle, and slope aspect were selected. Slope angle is the primary
variable for construction control and soil erosion, flood or flash
flood. Variation in elevation has a significant impact on evapotrans-
piration, transportation, soil, regional climate, and other possible
processes that could impact environmental vulnerability. Three
variables are described in detailed in Section A.5 and illustrated
in Fig. A4 in Appendix.
Fig. 4. Map of hydro-meteorological impacts.
105
2.5. Calculation of variable and class weights
To determine weight for each class of variables, variables and
group variables, pair-wise comparisons were used to establish the
judgment matrix. The resulting matrix was then normalized to
obtain final weights. Finally, CR was calculated by the “Row Aver-
age” method (Saaty, 1980; Bhushan and Rai, 2004). Table A1 in
Appendix shows the matrix and weights for each class of every
variable and Table 1 gives the local weights of variables and global
weights for group variables.
3. Results and discussion
Based on the method mentioned, four group variables including
hydro meteorology, society-economics, land resource, and topog-
raphy were decided and final synthesis maps of eco-environmental
vulnerability were produced and classified into six levels namely
potential, slight, light, medium, heavy, and very heavy based on Nat-
ural Interval Classification method (de Smith et al., 2015). The
vulnerability distributions of four group variables are described
below.
3.1. Hydro-meteorological impact
Results of hydro-meteorological impacts are shown in Fig. 4. The
potential, slight, and light hydro-meteorological impacts contribute
70% of the total areas, primarily located in the north, east, and south.
Their distribution corresponds to the patterns of average rainfall
and sunshine with elevated terrain and below average concentra-
tions of human activities. The medium, heavy, and very heavy values
account for the remaining 30% of the total areas. These values are
mainly found in the south and west with much rainfall and very
low soil fertility and low terrain elevation. In average, the hydro-
meteorological impacts in the Thua Thien – Hue Province are at
moderate level.
3.2. Land resource impact
Spatial distribution of land resource impacts is shown in Fig. 5.
Overall speaking, the Thua Thien – Hue Province is characterized
by relatively low level of land resource impacts. The classes of
slight and potential impacts are mainly situated in the west, north,
and southeast, and account for almost 82% of the total area. Light,
medium, and heavy levels are distributed mainly in the southwest
region where land is characterized by high rate of precipitation
106 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

Fig. 5. The map of land resource impacts.

and less vegetation cover. Moreover, these locations are usually
suffered from landslides due to sparsely vegetation cover and poor
recovery forest over the high elevation terrain. Consequently, soil
erosion often occurs with degradation in fertility. Tiny part of
medium and heavy levels appeared in northwest region where land
cover is characterized by bare land with some grassland.
3.3. Topographical impact
The topographical impacts are illustrated in Fig. 6, showing the
classes of potential and slight impacts covering 67% of the total area,
located in the north, northwest, and northeast. Light topographical
impacts occur in 24% of the total area and are located in the south.
A small percentage of medium, heavy, and very heavy is distributed
in the west, east, and south, accounting for 10% of the total area.
In general, spatial distribution of topographical impacts is similar
with land resource impacts and hydro-meteorological impacts due
to domination of Truong Son and Bach Ma mountain ranges.
3.4. Social-economic impact
Spatial pattern of social-economics impacts is opposite of the
three other group variables mentioned above (Fig. 7). This reflects
the contributions of road, market, and residential areas distances.
The contribution of NDBI on society economics impacts demon-
strated the degree of anthropogenic disturbance, such as urban
growth with high density of buildings, sealing and limited vege-
tation cover, which increased the heat absorbed by land surface.
Together with high concentration of greenhouse gases in the local
atmosphere, temperature in these areas was higher as compared to
the sub-urban zone, resulting in “heat island effect.” Land surface
temperature retrieved from Landsat 8 showed that the maximum
land surface temperature of urban area is 48.4 ◦ C, while minimum
land surface temperature of sub-urban area is 7.9 ◦ C. This reflects
to some extent that eco-environment is the most vulnerable when
affected by human activities. It can be clearly seen that there is
a significant difference in human influence between mountainous
regions and plain regions. The human activities are concentrated
mainly in the north and in small areas along southwest with a
high degree of industrial, eco-tourism, and agriculture practices.
These activities create great degradation pressures on the regional
eco-environment. A comparison of four contributing factors to
eco-environmental vulnerability is shown in Fig. 8. It is obvious
that society-economics significantly contributed to all vulnerabil-
ity levels, in particular, the classes of medium, heavy, and very
heavy.

Fig. 6. The map of topographical impacts.

 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117 107

Fig. 7. The map of social-economic impacts.

while heavy and very heavy vulnerable regions are located on land
lack of vegetation.

3.6. Eco-environmental vulnerability analysis

3.6.1. Eco-environmental vulnerability distribution

The resulting eco-environmental vulnerability map classified
into six levels is shown in Fig. 9.
Medial, heavy, and very heavy eco-environmental vulnerability
indices are mainly found in agriculture land, bare land, and planta-
tion forest, which are located in the southwest, southeast, and north
regions with elevation ranging from 0–80 to 500–890 m and with
intensive amount of precipitation (3225–3727 mm). We suspect
that one cause is that these areas are affected by human activi-
ties more seriously due to industrial plants and exploitation sites
operating in these areas. Furthermore, as a result of topographical
conditions, these areas usually suffer from landslides and flood-
ing (Tran et al., 2007; Beckman, 2011; Thanh and De Smedt, 2011).
Comparing the eco-environmental vulnerability map and DEM, it
Fig. 8. The distribution of four group variables and their corresponding impacts. seems that the distribution of vulnerability is uniformly distributed
with elevation. Heavy and very heavy vulnerable levels are mainly
Table 2 distributed in low and medium lands with slope angles varying
The correlation coefficients of variables derived from Landsat 8 satellite image. from 0◦ to 22◦ . For the low land, these regions are characterized by
LST NDBI NDVI NDMI NDWI bare land, poor nutrients in soil, and high intensity of human activ-
ities with less vegetation cover. The regions with medium and high
LST 1
NDBI 0.63 1
elevation are represented by plantation forest with lack of protec-
NDVI −0.45 −0.78 1 tion policy and more serious soil erosion resulting from steep slopes
NDMI −0.61 −0.94 0.71 1 and landslide or flooding during extremely high rainfall periods.
NDWI −0.36 −0.71 0.97 0.62 1 From the above-presented assessment of eco-environmental
vulnerability, it is obvious that a wide spectrum of data, but impos-
3.5. The correlation analysis between environmental variables sible to collect all perfectly, are needed, leaving a room for future
derived from Landsat 8 satellite image exploration and improvement.

The correlation coefficients between various satellite-derived
indices are shown in Table 2. The positive correlation between
LST and NDBI demonstrates that the influence of build-up land on
urban temperature is positive, inferring that the build-up land can
increase the thermal impact on the eco-environment. That is also
the reason why the heavy and very heavy vulnerable regions (Fig. 9;
Figs. A1(c) and A2(d) in Appendix) show higher LST and dense con-
centration of buildings. In contrast, negative correlation between
LST and NDVI illustrates that impact of green land on urban thermal
environment is negative. This is also seen in the eco-environmental
vulnerability map (Fig. 9 and Fig. A3(d) in Appendix) where poten-
tial, slight, and light vulnerable regions are located in the green land,
3.6.2. Partition for eco-environmental protection and
management
To enhance the usefulness of this assessment for local author-
ities responsible for restoration of the eco-environment, an
eco-environmental protection zoning map was produced (Fig. 10).
It was directly derived from the eco-environmental vulnerability
map. We proposed three sub-regions including: (I) region for focal
protection, (II) region for composite development, and (III) region
for strict protection as shown in Fig. 10.
I. Region for focal protection. This region is generated by merg-
ing potential and slight vulnerable zones. These areas are mainly
108 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

covered by natural forest and landform characterized by high
mountains, accounting for 35% (approximately 1580 km2 ) of the
Thua Thien – Hue Province.
II. Region for composite development. This region is delineated by
combining light and medium vulnerable zones. It appears in almost
all districts of the Thua Thien–Hue Province, but more prominently
in Hue, Huong Tra, Phu Loc, Nam Dong, Quang Dien, and Phu Vang
districts. The total area is 47% (approximately 2168 km2 ). Terrain
elevation is at low and medium levels and characterized by agri-
cultural, plantation forest, and residential land.
III. Region for strict protection. This region consists of heavy and very
heavy vulnerable zones, lying mainly in A Luoi district and tiny
parts in Quang Dien and Nam Dong districts. The landform is mainly
medium and low mountains, in which major ecosystem types are
agriculture, plantation forest, and recover forest, accounting for 18%
(approximately 805 km2 ) of the Thua Thien – Hue Province.
3.6.3. Proposed actions for the three regional types
In terms of solutions, some appropriate ways can be imple-
mented to protect eco-environment in three sub-regions. First, pri-
ority positive ecological protection policy and social management
should be enforced in the regions with higher eco-environmental
vulnerability levels. Awareness of the eco-environmental protec-
tions should be transmitted to households of villages, which are
located along the river, to improve living habits and their way
of using land and water resources. Second, deforestation, along
with slash and burn cultivation, should be prevented. Besides, trash
management should be improved. The problems of floating villages
need to be solved by arranging new residential areas and suppor-
ting them to find job in new places. Third, in the context of climate
change, the Thua Thien – Hue Province endures damages due to nat-
ural disasters, such as flooding, landslide, erosion, and sea level rise.
As a coastal region, there are a lot of aqua-cultural activities, which
significantly contribute to economic development. However, the
surging growth of these enterprises imposes a great pressure on the
eco-system and low-water mangrove islands, which are absolutely

Fig. 9. The map of eco-environmental vulnerability in the Thua Thien – Hue Province.

Fig. 10. The proposed eco-environmental protection zoning map.

 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117 109

vital to protect coastal lines from high water erosion by creat- Table A1
Spectral bands of Landsat 8 OLI and thermal infrared sensor (TIRS).
ing barriers to protect shoreline. Meanwhile, eco-tourism should
be well-organized. Nevertheless, it is always difficult to solve the Spectral band Wavelength (␮m) Resolution (m)
conflicts between economic development and eco-environmental Band 1 – Coastal/aerosol 0.433–0.453 30
protection from degradation. These conflicts may be preventable Band 2 – Blue 0.450–0.515 30
if we respect their natural relationships and have public aware- Band 3 – Green 0.525–0.600 30
ness. Band 4 – Red 0.630–0.680 30
Band 5 – Near infrared (NIR) 0.845–0.885 30
Band 6 – Short wavelength infrared 1.560–1.660 30
4. Conclusions (SWIR) 1 or Infrared (IR)
Band 7 – SWIR 2 2.100–2.300 30
Band 8 – Panchromatic 0.500–0.680 15
This research concentrates on the eco-environmental vul- Band 9 – Cirrus 1.360–1.390 30
nerability assessment of a famous eco-tourism destination and Band 10 – Thermal infrared (TIR) 1 10.30–11.30 100× (30)
mountainous region, and aims to use effectively the Landsat 8 OLI Band 11 – TIR 2 11.50–12.50 100× (30)
image to retrieve environmental variables as an assessment frame- Source: http://landsat.usgs.gov/band designations landsat satellites.php.
work. Both remote sensing and GIS techniques are integrated with
the AHP to determine the weights of various environmental ele-
Conflicts of interest
ments. From the results, some significant points are found and
summarized as follows.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The overall eco-environmental vulnerability of the Thua Thien
– Hue Province is currently at the medium level. The distribution Acknowledgments
of heavy and very heavy vulnerability patterns mainly occur in
the low and medium lands where social-economic activities have This research was financially supported by National Central Uni-
been developing rapidly. Low land in this region usually suffers versity, Taiwan through the NCU International Student Scholarship,
from flooding. Tiny percentages of medium and heavy vulnerabil- and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under
ity levels appear in high land areas due to agriculture practices in the codes 103-2111-M-008-023 and 103-2221-E-008-074. Satel-
highland, slash and burn cultivation, and replacements of natural lite data are supported by United States Geological Survey (USGS).
forest by new plantation forest, soil erosion, and landslide. Conse- The authors are grateful to Prof. Clement Atzberger for valuable
quently, it has drastic impacts on the eco-environment. In addition, and constructive comments on the manuscript. They appreciate
drought, landslide, and flood frequently occur in the Thua Thien – very much the reviewers for precious comments to improve the
Hue Province so that high and steep lands are often paired with manuscript.
low fertility and lack of vegetation. Therefore, further studies to
understand the eco-environmental vulnerability status should be Appendix.
carried out based on the dynamics of elements and climate change
scenario and anthropogenic development of different regions and A.1. Pre-processing of Landsat satellite data and calculation of
appropriate measures should be adopted to restore and sustain the environmental variables
eco-environment.
The successful assessment framework proposed and practiced In this study, seven bands of Landsat including bands 3–7, 10,
in this study can be applied for the other regions by adjusting fac- and 11 were selected to construct environmental variables (Chen
tors relevant to the concerned variables required in the region of et al., 2006). The spectral characteristics of Landsat 8 are shown in
interest. Also, it is necessary to conduct eco-environmental vul- Table A1. Before retrieving environmental variables, atmospheric
nerability assessments for neighboring regions of the Thua Thien correction was performed for all bands by using Fast Line-of sight
– Hue Province to evaluate a larger picture of eco-environmental Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH) (Adler-
vulnerability in the central Vietnam. Golden et al., 1998; Waner and Chen, 2001). Following the
atmospheric correction, the images were geo-referenced to UTM
projection, zone 48 north.
Author contributions
A.1.1. Calculation of NDBI (normalized difference build-up index)
Anh Kim Nguyen came up with research idea through discussion
NDBI is one of several widely used indices to strengthen building
with Yuei-An Liou. She conducted data collection, data processing,
information and extract the built-up land from urban areas. NDBI
and initial result analysis. Anh Kim Nguyen, Yuei-An Liou, and
is calculated using Eq. (1-a) (Zha et al., 2003):
Ming-Hsu Li wrote the paper. Tuan Anh Tran collected field photos
to validate the results. Yuei-An Liou finalized the paper. NDBI = (SWIR2 − NIR)/(SWIR2 + NIR) (1-a)
110 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

Fig. A1. (a) Precipitation (mm); (b) NDMI, (c) LST(C degree); (d) distances from hydrological network; (e) NDWI.

Fig. A2. (a) Distances from road network (m); (b) distances from market areas (m); (c) distances from residential areas (m); (d) NDBI (normalized difference built-up index).
(For interpretation of the references to color in the text, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117 111

Fig. A3. (a) Soil fertility; (b) land cover/land use; (c) three-type forest map; (d) NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). (For interpretation of the references to color
in the text, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. A4. (a) DEM; (b) slope angle; (c) slope aspects.
112 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

60000 Positive values of NDBI symbolize lands with buildings, and neg-
50000 ative values represent other landscape elements. NDBI is a useful
index in mapping human settlements and surrounding construc-
40000
Areas (Ha)

tions.
30000

20000 A.1.2. Calculation of NDMI (normalized difference moisture

index)
10000
NDMI evaluates the different contents of humidity from land-
0 scape elements, especially for soils, rocks, and vegetation. NDMI is
0-3 3-8 8-13 13-18 18-22 22-27 27-34 34-61
calculated using Eq. (2-b) (Jin and Sader, 2005):
Slope (degree)
MDMI = (NIR − IR)/(NIR + IR) (2-b)
Eco-environmental vulnerability Potential Slight Light Medial Heavy Very heavy
When NDMI’s values are higher than 0.1, it represents high
Fig. A5. Eco-vulnerability levels based on Slope categories in the Thua Thien – Hue humidity level. When its values are close to −1, it represents low
Province.
humidity level.
70000
A.1.3. Calculation of NDWI (normalized difference water index)
60000
NDWI is also called leaf area water-absent index, which implied
50000 the water content within vegetation. This study showed that the
NDWI was in direct proportion to the water content of vegetation.
Areas (Ha)

40000
The index is derived from the reflectance properties of green vege-
30000
tation, dry areas (lack of vegetation), and soils by using two near-IR
20000 bands. NDWI is calculated using Eq. (3-c) (Gao, 1996; Jackson et al.,
10000
2004):

0 NDWI = (NIR − G)/(NIR + G) (3-c)

0-80 80-200 200-350 350-500 500-690 690-890 890-1160 1160-1795
When NDWI’s values are close to −1, +1, and 0, it represents
Terrain elevation (m)
water bodies, dry land, and lands with intermediate humidity,
Eco-environmental vulnerability Potential Slight Light Medial Heavy Very heavy respectively.
Fig. A6. Eco-vulnerability levels based on terrain elevation categories in the Thua
Thien – Hue Province. A.1.4. Calculation of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation
index)
35000 NDVI is one of the most commonly applied vegetation indices
30000 to identify the vegetation information, and it is calculated by Eq.
25000
(4-d) (Purevdorj et al., 1998):
Areas (Ha)

20000 NDVI = (NIR − RED)/(NIR + RED) (4-d)

15000 The range of NDVI’s values is between −1 and +1, corresponding
10000 to bare land and vegetated areas, respectively. When NDVI’s values
5000 are close to 0, it represents grass lands.
0
A.1.5. Calculation of land surface temperature (LST)
To calculate LST, TIRS band data can be converted from spectral
radiance to brightness temperature using the thermal constants K1
Land cover classes
equaling 774.89 and K2 equaling 1321.08 for band 10, and K1 equal-
Eco-environmental vulnerability Potential Slight Light Median Heavy Very heavy
ing 480.89 and K2 equaling 1201.14 for band 11. These data were
Fig. A7. Eco-vulnerability levels based on land cover/land use types categories in provided in the metadata file by USGS. Brightness temperature is
the Thua Thien – Hue Province. calculated by Eq. (5-e) (Chander et al., 2009):
K2
50000 TKelvin =   (5-e)
45000 ln (K1 /TOAr ) + 1
40000
Second, land surface emissivity is calculated using Eq. (6-f)
35000
(Valor and Caselles, 1996):
Area (Ha)

30000
25000 LSE = εs (1 − Pv ) + εv Pv + dε (6-f)
20000 where εs and εv are soil and vegetation emissivity values of the
15000 corresponding bands, respectively. For band 10, εs is 0.971 and εv
10000 is 0.987; and, for band 11, εs is 0.977 and εv is 0.989. Pv is green
5000 vegetation fraction and calculated for every pixel by Eq. (7-g) (Valor
0 and Caselles, 1996; Sobrino et al., 2004):
2288-2520 2520-2773 2773-2954 2954-3084 3084-3225 3225-3337 3337-3445 3445-3727
Precipitation (mm)
 NDVI − NDVI 2
min
Pv = (7-g)
Eco-environmental vulnerability Potential Slight Light Median Heavy Very heavy NDVImax − NDVImin
where NDVImax = 0.85, NDVImin = −1, and
Fig. A8. Eco-vulnerability levels based on precipitation categories in the Thua Thien
– Hue Province. dε = 4(dε)Pv (1 − Pv ) (8-h)
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117
where dε = 0.04 and dε is the averaged weight corresponding to the
reflectance of different land surface.
Thirdly, brightness temperature is converted to LST using Eq.
(9-i) (Artis and Carnahan, 1982):
TKelvin
LSTKelvin = (9-i)
1 + ( ∗ TKelvin /14380) ∗ ln(ε)
where  = 10.8 for band 10 and  = 12 for band 11, ε and b are the
emissivity raster and the brightness temperature raster, respec-
tively. Finally, Kevin degree is converted to Celsius degree by
subtracting 273.15 from LSTKelvin .
A.2. Hydro-meteorology (B1 )
A.2.1. Normalized difference moisture index (NDMI) (C1 )
The values of NDMI vary from −0.66 to 1, which are visualized
in light to dark blue color. The light blue symbolizes low humid-
ity, which refers to dry areas, and the dark blue color illustrates
high humidity areas. NDMI evaluates different contents of humidity
from the landscape elements, especially for soils, rocks, and vege-
tation. Hence, it is important for eco-environmental system. The
range of NDMI values was classified into 5 classes.
A.2.2. Normalized difference water index (NDWI) (C2 )
NDWI displays the differences in turbidity and vegetal content of
the water, erratic soil, in particular, in measuring the water content
of the vegetation. In this case, the values of NDWI vary from −1 to
0.75, which represent water bodies and dry land, respectively. The
values of NDWI were classified into five classes and weighted by
AHP.
A.2.3. Land surface temperature (LST) (C3 )
LST is an important variable for the eco-environmental vulnera-
bility assessment, especially in the context of global climate change.
As the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase, the LST will
also increase. As a result, there is an increase in the melting of
glaciers and ice sheets, and this affects the vegetation of that area.
Its impacts are more important in the monsoon areas because the
rainfall is unpredictable. Increase in LST also affects the climatic
condition and the vegetation of the entire Earth surface may be
affected by this. In the Thua Thien – Hue Province, LST varies from
7.9 to 48.4 ◦ C, which were classified into eight classes.
A.2.4. Precipitation (C4 )
Precipitation is a vital variable for eco-environmental vulner-
ability assessment because it represents the climate conditions of
the region. To evaluate this variable, the precipitation map is gener-
ated from station measurements by implementing invest distance
weight (IDW) interpolation method (Tung, 1983; Watson, 1992).
The precipitation values were classified into eight classes.
A.2.5. Distances from hydrological network (C5 )
The higher vulnerability levels should be located in the areas
with lack of surface water. Moreover, desertification, landfill site,
and forest fire are phenomena that frequently occur in the dry areas.
To evaluate this variable, buffer zones were calculated using the
Euclidean distance tool in ArcGIS 10.2, and then classified into 8
classes.
A.3. Society-economics (B2 )
A.3.1. Distances from market areas (C6 )
The distance from market areas should be considered in the eco-
environmental assessment because it is among the variables that
directly affect human activities. The areas located closer to the mar-
ket areas should be deemed more vulnerable because of more trash
113
and pollution produced from the markets. To evaluate this variable,
buffer zones were calculated using the Euclidean distance tool in
ArcGIS 10.2, and then classified into eight classes.
A.3.2. Distances from road (C7 )
The proximity to roads must be taken into consideration for
eco-environmental vulnerability assessment because pollution like
fossil fuel exhaust from traffic congestion may be generated on the
roads. To evaluate this variable, buffer zones were calculated using
the spatial analysis tool in ArcGIS 10.2, and then classified into eight
classes. According to expert experiences, the vulnerability areas
should be situated near the roads. Hence, closer distances to the
road network were given higher grades
A.3.3. Distances from residential areas (C8 )
This variable shows the anthropogenic development and trend
of urbanization. In general, residential areas may create various
kinds of pollution, such as disposal of household waste, fossil fuel
exhaust from motor vehicles. To evaluate this variable, buffer zones
of residential areas were generated, then classified into 8 classes,
and converted into a grid map with 100 m × 100 m cell sizes with
each class weighted by AHP as shown in Table 2.
A.3.4. Normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) (C9 )
This variable is useful for identification of human settlements
and some elements of surrounding construction. In Fig. A2(d), light
gray and violet color represent (positive values) tilled land and
building areas, and green color (negative values) represents for-
est. NDBI values vary depending on the spectral signature from
middle infra-red and near infra-red bands. In this case NDBI values
fluctuated from −1 to 0.72, which were classified into five classes.
A.4. Land resource (B3 )
A.4.1. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (C10 )
NDVI is commonly used to evaluate vegetation health status,
vegetation density, and land use. The NDVI varies according to the
radiation absorption by the chlorophyll in the red spectral area and
its reflectance in the near infrared spectrum. NDVI values in the
study area are between −1 and 0.85. The values were classified
into five classes of increasing vegetation density. The ones close
to −1 (green light color, Fig. A3(d)) represent land lack of vegeta-
tion cover, having visible soil or rock surface. The ones close to 0.85
(green dark color) represent a higher density of vegetation specifi-
cally associated with dense broadleaf forest, while medium values
are associated with grasslands.
A.4.2. Land use/land cover (C11 )
Land use/land cover is important information showing how
human activities alter the natural land. There are 14 types of land
cover/land use with each type weighted by AHP. Vulnerable levels,
such as plantation, agriculture, and residential land have higher
AHP weights, and the scheme for the grading criterion is shown in
Table A2.
A.4.3. Forest map (C12 )
A forest map represents the division of purposes of forest use,
which is significant to support the eco-environmental vulnerability
assessment because it provides the boundary of forest use. In this
study, a forest map with four classes including special-use forest,
protection forest, production forest, and none forest land provided
by the Forestry Department of the Thua Thien – Hue Province was
used. Highest AHP weight was assigned for non-forest land.
114 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

Table A2
The pair wise comparison matrix, class weights, and consistency ratio (CR).

Hydro-meteorology (B1 )

NDMI (C1 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Weight

(1) −0.65 to 0.1 1 0.502

(2) 0.1–0.3 1/3 1 0.254
(3) 0.3–0.6 1/5 1/3 1 0.119
(4) 0.6–0.8 1/6 1/4 1/2 1 0.076
(5) 0.8–1.0 1/7 1/5 1/3 0.5 1 0.049
CR = 0.031, NDMI = normalized difference moisture index

IDWI (C2 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Weight

(1) 0.5–0.75 1 0.502

(2) 0.35–0.5 1/3 1 0.254
(3) 0.2–0.35 1/5 1/3 1 0.119
(4) 0–0.2 1/6 1/4 1/2 1 0.076
(5) −1 to 0 1/7 1/5 1/3 0.5 1 0.049
CR = 0.031, NDWI = normalized difference water index

LST (C3 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 8–13 1 0.023

(2) 13–18 2 1 0.032
(3) 18–23 3 2 1 0.047
(4) 23–28 4 3 2 1 0.069
(5) 28–33 5 4 3 2 1 0.101
(6) 33–38 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.145
(7) 38–43 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.206
(8) 43–48 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1 0.377
CR = 0.035; LST = land surface temperature (◦ C)

Precipitation (mm) (C4 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 2288–2520 1 0.023

(2) 2520–2773 2 1 0.032
(3) 2773–2954 3 2 1 0.047
(4) 2954–3084 4 3 2 1 0.069
(5) 3084–3225 5 4 3 2 1 0.101
(6) 3225–3337 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.145
(7) 3337–3445 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.206
(8) 3445–3727 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1 0.377
CR = 0.035

Distance from hydrological network (m) (C5 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) <600 1 0.023

(2) 600–2000 2 1 0.032
(3) 2000–3500 3 2 1 0.047
(4) 3500–5000 4 3 2 1 0.069
(5) 5000–7500 5 4 3 2 1 0.101
(6) 7500–10,000 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.145
(7) 10,000–14,000 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.206
(8) 14,000–199,000 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1 0.377
CR = 0.035

Social-economics (B2 )

Distance from road network (m) (C6 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 0–2000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 0.377

(2) 2000–3000 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 0.206
(3) 3000–5000 1 2 3 4 5 7 0.145
(4) 5000–7000 1 2 3 4 6 0.101
(5) 7000–10000 1 2 3 5 0.069
(6) 1000–13000 1 2 4 0.047
(7) 13000–16000 1 3 0.032
(8) 16000–18000 1 0.023
CR = 0.035

Distance from market areas (m) (C7 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 0–4000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 0.377

(2) 4000–8000 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 0.206
(3) 8000–12000 1 2 3 4 5 7 0.145
(4) 12000–16000 1 2 3 4 6 0.101
(5) 16000–20000 1 2 3 5 0.069
(6) 20000–24000 1 2 4 0.047
(7) 24000–28000 1 3 0.032
(8) 28000–32000 1 0.023
CR = 0.035
 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117 115

Table A2 (Continued )

Distance from residential areas (m) (C8 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 0–2000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 0.377

(2) 2000–4000 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 0.206
(3) 4000–6000 1 2 3 4 5 7 0.145
(4) 6000–80000 1 2 3 4 6 0.101
(5) 8000–10000 1 2 3 5 0.069
(6) 10000–12000 1 2 4 0.047
(7) 12000–15000 1 3 0.032
(8) 15000–18500 1 0.023
CR = 0.035

NDBI (C9 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Weight

(1) 0.3–0.72 1 0.502

(2) 0–0.3 1/3 1 0.254
(3) 0.3–0 1/5 1/3 1 0.119
(4) −0.6 to (−0.3) 1/6 1/4 1/2 1 0.076
(5) −1 to (−0.6) 1/7 1/5 1/3 0.5 1 0.049
CR = 0.031; NDBI = normalized difference built-up index

Land resource (B3 )

NDVI (C10 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Weight

(1) −1 to 0 1 0.502
(2) 0–0.2 1/3 1 0.254
(3) 0.2–0.4 1/5 1/3 1 0.119
(4) 0.4–0.6 1/6 1/4 1/2 1 0.076
(5) 0.6–0.85 1/7 1/5 1/3 0.5 1 0.049
CR = 0.031; NDVI = normalized difference vegetation index

Land use/land cover (C11 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) Weight

(1) Rich forest 1 0.019

(2) Medium forest 2 1 0.022
(3) Poor forest 2 2 1 0.031
(4) Recover forest 3 3 2 1 0.038
(5) Plantation forest 3 4 3 2 1 0.050
(6) Rock none forest 3 4 3 3 2 1 0.105
(7) Bare land, grassland, shrub 6 5 4 3 3 2 1 0.118
(8) Industrial tree 3 4 3 3 2 1/3 1/3 1 0.054
(9) Mixed, yearly tree, paddy rice 4 4 3 2 2 1/3 1/3 2 1 0.059
(10) Milpa 4 5 3 3 3 1/4 1/2 2 2 1 0.085
(11) Residential land 8 7 6 6 4 3 3 4 4 3 1 0.198
(12) Special used Land 5 5 4 4 4 2 2 3 3 2 1/2 1 0.136
(13) Water body 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/6 1/8 1/4 1/4 1/6 1/9 1/7 1 0.013
(14) Agriculture 5 3 3 3 2 1/2 1/2 3 2 1/2 1/8 1/2 5 1 0.073
CR = 0.05

Three-type forest (C12 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) Weight

(1) None forest land 1 0.576

(2) Protection forest 1/4 1 0.239
(3) Production forest 1/5 1/3 1 0.132
(4) Special-use forest 1/7 1/5 1/4 1 0.053
CR = 0.092

Soil fertility (C13 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Weight

(1) Very low fertility 1 0.502

(2) Low fertility 1/3 1 0.254
(3) Medium fertility 1/5 1/3 1 0.119
(4) High fertility 1/6 1/4 1/2 1 0.076
(5) Very high fertility 1/7 1/5 1/3 0.5 1 0.049
CR = 0.031

Topography (B4 )

Elevation (m) (C14 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 0–80 1 0.023

(2) 80–200 2 1 0.032
(3) 200–350 3 2 1 0.047
(4) 350–500 4 3 2 1 0.069
(5) 500–690 5 4 3 2 1 0.101
(6) 690–890 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.145
(7) 890–1160 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.206
1160–1795 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1 0.377
CR = 0.035
116 A.K. Nguyen et al. / Ecological Indicators 69 (2016) 100–117

Table A2 (Continued )

Slope angle (◦ ) (C15 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Weight

(1) 0–3 1 0.023

(2) 3–8 2 1 0.032
(3) 8–13 3 2 1 0.047
(4) 13–18 4 3 2 1 0.069
(5) 18–22 5 4 3 2 1 0.101
(6) 22–27 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.145
(7) 27–34 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.206
(3) 34–61 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1 0.377
CR = 0.035

Slope aspect (C16 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Weight

(1) Flat (−1) 1 0.030

(2) North (0–22.5, 337.5–360) 3 1 0.070
(3) Northeast (22.5–67.5) 5 3 1 0.190
(4) East (67.5–112.5) 3 1 1/3 1 0.071
(5) Southeast (112.5–157.5) 3 1 1/3 1 1 0.071
(6) South (157.5–202.5) 3 1 1/3 1 1 1 0.071
(7) Southwest (202.5–247.5) 7 5 3 5 5 5 1 0.345
(8) West (247.5–292.5) 3 1 1/3 1 1 1 1/5 1 0.071
(9) Northwest (292.5–337.5) 3 1 1/3 1 1 1 1/5 1 1 0.071
CR = 0.008

A.4.4. Soil fertility (C13 )
Soil fertility is vital because soil conditions play a significant
role in deciding vegetation health. The soil fertility map was clas-
sified into five classes consisting of very low, low, medium, high,
and very high. Typically, low fertility results in higher vulnerability
potentials and vice versa.
A.5. Topography (B4 )
A.5.1. DEM (C14 )
DEM with a resolution of 20 m was utilized in our study. It
was converted to 100 m × 100 m cell sizes, and classified into eight
classes.
A.5.2. Slope angle (C15 )
Slope angle is a basic factor for eco-environmental vulnerability
assessment because it impacts on climate conditions of the region.
Slope angle was created from DEM, and its values vary from 0◦ to
61◦ , which were classified into eight classes.
A.5.3. Slope aspect (C16 )
Slope aspect is also taken into account because it plays a signif-
icant role in regional climate conditions and dominates the flash
flood and landslide in the Thua Thien – Hue Province. To evaluate
wind direction, slope aspect was generated from DEM, converted
into a grid map with 100 m × 100 m cell sizes, and classified into
nine classes, and weighted by AHP as given in Table A2.
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