Impact of civil war on the land cover in Myanmar

Abstract

Exploring the response relationship between civil war, population and land cover change is of great practical significance for social stability in Myanmar. However, the ongoing civil war in Myanmar hinders direct understanding of the situation on the ground, which in turn limits detailed study of the intricate relationship between the dynamics of the civil war and its impact on population and land. Therefore, this paper explores the response relationship between civil war conflict and population and land cover change in Myanmar from 2010 to 2020 from the perspective of remote sensing using the land cover data we produced, the open spatial demographics data, and the armed conflict location and event data project. The results of this study show that: (1) Myanmar has regional variations in land cover types and land cover types have changed significantly. (2) Land cover change types varies considerably, but the main land cover change type is from other types to forest, grassland and shrubland. (3) Myanmar has a significant increase in the number of civil war conflicts from 2010 to 2020 and a significant correlation between civil war conflicts and forests, shrublands and permanent snow and ice. (4) The number of people in areas with high civil war conflicts decreases. (5) Population counts has correlation with cultivated land, forests, water bodies and artificial surfaces.