Abstract
In this study, land use maps of Don Daeng village, one of the traditional villages in Northeast Thailand, were prepared by integrating long-term field surveys' data and information into the GIS database. The land use maps were prepared for four different periods: 1930s, 1960s, before 1980s, and 2005. The study showed that the total paddy field areas in the periods, 1930s, 1960s, before 1980s, and 2005 were 307ha. 5 l3ha, 543ha and 554ha, respectively. Paddy fi elds have expanded 1.8 times since 1930s. On the other hand, during these 70 years, almost all the forests have been cleared due to the reclamation of paddy fields. However, after 1980s, some of the paddy fields had been changed into meadows and fish farms in order to breed cattles and fishes, while other paddy fields remained expanding by reclaiming forests, vegetable farms and meadows. In addition, the study also suggested that the paddy fields have been spatially expanding towards the uphill (high-land) of the “Nong”, a concavity landform, and this local landform has been strongly influencing the expanding process of the paddy fields in the study site.
