**4. Conclusions**

This study used remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess land use and land cover (LULC) and its dynamics of change with identify the potential risk areas of soil erosion in the Khlong Kui watershed in 1991, 2005 and 2014. The Khlong Kui watershed was selected as the study area because this watershed has been experiencing deforestation and soil degradation due to the development of agricultural lands and urban areas. Moreover, the topography of the watershed, which includes mountains, hills and slopping lands, makes the Khlong Kui watershed an interesting region to examine potential risk areas of soil erosion. The key findings of the research are as follows:

#### **4.1. Image classification and analysis**

The major LULC of the Khlong Kui watershed are forests and agricultural lands. The study monitored an increase in orchards, croplands, evergreen forests, rice field and urban areas while a decrease in deciduous forests and wetlands in the watershed in 1991, 2005 and 2014. The overall accuracy assessment of the image classification was satisfactory in all three different years of satellite data acquisition.

#### **4.2. LULC changes and dynamics**

Deciduous forest, evergreen forest and orchards types were major drivers of land use and land cover changes. An increase of range land, croplands and evergreen forests were mainly derived from deciduous forests. The development of range land, barren land and crop land was related to an increase in infrastructure of the Khlong Kui watershed. There is a high probability of change from deciduous forests, wetlands and orchards to rice fields and croplands in 2014.

#### **4.3. Potential risk areas of soil erosion**

High-risk areas of soil erosion were primarily located in the northern and eastern regions of the watershed which are also with mountain ranges and hilly areas. High rainfall in high mountain area generated more areas of very high risk at 0.63% of the watershed. The change from forests to agricultural lands in the northwestern and northeastern regions of the watershed led to higher risk areas of soil erosion in the last 9 years.

#### **4.4. Recommendation for further research**

Due to limitation of research, financial budget and time, land use change and soil erosion model have lacked sample questionnaire for validation process. It is recommended for further research works that develop an additional surveying method to improve the soil erosion model to archive more accurate and creditable result.
