Abstract

The Red River Delta (RRD) is an important economic, political, cultural and social region with the highest population density in Vietnam. In recent years, the rapid urbanization process has signif-icantly changed the land use/land cover model (LULC) of the region, in which agricultural land is the most strongly affected by urbanization. Analysis of these changes will help us better understand the impact of urbanization on farmland as well as the interaction between the government policy and farmers’ economic interests. This study aims to assess urban and agricultural land changes in the RRD in the periods of 1995, 2005 and 2015 by using Urban Land Index (UI), Urban Expansion Index (UX) and Landscape Expansion Index (LEI) based on the use of ESA Climate Change Initiative Landcover data (300 m resolution). The research results show significant changes in agri-cultural land due to urbanization process; agricultural land around the cities was converted into urban and bare land during 1995-2015. In areas adjacent to construction site and cities center, urban-ization is increasing rapidly and agricultural land decreases strongly; meanwhile in areas which are far from construction site and city centers, lands have been rapidly fragmented and drastically changed. The research results will provide the basis for the Government to make reasonable policies to minimize the negative impacts of urbanization and industrialization on the agricultural land fund.