Impacts of Coastal Land Use Changes on Mangrove Wetlands at Sungai Mangsalut Basin in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

The chapter evaluates the rapid changes of coastal landscape and expansion and asymmetrical land use or cover changes in Sungai Mangsalut basin area in the coastal region in Brunei Darussalam. It is revealed that the coastal land use changing pattern of Sungai Mangsalut basin area is rapidly expanding due to natural environmental calamities, increasing population pressure and economic development and consequently led to the conversion of water bodies, cultivated lands, natural forest vegetation or open spaces in buildup areas. The exploitation of settlement and urbanization size through inhabiting the river mouth and low lying areas and clearing of coastal mangrove and coastal salt marches of vegetation without a corresponding expansion to infrastructures resulted in a wide range of environmental issues and risks such as severe pollutions, significant decrease of water bodies along with greenery and uncontrollable growth of settlement. In other words, these issues existed because the authority is unable to cope with the swift changing situations due to their internal resource constrains and management limitation. Hence, for that reason, this paper also highlights the consequences of the coastal wetland and basin landscapes changes in Sungai Mangsalut basin area in the coastal region in Brunei. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the coastal environmental impacts of the area surrounding Sungai Mangsalut (Mangsalut River). Also to identify the factors influence the degradation of the Sungai Mangsalut in the present time.