Using Knowledge Granularity Entropy to Measure Eco-Environmental Impacts of Land Cover Changes in ASEAN from 2001 to 2020

The eco-environment is the basis for the political, economic and social development of any nation or group of nations, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). There is an inseparable association between land cover change (LCC) and eco-environmental change. The effects of the regional eco-environment are seen in the spatial and temporal variations in the eco-environment of different land cover types (LCTs). The Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI), which is based on information granulation and spatial information granules, is used in this study to characterize the ecosystem. This issue is solved by breaking down the intricate ecosystem structure into straightforward spatially granular computational units; this approach greatly reduces the complexity of spatial data computation. The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) A model based on the concept of “granularity entropy” of the RSEI values of the different LCTs has been proposed by condensing and combining the spatial information granules. This model seeks to evaluate the stability or change of the eco-environment over time. (2) The main LCC factors for the decline in eco-environmental quality in ASEAN from 2001 to 2020 are the interval changes in eco-environmental indicator values caused by the decrease in forest area and the increase in grassland area; climate alteration is also a significant contributor to changes in regional eco-environmental quality.