## 3 Results
### Class-Based LULC Classification  
A class-based LULC classification was conducted to identify a more discrete evolution of the land use within the study period. This identification will help prioritize the location of areas that require ecological attention, the inclusion of best management practices (BMP) for water and soil conservation as well as a more appropriate location of the upcoming urbanization due to the Interoceanic Corridor project execution. At this level, we identified that pixels representing the sea did not change significantly. This behavior can be observed in Figure 8 and Table 9, in which the percentage area representing the sea is about 20.1% for the entire period. However, water courses and water bodies seemed to change over time. Although these changes might not be significant, these changes can be confusing. We observed in Figure 6 that the annual precipitation throughout the study period decreased. As a result, bare soil area increased due to lack of water. One could assume that water bodies and water courses cannot increase in area. Nonetheless, this claim might not be entirely true, as increments of bare soil decrease infiltration and enhance the overland flow of the areas draining to the closest water courses. For that reason, water courses and water bodies in western areas increased due to increment of overland runoff in areas classified into bare soil with different vegetation densities (i.e., bare surfaces, sparse vegetation or grassland) and some over-flooded wetlands (i.e., swamps). Man-made construction was divided into industry, residential, commercial and roads classes. Industry shows a constant percentage from 2016 to 2021. The only change occurred in 2015. The industrial area called Etileno XXI, the largest petrochemical complex in Latin America, concluded 99.2% of its construction in 2015 [75]. This, once again, confirms the accuracy of the generated map. Residence land use increased from 11.85% in 2015 to 12.24% in 2019 and maintained a steady value in 2021 (Table 9). This, once again, matches the period of violence described above that eventually provoked a decrease in population, as seen in Figure 5, which means that residence land use remained as it was in the previous years. Commercial areas showed fluctuations due to the city's economical variation. It can be observed that, in 2018, commercial areas reached their maximum of 0.55%. However, the value decreased at the end of the study period (0.43%). A small increment was observed in 2021, when commercial areas increased to 0.50%. The city experienced transitions from high commercial zones to abandoned places due to the socio-economical problems previously described. These areas transformed either to low density vegetation areas or abandoned buildings. Lastly, in this class, roads were the most difficult to identify due to the Landsat satellite image resolution equaling 30 m. Roads close to the coast line and main avenues crossing from north to south and west to east were detected easily. However, narrow streets were not characterized as roads and they were either characterized as residence, commercial or industry classes. For that reason, although roads showed increments due to increase in population and urbanization development, no claim is expressed in order to avoid confusion in this class. Vegetation plays an important role in our natural ecosystem and also holds up the biosphere in various ways. Vegetation helps to regulate the flow of numerous biogeochemical cycles, most importantly those of nitrogen, carbon and water. It also contributes to the local and global energy balances. In this study, the classes within vegetation included mixed forest, shrubland, wetland and dune. Figure 8 shows that mixed forest is the largest extension of the study area. One can see that the eastern and southwestern areas are dominated by this class, especially for those areas where no urbanization is present.