Cost effective and comparable monitoring components : an interdisciplinary approach based on remote sensing landscape structure assessment and social research for Bach Ma National Park Vietnam Monitoring Vietnam Landschaftsstruktur Empirische Sozialforschung Nationalpark Großschutzgebiet Landsat Landschaftsmonitoring Landschaftsstrukturanalyse Bach Ma Nationalpark interdisziplinär RapidEye Landscape Monitoring Landscape Metrics Social Research Remote Sensing Protected Area Management All embracing human activities have transformed one third to one half of the Earths land surface. There is a strong correlation of human well being with ecosystem function including poverty alleviation programs as well as enhancements of the health sector. To assess and evaluate the progress and outcome of initiatives stringent periodic observation is necessary. The presented approach combines the strengths of remote sensing and GIS analysis with social research applications. The Bach Ma National Park as an area under investigation was designated as protected area in 1991 and extended in 2008. The national park is uninhabited but in the surrounding buffer zones approximately 62000 to 79000 people live in rural areas and in mostly impoverished conditions. The comprehensive nature conservation efforts of the Vietnamese Government during the last two decades has led to growing forest coverage of both plantation and natural forests. Nevertheless the decreasing biodiversity and ongoing illegal logging and hunting activities in the national park are seen as major threats to conservation initiatives in the future. The remote sensing component consists of an analysis of a time series of Landsat images with seven steps ranging from 1973 to 2010. The resulting land cover analysis had 13 different classes. The accuracy assessment revealed an overall accuracy ranging from 84 to 90%. The basis for the second monitoring component was the Landsat images. A total of 25 different ...