Application of the Worldwide Bioclimatic Classification System to determine bioclimatic features and potential natural vegetation distribution in Van Chan district, Vietnam

Bioclimatic classification is an effective approach to reflect and investigate the role of climate in determining the potential natural vegetation distribution at different temporal and spatial scales. Especially, the diversity of physical features in tropical mountainous regions causes the complexity of phytogeographical belts at large scales. A set of parameters and indices of the Worldwide Bioclimatic Classification System (WBCS) was used to generate a bioclimatic map at a scale of 1:100,000 of the territory of Van Chan district, Vietnam. In this study, due to the lack of observed data, GIS analysis of precipitation and temperature data was conducted by using a simple downscaling method for “WorldClim” resource (1 km spatial resolution) and statistical data of two meteorological stations in 1961–2013 was used for bioclimatic map validation. The resulting map presents 11 isobioclimatic units, which are advantageous for confirming the diagnosis of the bioclimatic features and describing the relationships between climatic variables and the corresponding distributions of natural vegetation. This approach is useful to explain the territorial diversity in environmental applications for the assessment of ecological adaptation, nature conservation, landscape regionalization, and planning.