Land Use and Land Cover Mapping and Monitoring with Radar Remote Sensing

Remote sensing technology has been employed extensively in LULC investigation because of its capability to observe land surface consistently and repetitively and its advantages of cost and time savings for large areas. A LULC classification scheme has been developed for use with remote sensing data (Anderson et al., 1976). The main characteristics of this scheme are its emphasis on resources rather than people and its capability to provide different levels of classification according to the scale and spatial resolution of the images. The development of such a classification scheme has facilitated the mapping, modeling, and measurement of many LULC applications. The scheme includes four classification levels in accordance with the image scale (Table 22.1). However, the general relationship between the classification level and the data source is not intended to restrict uses to particular scales, either in the original data source or in the final map product. For example, Level I LULC information could be not only gathered by a LANDSAT type of satellite or high-altitude imagery, but also interpreted from conventional large-scale aircraft imagery or compiled by ground survey. Similarly, several Level II and III categories have been interpreted from LANDSAT data. The classification scheme for the first and second levels have been presented by Anderson et al. (1976) (Table 22.2). Levels beyond these two must be designed by users according to their needs.