2012 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 77-85
This study aimed to propose a simple and practical method for land-cover mapping by multi-temporal Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images in combination with systematically sampled ground truth data. The land-cover mapping was attempted and evaluated in two study areas located in northern and southwestern Japan, using two-seasonal and three-seasonal images. The results of this study indicated that the accuracy of land-cover map can be improved by addition of autumn image to two-seasonal images of spring and summer images. The user's accuracy was greatly improved in the land-cover which shows clear seasonal changes of spectral characteristics such as deciduous forests. The final land-cover maps of entire study areas were created using two-seasonal images and three-seasonal images (the overall accuracy and overall Kappa coefficient were 81.4% and 0.746 for Study Area 1, and 87.6% and 0.779 for Study Area 2, respectively). In recent years, access to ETM+ images of many different seasons is becoming easier. This study indicated that the approach using multi-temporal ETM+ images from many different seasons would be one of the possible choices in order to create nationwide land-cover map with higher accuracy.
