Abstract
While the bamboo stands near residential areas have become less useful due to the lack of demand, they have survived on hillsides and spread into mountains without human cares over the past several decades.
The purpose of this study is to estimate through satellite remote sensing where bamboo stands have been distributed. As bamboo stands grow quickly in spring and summer, the Landsat 5-TM data which had been observed on April 19, 1991, May 31, 1989, June 5, 1985 and August 4, 1995, were employed for their analyses. By using the decision tree classifier method, bamboo was separated from other vegetations. In consequence, we found that TM data observed on May 31, 1989 was most useful to extract the distribution of bamboo stands. And we clarified the most distinctive threshold for the bamboo classification by applying four indices (NDVI, B54, B65 and Band4) . As a result, it was found that bamboo stands with more than 5 pixels could be extracted with high accuracy in the case of Nishigyo-ku, Kyoto city.
