Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to develop a practical method for detecting land cover changes in a prefectural scale area by comparing sattelite image with a land use map. First, LANDSAT TM image was compressed into three bands with principle component analysis and then classified into land cover categories coresponding to a geographic map by a supervised level slicing method. The classified image was compared with a geographic map of the area in order to detect the change during about twenty years. The results were validated by the use of ground survey data with GPS information. Furthermore, a bird-eye view image of the classification was produced to enhance the results for administrative application.
