Abstract
Results are promising of an experiment to map land use in an urban area by automatic digital processing of ERTS-1 data. Computer-maps of a large segment of the San Francisco-Oakland and San Jose Urbanized Areas have been produced at a scale of 1:24,000 using a segment of an ERTS-l frame reformatted to correct skewness and scale. An area of some 6,500 square kilometers was also mapped at 1:48,000 (a one-fourth sample). For both scales, urban areas were separated from rural -- using a photo interpretation procedure -- to solve problems of the spectral similarity of functionally different land uses and land covers.
Classification was achieved by grouping twenty eight spectral classes into eleven functional classes. Reliability was checked by comparing computer results to contemporaneous high-altitude color air photographs on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Performance results are high considering the grossness of the data and the complexity of the urban landscape.
Date of this Version
10-1973