Regional Land Cover and Agricultural Area Statistics and Mapping in the Ardeche Department (France) by Use of Thematic Mapper Data

JRC'S PRESENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES ON REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS ARE DIRECTED TO EVALUATE THE RESPECTIVE SUITABILITY OF THEMATIC MAPPER AND SPOT DATA. STUDY AREA IS THE ARDECHE DEPARTMENT. IT COVERS CA. 560,000 HA OF EXTREMELY DIFFERENT LANDSCAPE TYPES WITHIN THE TRANSITION ZONE FROM CENTRAL EUROPEAN TO SUBMEDITERRANEAN REGIONS. DUE TO ITS CLIMATIC, MORPHOLOGIC AND AGRO-ECONOMIC HETEROGENEITY A SUBDIVISION INTO SUBREGIONS, WAS CONSIDERED INDISPENSABLE. THE SPATIAL ZONING WAS BASED ON MAP EVALUATION, GROUND EXAMINATIONS, METEORO- LOGICAL DATA AND A VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF THEMATIC MAPPER IMAGERY. EACH OF THE RESULTING AGRO-PHYSICAL UNITS WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ANALYZED BY MEANS OF AUTO- MATIC CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES. THE MAIN AGRICULTURAL REGIONS (E-ARDECHE), WHICH IN 1984 HAVE BEEN COVERED BY FOUR TM SCENES BETWEEN APRIL AND AUGUST, WERE ANALYZED MULTI-TEMPORALLY WHEREAS LAND COVER IN THE MOUNTAINOUS AND FORESTED PART OF THE DEPARTMENT (W-ARDECHE) WAS MAPPED WITH REFERENCE TO THE ONLY AVAILABLE TM DATASET FROM EARLY JULY. BASED ON THE CLASSIFICATION RESULTS COVER STATISTICS WERE CALCULATED FOR EIGHT COMPREHENSIVE CLASSES. CONCLUSIONS ARE DISCUSSED WITH RESPECT TO SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF THE TEST REGION

MEGIER Jacques;  HILL Joachim; 

1995-03-15

European Space Agency

JRC4977

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC4977,