Urban land-use mapping by machine processing of ERTS-1 multispectral data - A San Francisco Bay Area example

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-1 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.