Landuse mapping with ERS SAR interferometry

Abstract

Two landuse maps and a forest map of three different areas in Europe were completed with ERS SAR interferometry. The test sites represent various geomorphological regions with different cover types. In this article, the mapping algorithms are presented, the results are summarized, and the potential and limitations of ERS SAR interferometry for landuse mapping are discussed. Overall, the results suggest that landuse classification accuracies on the order of 75% are possible with, in the best case, simultaneous forest and nonforest accuracies of around 80-85%. The presence of topography reduces the performance.