The Utilization of Google Earth Images as Reference Data for The Multitemporal Land Cover Classification with MODIS Data of North Korea

One of the major obstacles to classify and validate Land Cover maps is the high cost of acquiring reference data. In case of inaccessible areas such as North Korea, the high resolution satellite imagery may be used for reference data. The objective of this paper is to investigate the possibility of utilizing QuickBird high resolution imagery of North Korea that can be obtained from Google Earth data via internet for reference data of land cover classification. Monthly MODIS NDVI data of nine months from the summer of 2004 were classified into L=54 cluster using ISODATA algorithm, and these L clusters were assigned to 7 classes - coniferous forest, deciduous forest, mixed forest, paddy field, dry field, water, and built-up areas - by careful use of reference data obtained through visual interpretation of the high resolution imagery. The overall accuracy and Kappa index were 85.98% and 0.82, respectively, which represents about 10% point increase of classification accuracy than our previous study based on GCP point data around North Korea. Thus we can conclude that Google Earth may be used to substitute the traditional reference data collection on the site where the accessibility is severely limited.