Evaluation of remote-sensing methods used to differentiate forested wetlands

Accurate assessment of forested wetlands is essential for forest managers in the development of management plans because these areas are considered unsuitable for timber production and therefore affect the allowable sale quantity of the forest. Three methods of quantifying wetland habitats using Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery were evaluated to determine the most effective method of assessing this forest resource. The methods of evaluating the TM imagery were the Kauth-Thomas transformation, principal component analysis (PCA), and a maximum likelihood supervised classification algorithm using TM bands 2, 3, 4, and 5. A summer and winter TM scene was used to allow for those areas that are seasonal and may be dry for periods of the year. The results of this study revealed that the maximum likelihood supervised classification using TM bands 2, 3, 4, and 5 was the most effective method of quantifying wetland habitats. However, this method was the most time consuming and required the user to have good ancillary data and skills in site selection and assessment of those signatures used as input into the algorithm.

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