Initial Project Setup
The RLCM is designed to manage a single study area per ArcMap project file (file extension MXD). Before starting a land cover classification project using RLCM, the number of study areas must first be determined. Once determined, create a folder or directory for each study area and place a copy of the RLCM distribution file (see Appendix A) in each study area's folder. For each study area, follow these steps:
- Determine Extent:
Once the study area folders are created, the spatial extent of each study area must be determined in geoimages coordinates based on the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum. RLCM allows these coordinates to be entered either by uploading a study area polygon as an ESRI shapefile or by manually entering the extent coordinates. - Preparing Imagery:
RLCM allows the use of any type of image format that is supported by ESRI's ArcMap. The only requirements are that each image being used for interpretation have a defined coordinate system and a known acquisition date, and be entered in RLCM's image library (see Image Library Tool section for more details). Below are suggestions that will make entering images in the library more efficient: - Embed the acquisition date in the file name using a standard format such as the ISO date format of YYYY-MM-DD or (without the dashes) YYYYMMDD (19720210). RLCM does not support date formats with two-digit years, such as 10FEB72 for February 10, 1972 (See appendix B for a complete list of supported date formats). During the building of the image library, RLCM will try to extract the acquisition date from the file name. If RLCM cannot extract a date, it will add the image record, but leave the acquisition date field blank, requiring the user to enter the date manually. For further information on adding or modifying the acquisition date, see the Image Library tool section.
- Image files being used for interpretation should be organized in a functional folder structure. RLCM allows the user to build the image library by searching recursively in selected folders for supported image formats. An image collection should be organized in separate folders, based on sensor type, time period, etc.
- Installing RLCM:
Once the RLCM distribution file has been acquired, copy it into each of the study area folders. Decompress and unpack the contents of the file into the study area folder by executing the distribution file. When the distribution file is executed, several files and a subfolder will be created inside the study area folder. All of these files are required for the operation of the RLCM tool and should not be altered. The file named rlcm.mxd is the file that will need to be opened in ArcMap to start the tool. See Appendix A for details on each of the RLCM files.