Pacific Southwest

Title: Evaluation of ERTS-1 data for forest and rangeland surveys

Author: Heller, Robert C., technical coordinator

Date: 1975

Source: Res. Pap. PSW-RP-112. Berkeley, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 67 p

Station ID: RP-PSW-112

Description: Tests used data gathered by the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite. Results on sites in Georgia, Colorado, and South Dakota indicated that ERTS enlargements, preferably color, would be useful to forest managers of large ownerships for broad area planning. Forest land was distinguished from nonforest land with 90 to 95 percent accuracy, in both photointerpretation and computer-assisted analysis. Further breakdowns of cover types could not be made with acceptable accuracy by either method. Forest disturbances from natural causes or human activity could be detected with 90 percent accuracy when ERTS imagery was compared with 6-year-old aerial photos. Stress from mountain pine beetle could not be detected; ERTS wavebands are too broad to identify dying foliage.

Keywords: Earth Resources Technology Satellite; multi-spectral imagery; photointerpretation; remote sensors; forest stress; forest inventory; range inventory; plant communities; land classification; Atlanta, GA (Test Site); Black Hills, SD (Test Site); Manitou, CO (Test Site)

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Citation

Heller, Robert C., technical coordinator  1975.  Evaluation of ERTS-1 data for forest and rangeland surveys.   Res. Pap. PSW-RP-112. Berkeley, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 67 p.