Ground Truthing of LULC Classification

Ground truthing is the process by which LULC classification are verified by taking a sample of the classifications and performing an in-situ or as my industry calls it "boots on the ground" verification.  Classifying LULC via aerial photography can only be so accurate.  High resolution photos may not be available and lower resolution may not be clear enough to determine what an object is.  Experience of the classifier can compensate, but there are still other instances where the ground truthing is the better classification route.  For example, there could be areas that were rezoned from residential to commercial.  In an aerial photo, the location would look like it should be zoned residential, but ground truthing reveals that what once was a home is now a office for a lawyer or a dentist.  In the map below, I chose to do was is called systematic sampling.  By ground truthing a sample of the classification, you can determine how accurate your overall assessment should be.

Remote Sensing - Land Use Land Cover Classification

Land use is defined as the way that the land is used by humans whereas land cover defines the way the land is vegetated.

Remote Sensing - Visual Interpretation

Module 2 of Remote Sensing begins our foray into identifying features on an aerial photograph.  Having learned of the various films that are used and viewing the resulting photographs it is easy to see that all have their purposes.  This week we identified the different levels of tone and texture as shown in map 1, and we took a stab at identifying features based on size and shape, pattern, shadow, and association as shown in map 2.  We also compared two photos of the same area, one true color and one false color.

Map 1: Tone and Texture

Map 2: Size and shape, shadow, pattern, and association

Statistical Analysis - Prepare Week

Back at it again after two weeks off.  Personally, I'm not off to a great start.  I can feel the stress levels going up already.  This week we begin preparing data for statistical analysis.  We will be analyzing data from the US Census Bureau and US Drug Enforcement Agency to see if there is any correlation between socio-economic factors of the population and the location of known meth labs. Our study area is the metro Charleston, WV area including Kanawha and Putnam counties.