Analysis of Texture Information with High Resolution Imagery for Characterizing Forest Stand

Although there have been wide range of studies to characterize forest stands based upon spectral information of satellite image, it was not fully understood the texture information of forest stand using high resolution data. The objective of this study is to evaluate several texture measures for characterizing forest stand structure, such as species composition, diameter at breast height(DBH), stand density, and age. High resolution IKONOS satellite imagery data were acquired in August 200 lover the forested area near Ulsan, Korea. Primary forest types were plantation pine, mixed forest, and natural deciduous forest of stand age ranging from 10 to 50 years old. Several GLCM-based texture measures were compared with forest stand characteristics. In overall, a texture measure (contrast) calculated using red band were better to differentiate species and age group than other texture measures and near infrared bands.