Unsupervised Classification of Forest Vegetation in the Mt. Wolak Experimental Forest Using Landsat Thematic Mapper Data

Landsat Thematic Mapper 화상자료를 이용한 월악산 지역 산림식생의 무감독분류

The main purpose of this study was to classify forest vegetation effectively using Landsat Thematic Mapper data(June, 1994) in mountainous region. The research area was the Mt. Wolak Experimental Forest of Chungbuk National University, near Chungju and Jecheon city, Chungcheongbuk-do. To classify forest vegetation effectively, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI) was used to reduce topographic effects. This NDVI was modified and transformed to the value of 0 to 255, and then the modified values were combined with other Landsat Thematic Mapper bands. To classify forest and land cover types, unsupervised classification method was used. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1. Combinations of band "3, 5, NDVI" in Landsat Thematic Mapper data showed a good separation with high accuracy. The expected classification accuracy was 95.1% in Landsat Thematic Mapper data. 2. The Land Cover types were classified into six groups : coniferous forest, deciduous forest, mixed forest, paddy and grass, non-forest, and other undetectable areas. As these classified results were compared with the reconnaissance survey and aerial black and white infrared photographs, the overall classification accuracy was 76.5% in Landsat Thematic Mapper data. 3. The portion of non-forest in Mt. Wolak area was 1.9%. The percentages of coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests were 30.9%, 35.7% and 26.4%, respectively. 4. As these classified results were compared with other reference data, the percentages of coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests increased, but the portion of non-forest was exceedingly diminished. These differences are thought to be from the different research method and the different season of received Landsat Thematic Mapper data.