ility Variations SELECTION OF LANDSAT MSS, DATA FOR 
i]. Form," in 
'okhi (ed.), INVENTORY OF BAd4 4H. RESOURCES 
'ennessee, 
nvironments to 
lings of the F.W. HILWIG * 
Environment, 
At present, an important problem preceeding the application of satellite 
MSS data for inventory of earth resources surveys is selection of the 
most relevant scenes for interpretation purposes. Often the time and 
money spent on the interpretation of multitemporal MSS data, 
particularly when computer assisted analysis is involved, justifies 
a more careful approach to the choice of the imagery. 
Thie (1977) mentions , for an area in a sub-arctic and northern boreal 
environment, a labour expenditure of US $ 600 on the visual monotemporal 
interpretation (excluding fieldwork) of 1 : 1 million scale LANDSAT 
imagery, against a cost of $ 100 for the materials based upon current 
EROS Data Center (EDC) prices. A computer assisted analysis of the same 
area of 13,000 sq.km. in Northern Canada cost $ 600 in labour and 
$ 2000 in materials. 
It is widely known that conventional panchromatic aerial photography is 
Superior to LANDSAT imagery with respect to spatial resolution but that 
satellite imagery on the other hand offers specific advantages in the 
domain of the near infra-red part of the spectrum and from the point of 
view of its monitoring capacity. Optimal use can be made of LANDSAT 
MSS data by a combination of well selected seasons . An inter- 
pretation procedure can be chosen with or without the use of existing 
radar, airphotosand/or topographical coverage as demonstrated in 
Figure 1. 
  
X . 
Ir. P.W. Hilwig, Senior Lecturer, Department of Soil Survey, 
International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) 
Enschede, The Netherlands