EVALUATION OF THE IMAGE TEXTURE PATTERNS AND VEGETATION INDEX 
CLASSES INDICATORS FOR SOCIOECONOMIC POPULATION STANDARDS 
Vänia Maria Vianna Ceccato 
Celina Foresti 
Maria de Lourdes Neves de Oliveira Kurkdjian 
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE 
Divisäo de Sensoriamento Remoto e Meteorologia - DSM 
Caixa Postal 515 
12201-970 - Säo José dos Campos, SP, Brazil 
ISPRS Commission VII / Working Group 9 
ABSTRACT 
The use of aerial photography as a potential tool for socioeconomic characterization of urban population 
has been successfully implemented since the fifties. Similarly, the use of aerial photographic and orbital 
data processed with suitable image analysis algorithms (vegetation index) have produced satisfactory 
information about urban green areas. Recent studies have indicated that vegetation indices can be used as 
a qualitative measure of quality of life in urban areas. The objective of this work is to assess the 
relationship between image texture patterns, vegetation index classes and income of resident population. 
Five texture patterns were extracted from panchromatic SPOT paper prints at 1:25,000 scale based on a 
method developed at INPE and described in this paper. Four classes of vegetation index were defined 
using TM/Landsat images processed with the vegetation index algorithm, and aerial photographs. The 
data about population income were obtained from sample observation. The test area was the city of Rio 
Claro. Sáo Paulo, Brazil. An one-way analysis of variance indicated the existence of relationship between 
image texture patterns, vegetation index classes and the income level of resident population. These 
results support the decision of considering the information extracted from the images as indicators of the 
quality of life in urban areas. 
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