Printresults is used to produce a line-printer map using specially se
lected alphanumeric symbols for each type of land use after the entire area is
classified using the final selection of clusters and channels. This map is at
a scale of 1:48,000 and shows the county boundaries with the + symbol.
The aspect ratio of the classification is changed from the line-printer
4X5 format to a 1 XI format for use on video display devices by producing
a new tape with every fifth column of the original deleted. This is then
reformatted for use on a Dicomed D47 film recorder. Colors are selected for
each land use/cover class and the classification is plotted using a low
resolution matrix where every pixel from the classification is plotted as
16 spots on 4 X 5 inch color film.
Enlargements are then made photographically to match the land use to
varying scales. The final product is a color-coded land use map (figure 3).
PROBLEM SOLUTION
The method described above comprises all of the manipulations of the
system which have been developed while working on urban land-use mapping for
nearly a two year period at LARS, Purdue. While many of the steps are part
of the basic pattern recognition series of programs (LARSYS), a number of
refinements and modifications in the analysis procedure and employment of
LARSYS have come in direct response to the special needs and situations
encountered in examining dynamic and highly complex metropolitan areas.
The problem of making a sharp distinction between urban and rural areas
has, by itself, created a need for many modifications in the analysis procedure.
Interestingly, while rural-urban separation (at least for large cities) is
simple enough on the 1:1,000,000 scale visual ERTS-1 images,* some nearly
identical sets of digital values between certain urban land uses and certain
rural uses cause mis-classification when analyzing spectral information alone.
While some degree of error is inherent in all computer-aided mapping, mis-
classification in rural-urban distinctions is much more noticeable (and less
tolerable) than, for example, mistaking a crop type or tree species in an
area which is entirely rural.
Probing the causes of the problem revealed that much of the urban scene
was indeed spectrally similar to certain rural features. For instance, some
residential areas, with their combinations of landscaping and certain degrees
of weathering were very much like some rural cropland areas which had com
binations of bare soils and some crop and other vegetative cover. A search
for possible distinguishing characteristics led to the investigation of the
use of multi temporal in conjunction with multispectral data. That the
character of the agricultural landscape changes materially from one season to
another while the urban scene -- with its large component of man-made cover --
remains relatively constant, was the working basis for making distinctions.
* Several researchers have referred to the "electric blue" color of com
mercial areas of cities on the color infrared composite images.