spatial comparisons could be made with the 
other CLI data. Had the land use changes 
been classified from digital satellite 
imagery, data may have reduced the amount 
of time required for this aspect of the 
project. 
Economic and Operational Implications 
The interpretation of the remote sensing 
data consisting of mapping changes to 207 
CLI "Present Land Use" maps took about 1 
person-year to complete. The cost of the 
40 TM scenes was about $10 000.00. The 
costs for imagery and interpretation 
amounted to about $0.38 per knr for the 
project area. Actual system and estimated 
labour costs for preparing the maps for 
digitizing, scanning and subsequent 
editing, amounted to a further $0.61 per 
km 2 . Therefore for approximately $1.00 
per km 2 , a flexible digital land use 
database at a level of detail comparable 
to 1:50 000 maps was created. 
Cost-effectiveness was somewhat 
compromised by the high system costs 
associated with creating a digital 
database. In order to reduce the number 
of maps to be digitized, a more elaborate 
procedure of map preparation is being 
undertaken in a follow-on project in 
Atlantic Canada (Wilson, pers. comm., 
1990). The 1:50 000 manuscript maps are 
photo-reduced and recompiled at 1:250 000 
scale to reduce the number of maps 
requiring digitizing. While the level of 
detail of changes may be reduced, the 
information retained is still adequate for 
most national and regional scale 
reguirements. Furthermore, the estimated 
processing costs of less than $0.10 per 
km 2 will be substantially less than the 
$0.61 per km 2 for this project. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
The technique of using Thematic Mapper for 
mapping land use changes proved effective 
in the project area for a number of 
reasons. Changes from a natural to a 
developed state dominated the project 
area. These types of changes are the 
easiest to identify using Thematic Mapper 
imagery since they usually involve 
dramatic spectral and spatial changes. 
Land that is gradually reverting to a 
natural state from a formerly developed 
state, such as the abandonment of cropland 
in Ontario's clay belt, would likely be 
more difficult to map. 
The size of land parcels has an effect on 
the accuracy of this method. In general, 
smaller, irregularly shaped land parcels 
are more likely to be overlooked as well 
as misclassified. Therefore, the use of 
this technique in regions of eastern 
Canada with smaller land parcels may 
present added difficulties. 
Finally, the limited number of land use 
possibilities in this project area 
contributed to improved accuracy. In 
areas such southern Ontario, more 
extensive use of land for orchards, 
vineyards, horticulture, recreation and 
rural residential development would 
present opportunities for confusion using 
this technique of mapping land use 
changes. 
Nevertheless, for large parcels of change 
in actively developing regions such as the 
project area, the visual interpretation 
technique described will produce 
acceptable degrees of accuracy and useable 
results in both analog and digital 
formats. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The project was a joint venture between 
Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife and 
Environment Canada (Ottawa and Western and 
Northern Region). The Environmental 
Information Systems Division of 
Environment Canada provided the digital 
files of the land use change maps. The 
assistance of each of these participants 
is gratefully acknowledged. 
REFERENCES 
Ahern, F.J., and J. Sirois., 1988. LANDSAT 
Thematic Mapper Enhancements for Forestry 
Applications. CCRS Research Report 88-1. 
Ottawa: Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, 
Department of Energy, Mines and Resources. 
15 pp. 
Alberta Forestry Lands and Wildlife, 1988. 
Forest Management Unit Map. Alberta Forest 
Service. 
Farmer, Michel, J. Seguin and R. Van 
Wyngaarten., 1986. Visual Interpretation 
Manual of Landsat Thematic Mapper Imagery 
for the Detection of Select Land Cover 
Classes. unpublished report of Lands 
Directorate, Environment Canada. 40 pp. 
Fox, M.F. and S.L. Macenko, 1985. The 
Agriculture - Forest Interface: An 
Overview of Land Use Change. Working Paper 
# 38, Lands Directorate, Environment 
Canada. 147 pp. 
McClellan, J.B., Jersak, L., Hutton, 
C.L.A., 1968. A Guide to the 
Classification of Land use for the Canada 
Land Inventory. Ottawa: Policy and 
Planning Branch, Department of Energy, 
Mines and Resources. 18 pp. 
Seguin, Jean and Robert Ryerson, 1987. 
Rural Change Monitoring and Remote 
Sensing: Towards an Operational Project. 
11th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing, 
Waterloo, pp 125-136 
Wilson, D.A., 1990, personal 
communication. Inland Waters Directorate, 
Environment Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. 
363