The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing 2008 
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associated to the dynamics of landscape in bamboo forests at 
Intervales Park, considering the ecologic aspects of this forest 
physiognomy. The methodology was based on the visual 
interpretation of images, as a preliminary step for the 
application of digital processing. The results obtained integrate 
a databank of a project for the analysis of the spatial and 
temporal distribution of bamboo forests from Intervales, 
subsidizing the discussion on the monitoring of such areas. 
2. STUDY AREA 
This study was performed in the Intervales Park (Figure 1), a 
conservation unit of the Continuous of Paranapiacaba region, 
located at southern Sao Paulo State, between geographic 
coordinates S 24° 12’ - 24° 32’ and W 48° 03’ - 48° 32’. The 
section selected for analysis, with an area of 2,300 ha is located 
between the administrative office from this Park and the control 
bases Carmo and Capinzal, that are characterized by a history 
of intense natural and human disturbances during the time 
before the constitution of this conservation reserve. 
s 24“! 9' / o 48”29' 
Figure 1. Localization of Intervales Park (PEI) in Sao Paulo 
State/Brazil and the area under study within PEI (in yellow) at 
Quickbird image (R4G2B1). 
3. METHODOLOGY 
This study was done using a QuickBird image, radiometric 
resolution 11 bits (2048 gray levels), type Standard 2A, with 
five spectral bands, namely 1 panchromatic, spatial resolution 
of 0,6 m and 4 multi-spectral (blue, green, red and infrared), 
spatial resolution of 2,4 m. The data-take was May 19th 2006, 
with an area of 8,000 ha, including part of the park and a 
section of its surroundings. A sample area was selected based 
on more detailed knowledge in the field survey. 
The mapping activity with the QuickBird image was supported 
by a databank with historical records from the area (1962-2000) 
and a set of field survey data with the description of dominant 
landscapes, referring to four years of monitoring (2004-2008). 
Taking into account that the use of high-resolution images 
aimed to generate data to be integrated into a databank of the 
project, an ortho-rectification of the image was not done. 
Nevertheless the image was registered, considering as a base a 
mosaic of aerial photographs from 2000 (scale 1:35.000). 
Afterwards an image fusion procedure was undertaken, using 
the principal components method (Pinho, Renno & Kux, 2005), 
and the result was a fused image with a resolution of 0,6 m. 
Image processing at the QuickBird scene was done using the 
software package ENVI 4.1. 
Based on information from the databank, an interpretation key 
was established, considering different patterns found in the field 
as a function of the QuickBird image bands that are best suited 
for this mapping. The definition of mapping classes was based 
on parameters of visual interpretation like texture and color, 
associated to structural vegetation information such as height 
and canopy density, besides information on the dominance of 
bamboo. This information directed the visual interpretation of 
the image, done in ArcView 3.2, at an approximate scale of 
1:5,000, and the generation of a land cover map. Additionally 
the thematic mapping classes were discussed as a function of 
spectral responses of targets of interest. 
4. RESULTS 
Taking into account the different patterns found in the field, the 
key for the interpretation of the QuickBird image (Table 2) was 
elaborated with 9 classes of land cover: (1) water bodies, (2) 
bare soil, (3) grass, (4) bush, (5) secondary succession with 
dominance of bamboo in vegetative or reproductive stage, (6) 
secondary succession with senescent bamboos, (7) secondary 
succession with spaced bamboo sections, (8) advanced 
secondary succession and (9) primary forest. These classes were 
defined considering bands R4G2B1 of the fused image, an 
image composition which was most adequate for this mapping 
effort because it allows the distinction of different forest 
categories. The result of the image interpretation was a thematic 
map of land cover from a section of the PEI (Figure 3), 
including the quantification of the respective areas by class 
(Table 4), and by the analysis of spectral response of targets 
(Figure 5).