95 
4.3 The Satellite Thematic Map 
As a test a land use change map of the "Kromme 
Rijn" Area based on satellite imagery was made 
according to the above mentioned method leading 
towards the "Satellite Thematic Map" of the "Kromme 
Rijn" Area. After the interpretation a final field 
check followed for a general control and to solve 
the last interpretation problems. 
A part of the final map is presented in figure 1. The 
topographic map 1:25.000 serves as a background. The 
map shows the changes in land use from 1980 to august 
1984. For this, use was made of the most recent 
topographic map of 1985 which is based on aerial 
photography of 1980 and a Thematic Mapper image of 
august 22, 1984. The dotted and the hatched areas on 
the map indicate a change in land use which occurred 
between 1980 and 1984, while the symbols placed 
within the blank fields indicate a refinement in the 
land use in comparing to the Topographic Map. 
5 CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION 
From the above it can be concluded that satellite 
imagery provides a base for updating land use maps 
and actual land use mapping up to a scale of 1:25.000 
by using Thematic Mapper imagery. Interpretation 
accuracy can be raised considerably by overlaying the 
satellite imagery with existing maps such as the 
topographic map. The Satellite Thematic Map provides 
a framework to present the information on satellite 
imagery in a user-friendly way which is accessible to 
a large user community. The Satellite Thematic Map 
forms a flexible way of presenting thematic 
information extracted from satellite imagery. The 
presentation of land use change was only one example. 
For instance mapping of natural vegetaton, vitality 
of forest, city growth and surface water are other 
applications. An other aspect of the Satellite 
Thematic Map concept is that in digital form, either 
a raster or a vector format, this kind of maps form a 
very suitable input for Geographical Information and 
Land Information Systems. One example is the 
combination of cadastral maps, with ownership and tax 
registrations and with actual land use information 
derived from satellite data. The panchromatic imagery 
of SPOT will enable many new applications for 
instance in town mapping and planning and more 
detailed inventories in rural regions for which the 
Satellite Thematic Map concept can form a useful tool 
for presentation. Therefore it is believed that the 
new generation of "high-resolution” remote sensing 
satellites will increase the number of applications 
drastically and will play a substantial role in the 
planning and management practices of land and water 
in the Netherlands and consequently in many of the 
industrialized and developing countries. 
REFERENCES 
Colwell,R.N. 1983. Manual of Remote Sensing vol. 1 
and 2, American Society of Photogrammetry, the 
Sheridan Press 
End report NIWARS containing the results of the 
research to civil applications in the Netherlands 
of Remote Sensing Techniques, 1977 (Published in 
Dutch) 
Landsat-4 Science Characterization Early Results, 
Vol. 1-4, 1985, NASA CP-2355,NASA, Washington, D.C. 
Lillesand,T.M.,R.W. Kiefer 1979. Remote sensing and 
image interpretation, John Wiley and Sons R.Welch, 
T.R.Jordan and M.Ehlers 1985. Comparative 
Evaluations of the Geodetic Accuracy and 
cartographic Potential of Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 
Thematic Mapper Image data, Photogrammetric 
Engineering and Remote Sensing 9:1249-1262 
Spot simulation applications handbook, Proceedings of 
the 1984 SPOT Symposium, 1985, Spot Image 
Corporation