Table 4 The Effect of correctly classifying 
all misclassified urban pixels. 
Class 
Correct 
(before 
smoothing) 
Total % 
Correct 
(after 
smoothing) 
Total % 
Oak 
1845/1915 
252 
93 
261 
97 
•I 
1947/9 
97 
82 
104 
87 
SW CH 
1961 
86 
98 
85 
97 
E L 
1933 
139 
66 
154 
73 
II 
1949 
53 
54 
54 
55 
EL/HL 
1981 
31 
50 
30 
48 
H L 
1971 
97 
96 
100 
99 
D F 
1966 
128 
71 
144 
80 
N S 
1940 
1 
1 
3 
3 
" 
1971/2 
145 
83 
159 
91 
NS/SP 
1966 
67 
31 
49 
23 
S P 
1928 
77 
93 
74 
89 
C P 
1965/6 
92 
79 
90 
78 
URBAN 
149 
96 
151 
97 
AGRIC 
390 
85 
425 
93 
One 
of the aims of 
this 
research 
is to 
build up a 'database' system to explore not 
only the relationships outlined above but 
also the influence of additonal variables 
such as slope, aspect and soil type. Jones 
(1972) demonstrated that production levels 
for forest plots were shown to correlate with 
aspect, average elevation and slope giving a 
multiple correlation value of r=0.957. 
One aspect to emerge so far from this study 
is the very high correlation between SPOT 
bands 1 and 2. One of these bands becomes 
virtually redundant for the purposes of 
spectral separation. Nelson et al (1984) 
found that when using TM Simulator data for 
forest cover-type mapping, the most useful 
waveband combinations used at least one band 
from the visible near infra-red and mid 
infra-red spectral regions. Thus the 
addition of a new mid infra-red sensor 
proposed for the SPOT 3 satellite (expected 
launch 1991) may greatly enhance spectral 
discrimination. There is also evidence to 
suggest that multitemporal classification 
techniques improve classification accuracy. 
4 CONCLUSION 
The SPOT satellite will have the potential 
for forest-cover mapping at species level, 
and in some cases even different ages of the 
same species. In this study the major 
handicap to this was the presence of urban 
areas within the study area. The high 
spectral variance of the urban class resulted 
in gross misclassification errors. Applying 
a textural classifier or using a 
multi-layered classification approach may 
overcome this problem. 
There would appear to be a relationship 
between stocking and band 2 reflectance, and 
size and band 3 reflectance. It is intended 
to explore this further as well as 
identifying the influence of additonal 
variables - such as slope, aspect and soil 
types, by the merging of data sets to create 
a database system. 
Satellite remote sensing has greatest 
potential with regards to commercial 
forestry. The main limitation in mapping 
diversely specied, varied-aged natural forest 
is the pixel resolution; too many 'mixed' 
pixels would invariably result, rendering any 
subsequent classification meaningless. 
However the commercial forester's requirement 
is often restricted to straight, even-grained 
timber of selected species, resulting in 
even-aged stands of single species which are 
consequently easier to map. 
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