An Evaluation of ETM+ Data Capability to Provide 'Forest-Shrub land-Range' Map (A Case Study of Neka-Zalemroud Region-Mazandaran-Iran)

In order to evaluate the Capability of ETM+ remotely- sensed data to provide 'Forest-shrub land-Rangeland' cover type map in areas near the timberline of northern forests of Iran, the data were analyzed in a portion of nearly 790 ha located in Neka-Zalemroud region. First, ortho-rectification process was used to correct the geometric errors of the image, yielding 0/68 and 0/69 pixels of RMS. error in X and Y axis, respectively. The original and panchromatic bands were fused using PANSHARP Statistical module. The ground truth map was made using 1 ha field plots in a systematic-random sampling grid, and vegetative form of trees, shrubs and rangelands was recorded as a criteria to name the plots. A set of channels including original bands, NDVI and IR/R indices and first components of PCI from visible and infrared bands, was used for classification procedure. Pair-wise divergence through CHNSEL command was used, In order to evaluate the separability of classes and selection of optimal channels. Classification was performed using ML classifier, on both original and fused data sets. Showing the best results of $67\%$ of overall accuracy, and 0/43 of Kappa coefficient in original data set. Due to the results represented above, it's concluded that ETM+ data has an intermediate capability to fulfill the spectral variations of three form- based classes over the study area.