A noninteractive procedure for land-use determination

Abstract

A complete operational procedure designed for use by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the determination of land-use information for hydrologic planning purposes is reported. The procedure combines photo interpretation techniques and the batch-mode computer analysis of Landsat digital data. Since the operational constraints preclude the use of dedicated, interactive image processing facilities, several novel approaches to geometric correction, classification, and data input/output were developed. The procedure is summarized, and examples of the application of the procedure to urban watersheds are described. In spite of the constraints, the procedure provides results comparable in accuracy and lower in cost than those provided by commercial services using interactive techniques.