Integration of Remote Sensing and Digital Terrain Models for Land Cover Classifications, Thematic Mapping and Regional Planning in Val Malenco (Italian Alps)

Val Malenco represents a typical, complex landscape of the North Italian Alps. It has been chosen as a test area for integrated applications of a standard DTM, digitized terrain map information, and both SPOT and Landsat TM data for land cover mapping and landuse classifications, in regional planning and modelling. Primarily the study aims at providing methods for low cost accurate mapping of surface cover types and at defining methods for monitoring the general environmental conditions in an alpine landscape.