LAND-USE INTERPRETATION WITH RADAR IMAGERY

The potential of radar imagery as a data base for small- scale thematic land-use mapping is explored. Nine interpreters were provided with a simple qualitative interpretation key and asked to create land-use regions over a 1500 miles area of the United States. Most interpretation discrepancies occurred in semi-arid portions of the study area but several borders were agreed upon, particularly where land-use change corresponded to topographic change. In written descriptions of the regions, respondents agreed upon composition of land uses but not on location of changes. An inability to maintain similar hierarchical land-use levels within and between maps was also evident. Although a surprising amount of border agreement did occur, the results point to the necessity of more stringent classification keys and/or the abondonment of land-use regionalization by synoptic survey alone. /Author/