Applying time series Landsat data for vegetation change analysis in the Florida Everglades Water Conservation Area 2A during 1996–2016

Mapping plant communities and documenting their changes is critical to the on-going Florida Everglades restoration project. In this study, a framework was designed to map dominant vegetation communities and inventory their changes in the Florida Everglades Water Conservation Area 2A (WCA-2A) using time series Landsat images spanning 1996–2016. The object-based change analysis technique was combined in the framework. A hybrid pixel/object-based change detection approach was developed to effectively collect training samples for historical images with sparse reference data. An object-based quantification approach was also developed to assess the expansion/reduction of a specific class such as cattail (an invasive species in the Everglades) from the object-based classifications of two dates of imagery. The study confirmed the results in the literature that cattail was largely expanded during 1996–2007. It also revealed that cattail expansion was constrained after 2007. Application of time series Landsat data is valuable to document vegetation changes for the WCA-2A impoundment. The digital techniques developed will benefit global wetland mapping and change analysis in general, and the Florida Everglades WCA-2A in particular.     

Evaluation of Goddard’s LiDAR,hyperspectral, and thermal data products for mapping urban land-cover types

Goddard’s LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), hyperspectral and thermal (G-LiHT) airborne imager is a new system to advance concepts of data fusion for worldwide applications. A recent G-LiHT mission conducted in June 2016 over an urban area opens a new opportunity to assess the G-LiHT products for urban land-cover mapping. In this study, the G-LiHT hyperspectral and LiDAR-canopy height model (LiDAR-CHM) products were evaluated to map five broad land-cover types. A feature/decision-level fusion strategy was developed to integrate two products. Contemporary data processing techniques were applied, including object-based image analysis, machine-learning algorithms, and ensemble analysis. Evaluation focused on the capability of G-LiHT hyperspectral products compared with multispectral data with similar spatial resolution, the contribution of LiDAR-CHM, and the potential of ensemble analysis in land-cover mapping. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the application of the G-LiHT hyperspectral product and simulated Quickbird data in the classification. A synthesis of G-LiHT hyperspectral and LiDAR-CHM products achieved the best result with an overall accuracy of 96.3% and a Kappa value of 0.95 when ensemble analysis was applied. Ensemble analysis of the three classifiers not only increased the classification accuracy but also generated an uncertainty map to show regions with a robust classification as well as areas where classification errors were most likely to occur. Ensemble analysis is a promising tool for land-cover classification.     

Mapping impervious surfaces with the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper and radar data: A case study in an urban–rural landscape in the Brazilian Amazon

This research explored the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and radar (i.e., ALOS PALSAR L-band and RADARSAT-2 C-band) data for mapping impervious surface distribution to examine the roles of radar data with different spatial resolutions and wavelengths. The wavelet-merging technique was used to merge TM and radar data to generate a new dataset. A constrained least-squares solution was used to unmix TM multispectral data and multisensor fusion images to four fraction images (high-albedo, low-albedo, vegetation, and soil). The impervious surface image was then extracted from the high-albedo and low-albedo fraction images. QuickBird imagery was used to develop an impervious surface image for use as reference data to evaluate the results from TM and fusion images. This research indicated that increasing spatial resolution by multisensor fusion improved spatial patterns of impervious surface distribution, but cannot significantly improve the statistical area accuracy. This research also indicated that the fusion image with 10-m spatial resolution was suitable for mapping impervious surface spatial distribution, but TM multispectral image with 30 m was too coarse in a complex urban–rural landscape. On the other hand, this research showed that no significant difference in improving impervious surface mapping performance by using either PALSAR L-band or RADARSAT C-band data with the same spatial resolution when they were used for multi-sensor fusion with the wavelet-based method.     

Combining QuickBird,LiDAR, and GIS topography indices to identify a single native tree species in a complex landscape using an object-based classification approach

There are now a wide range of techniques that can be combined for image analysis. These include the use of object-based classifications rather than pixel-based classifiers, the use of LiDAR to determine vegetation height and vertical structure, as well terrain variables such as topographic wetness index and slope that can be calculated using GIS. This research investigates the benefits of combining these techniques to identify individual tree species. A QuickBird image and low point density LiDAR data for a coastal region in New Zealand was used to examine the possibility of mapping Pohutukawa trees which are regarded as an iconic tree in New Zealand. The study area included a mix of buildings and vegetation types. After image and LiDAR preparation, single tree objects were identified using a range of techniques including: a threshold of above ground height to eliminate ground based objects; Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and elevation difference between the first and last return of LiDAR data to distinguish vegetation from buildings; geometric information to separate clusters of trees from single trees, and treetop identification and region growing techniques to separate tree clusters into single tree crowns. Important feature variables were identified using Random Forest, and the Support Vector Machine provided the classification. The combined techniques using LiDAR and spectral data produced an overall accuracy of 85.4% (Kappa 80.6%). Classification using just the spectral data produced an overall accuracy of 75.8% (Kappa 67.8%). The research findings demonstrate how the combining of LiDAR and spectral data improves classification for Pohutukawa trees.     

海岸带地理环境遥感监测综述

海岸带作为连接海洋和陆地系统的特殊地理地带,与人类的生存与发展密切相关,但其自然和生态环境极其脆弱和敏感。气候变化和人类活动给海岸带环境带来了巨大压力,导致其生态环境不断恶化。随着技术的发展,近年来遥感技术已成为海岸带地理环境监测的重要手段之一,在海岸带规划、管理和保护中扮演着举足轻重的角色。本文对遥感技术在海岸带地理环境监测典型应用(土地利用/覆盖、土壤质量、植被、海岸线、水色、水深和水下地形及灾害)中的主要数据源、方法、结果和局限性进行归纳和总结,并对其未来发展提出展望。     

Analyzing fine-scale wetland composition using high resolution imagery and texture features

In order to monitor natural and anthropogenic disturbance effects to wetland ecosystems, it is necessary to employ both accurate and rapid mapping of wet graminoid/sedge communities. Thus, it is desirable to utilize automated classification algorithms so that the monitoring can be done regularly and in an efficient manner. This study developed a classification and accuracy assessment method for wetland mapping of at-risk plant communities in marl prairie and marsh areas of the Everglades National Park. Maximum likelihood (ML) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers were tested using 30.5 cm aerial imagery, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), first and second order texture features and ancillary data. Additionally, appropriate window sizes for different texture features were estimated using semivariogram analysis. Findings show that the addition of NDVI and texture features increased classification accuracy from 66.2% using the ML classifier (spectral bands only) to 83.71% using the SVM classifier (spectral bands, NDVI and first order texture features).     

Object-based habitat mapping using very high spatial resolution multispectral and hyperspectral imagery with LiDAR data

This study investigated the combined use of multispectral/hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR data for habitat mapping across parts of south Cumbria, North West England. The methodology adopted in this study integrated spectral information contained in pansharp QuickBird multispectral/AISA Eagle hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR-derived measures with object-based machine learning classifiers and ensemble analysis techniques. Using the LiDAR point cloud data, elevation models (such as the Digital Surface Model and Digital Terrain Model raster) and intensity features were extracted directly. The LiDAR-derived measures exploited in this study included Canopy Height Model, intensity and topographic information (i.e. mean, maximum and standard deviation). These three LiDAR measures were combined with spectral information contained in the pansharp QuickBird and Eagle MNF transformed imagery for image classification experiments. A fusion of pansharp QuickBird multispectral and Eagle MNF hyperspectral imagery with all LiDAR-derived measures generated the best classification accuracies, 89.8 and 92.6% respectively. These results were generated with the Support Vector Machine and Random Forest machine learning algorithms respectively. The ensemble analysis of all three learning machine classifiers for the pansharp QuickBird and Eagle MNF fused data outputs did not significantly increase the overall classification accuracy. Results of the study demonstrate the potential of combining either very high spatial resolution multispectral or hyperspectral imagery with LiDAR data for habitat mapping.     

UAV for mapping shrubland vegetation: Does fusion of spectral and vertical information derived from a single sensor increase the classification accuracy?

High quality data on plant species occurrence count among the essential data sources for ecological research and conservation purposes. Ecologically valuable small grain mosaics of heterogeneous shrub and herbaceous formations however pose a challenging environment for creating such species occurrence maps. Remote sensing can be useful for such purposes, it however faces several challenges, especially the need of ultra high spatial resolution (centimeters) data and distinguishing between plant species or genera. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are capable of producing data with sufficient resolution; their use for identification of plant species is however still largely unexplored. A fusion of spectral data with LiDAR-derived vertical information can improve the classification accuracy, such a solution is however costly. A cheaper alternative of vertical data acquisition can be represented by the use of the structure-from-motion photogrammetry (SfM) utilizing the images taken for (multi/hyper)spectral analysis. We investigated the use of such a fusion of UAV-borne multispectral and SfM-derived vertical information acquired from a single sensor for classification of shrubland vegetation at species level and compared its accuracy with that derived from multispectral information only. Multispectral images were acquired using Tetracam Micro-MCA6 camera in the west of Czechia in a shrubland landscape protected within the NATURA 2000 network. Using (i) multispectral imagery only and (ii) multispectral-SfM fusion, we classified the vegetation into six classes representing four woody plant species and two meadow types. Our results prove that the multispectral-SfM fusion performs significantly better than multispectral only (88.2% overall accuracy, 85.2% mean producer’s accuracy and 85.7% mean user’s accuracy for fusion instead of 73.3%, 75.1% and 63.7%, respectively, for multispectral). We concluded that the fusion of multispectral and SfM information acquired from a single UAV sensor is a viable method for shrub species mapping.     

An efficient unsupervised index based approach for mapping urban vegetation from IKONOS imagery

Despite the increased availability of high resolution satellite image data, their operational use for mapping urban land cover in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be limited by lack of computational resources and technical expertise. As such, there is need for simple and efficient image classification techniques. Using Bamenda in North West Cameroon as a test case, we investigated two completely unsupervised pixel based approaches to extract tree/shrub (TS) and ground vegetation (GV) cover from an IKONOS derived soil adjusted vegetation index. These included: (1) a simple Jenks Natural Breaks classification and (2) a two-step technique that combined the Jenks algorithm with agglomerative hierarchical clustering. Both techniques were compared with each other and with a non-linear support vector machine (SVM) for classification performance. While overall classification accuracy was generally high for all techniques (>90%), One-Way Analysis of Variance tests revealed the two step technique to outperform the simple Jenks classification in terms of predicting the GV class. It also outperformed the SVM in predicting the TS class. We conclude that the unsupervised methods are technically as good and practically superior for efficient urban vegetation mapping in budget and technically constrained regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa.     

A Hybrid CNN + Random Forest Approach to Delineate Debris Covered Glaciers Using Deep Features

The main aim of this study is to propose a novel hybrid deep learning framework approach for accurate mapping of debris covered glaciers. The framework comprises of integration of several CNNs architecture, in which different combinations of Landsat 8 multispectral bands (including thermal band), topographic and texture parameters are passed as input for feature extraction. The output of an ensemble of these CNNs is hybrid with random forest model for classification. The major pillars of the framework include: (1) technique for implementing topographic and atmospheric corrections (preprocessing), (2) the proposed hybrid of ensemble of CNNs and random forest classifier, and (3) procedures to determine whether a pixel predicted as snow is a cloud edge/shadow (post-processing). The proposed approach was implemented on the multispectral Landsat 8 OLI (operational land imager)/TIRS (thermal infrared sensor) data and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Digital Elevation Model for the part of the region situated in Alaknanda basin, Uttarakhand, Himalaya. The proposed framework was observed to outperform (accuracy 96.79%) the current state-of-art machine learning algorithms such as artificial neural network, support vector machine, and random forest. Accuracy assessment was performed by means of several statistics measures (precision, accuracy, recall, and specificity).     

Spatial application of Random Forest models for fine-scale coastal vegetation classification using object based analysis of aerial orthophoto and DEM data

High spatial resolution mapping of natural resources is much needed for monitoring and management of species, habitats and landscapes. Generally, detailed surveillance has been conducted as fieldwork, numerical analysis of satellite images or manual interpretation of aerial images, but methods of object-based image analysis (OBIA) and machine learning have recently produced promising examples of automated classifications of aerial imagery. The spatial application potential of such models is however still questionable since the transferability has rarely been evaluated.We investigated the potential of mosaic aerial orthophoto red, green and blue (RGB)/near infrared (NIR) imagery and digital elevation model (DEM) data for mapping very fine-scale vegetation structure in semi-natural terrestrial coastal areas in Denmark. The Random Forest (RF) algorithm, with a wide range of object-derived image and DEM variables, was applied for classification of vegetation structure types using two hierarchical levels of complexity. Models were constructed and validated by cross-validation using three scenarios: (1) training and validation data without spatial separation, (2) training and validation data spatially separated within sites, and (3) training and validation data spatially separated between different sites.Without spatial separation of training and validation data, high classification accuracies of coastal structures of 92.1% and 91.8% were achieved on coarse and fine thematic levels, respectively. When models were applied to spatially separated observations within sites classification accuracies dropped to 85.8% accuracy at the coarse thematic level, and 81.9% at the fine thematic level. When the models were applied to observations from other sites than those trained upon the ability to discriminate vegetation structures was low, with 69.0% and 54.2% accuracy at the coarse and fine thematic levels, respectively.Evaluating classification models with different degrees of spatial correlation between training and validation data was shown to give highly different prediction accuracies, thereby highlighting model transferability and application potential. Aerial image and DEM-based RF models had low transferability to new areas due to lack of representation of aerial image, landscape and vegetation variation in training data. They do, however, show promise at local scale for supporting conservation and management with vegetation mappings of high spatial and thematic detail based on low-cost image data.     

Exploring image fusion of ALOS/PALSAR data and LANDSAT data to differentiate forest area

Remote sensing data utilize valuable information via various satellite sensors that have different specifications. Image fusion allows the user to combine different spatial and spectral resolutions to improve the information for purposes such as forest monitoring and land cover mapping. In this study, I assessed the contribution of dual-polarized Advanced Land Observing Satellite/Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data to multispectral Landsat imagery. The research investigated the separability of forested areas using different image fusion techniques. Quality analysis of the fused images was conducted using qualitative and quantitative analyses. I applied the support vector machine image classification method for land cover mapping. Among all methods examined, the à trous wavelet transform method best differentiated the forested area with an overall accuracy (OA) of 94.316%, while Landsat had an OA of 92.626%. The findings of this study indicated that optical-SAR-fused images improve land cover classification, which results in higher quality forest inventory data and mapping.     

Comparison and assessment of NDVI time series for seasonal wetland classification

Satellite-based wetland mapping faces challenges due to the high spatial heterogeneity and dynamic characteristics of seasonal wetlands. Although normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series (NTS) shows great potential in land cover mapping and crop classification, the effectiveness of various NTS with different spatial and temporal resolution has not been evaluated for seasonal wetland classification. To address this issue, we conducted comparisons of those NTS, including the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) NTS with 500?m resolution, NTS fused with MODIS and Landsat data (MOD_LC8-NTS), and HJ-1 NDVI compositions (HJ-1-NTS) with finer resolution, for wetland classification of Poyang Lake. Results showed the following: (1) the NTS with finer resolution was more effective in the classification of seasonal wetlands than that of the MODIS-NTS with 500-m resolution and (2) generally, the HJ-1-NTS performed better than that of the fused NTS, with an overall accuracy of 88.12% for HJ-1-NTS and 83.09% for the MOD_LC8-NTS. Future work should focus on the construction of satellite image time series oriented to highly dynamic characteristics of seasonal wetlands. This study will provide useful guidance for seasonal wetland classification, and benefit the improvements of spatiotemporal fusion models.     

Application of machine learning techniques in groundwater potential mapping along the west coast of India

ABSTRACT

Groundwater potential mapping (GWPM) in the coastal zone is crucial for the planning and development of society and the environment. The current study is aimed to map the groundwater potential zones of Sindhudurg coastal stretch on the west coast of India, using three machine learning models: random forest (RF), boosted regression tree (BRT), and the ensemble of RF and support vector machine (SVM). In order to achieve the objective, 15 groundwater influencing factors including elevation, slope, aspect, slope length (LS), profile curvature, plan curvature, topographical wetness index (TWI), distance from streams, distance from lineaments, lithology, geomorphology, soil, land use, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and rainfall were considered for inter-thematic correlations and overlaid with spring and well occurrences in a spatial database. A total of 165 spring and well locations were identified, which had been divided into two classes: training and validation, at the ratio of 70:30, respectively. The RF, BRT, and RF-SVM ensemble models have been applied to delineate the groundwater potential zones and categorized into five classes, namely very high, high, moderate, low, and very low. RF, BRT, and ensemble model results showed that 33.3%, 35.6%, and 36.8% of the research area had a very high groundwater potential zone. These models were validated with area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve. The accuracy of RF (94%) and hybrid model (93.4%) was more efficient than BRT (89.8%) model. In order to further evaluate and validate, four different sites were subsequently chosen, and we obtained similar results, ensuring the validity of the applied models. Additionally, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technique was applied to predict the groundwater table and validated by measured wells. The mean difference between measured and GPR predicted groundwater table was 14 cm, which reflected the importance of GPR to guide the location of new wells in the study region. The outcomes of the study will help the decision-makers, government agencies, and private sectors for sustainable planning of groundwater in the area. Overall, the present study provides a comprehensive high-precision machine learning and GPR-based groundwater potential mapping.     

Improved coastal wetland mapping using very-high 2-meter spatial resolution imagery

Accurate wetland maps are a fundamental requirement for land use management and for wetland restoration planning. Several wetland map products are available today; most of them based on remote sensing images, but their different data sources and mapping methods lead to substantially different estimations of wetland location and extent. We used two very high-resolution (2 m) WorldView-2 satellite images and one (30 m) Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) image to assess wetland coverage in two coastal areas of Tampa Bay (Florida): Fort De Soto State Park and Weedon Island Preserve. An initial unsupervised classification derived from WorldView-2 was more accurate at identifying wetlands based on ground truth data collected in the field than the classification derived from Landsat 8 OLI (82% vs. 46% accuracy). The WorldView-2 data was then used to define the parameters of a simple and efficient decision tree with four nodes for a more exacting classification. The criteria for the decision tree were derived by extracting radiance spectra at 1500 separate pixels from the WorldView-2 data within field-validated regions. Results for both study areas showed high accuracy in both wetland (82% at Fort De Soto State Park, and 94% at Weedon Island Preserve) and non-wetland vegetation classes (90% and 83%, respectively). Historical, published land-use maps overestimate wetland surface cover by factors of 2–10 in the study areas. The proposed methods improve speed and efficiency of wetland map production, allow semi-annual monitoring through repeat satellite passes, and improve the accuracy and precision with which wetlands are identified.     

高分辨率影像融合算法对滨海湿地土地利用分类精度的影响

针对融合算法对影像分类精度具有明显影响的问题,本文选择连云港海岸带埒子河口滨海湿地为研究区,以GF-1卫星影像为数据源,首先分别使用Gram-Schmidt算法、PCA算法及Brovey算法进行影像融合。然后在eCognition软件平台上,基于面向对象多尺度分割技术,利用随机森林算法对影像进行土地利用分类,并对分类结果进行精度评价。试验结果表明,不同融合算法影像融合效果明显不同,其中,Gram-Schmidt算法融合后的影像质量最好,且分类精度最高;Brovey融合算法对植被和水体有较好的光谱保真性,并且改变波段组合后分类精度有明显提高;PCA算法在3种融合算法中精度最低。     

Assessing integration of intensity,polarimetric scattering,interferometric coherence and spatial texture metrics in PALSAR-derived land cover classification

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is an important alternative to optical remote sensing due to its ability to acquire data regardless of weather conditions and day/night cycle. The Phased Array type L-band SAR (PALSAR) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) provided new opportunities for vegetation and land cover mapping. Most previous studies employing PALSAR investigated the use of one or two feature types (e.g. intensity, coherence); however, little effort has been devoted to assessing the simultaneous integration of multiple types of features. In this study, we bridged this gap by evaluating the potential of using numerous metrics expressing four feature types: intensity, polarimetric scattering, interferometric coherence and spatial texture. Our case study was conducted in Central New York State, USA using multitemporal PALSAR imagery from 2010. The land cover classification implemented an ensemble learning algorithm, namely random forest. Accuracies of each classified map produced from different combinations of features were assessed on a pixel-by-pixel basis using validation data obtained from a stratified random sample. Among the different combinations of feature types evaluated, intensity was the most indispensable because intensity was included in all of the highest accuracy scenarios. However, relative to using only intensity metrics, combining all four feature types increased overall accuracy by 7%. Producer’s and user’s accuracies of the four vegetation classes improved considerably for the best performing combination of features when compared to classifications using only a single feature type.     

Using high resolution QuickBird imagery for crop identification and area estimation

Imagery from recently launched high spatial resolution satellite sensors offers new opportunities for crop assessment and monitoring. A 2.8-m multispectral QuickBird image covering an intensively cropped area in south Texas was evaluated for crop identification and area estimation. Three reduced-resolution images with pixel sizes of 11.2 m, 19.6 m, and 30.8 m were also generated from the original image to simulate coarser resolution imagery from other satellite systems. Supervised classification techniques were used to classify the original image and the three aggregated images into five crop classes (grain sorghum, cotton, citrus, sugarcane, and melons) and five non-crop cover types (mixed herbaceous species, mixed brush, water bodies, wet areas, and dry soil/roads). The five non-crop classes in the 10-category classification maps were then merged as one class. The classification maps were filtered to remove the small inclusions of other classes within the dominant class. For accuracy assessment of the classification maps, crop fields were ground verified and field boundaries were digitized from the original image to determine reference field areas for the five crops. Overall accuracy for the unfiltered 2.8-m, 11.2-m, 19.6-m, and 30.8-m classification maps were 71.4, 76.9, 77.1, and 78.0%, respectively, while overall accuracy for the respective filtered classification maps were 83.6, 82.3, 79.8, and 78.5%. Although increase in pixel size improved overall accuracy for the unfiltered classification maps, the filtered 2.8-m classification map provided the best overall accuracy. Percentage area estimates based on the filtered 2.8-m classification map (34.3, 16.4, 2.3, 2.2, 8.0, and 36.8% for grain sorghum, cotton, citrus, sugarcane, melons, and non-crop, respectively) agreed well with estimates from the digitized polygon map (35.0, 17.9, 2.4, 2.1, 8.0, and 34.6% for the respective categories). These results indicate that QuickBird imagery can be a useful data source for identifying crop types and estimating crop areas.     

A Novel Remote Sensing Image Classification Scheme Based on Data Fusion, Multiple Features and Ensemble Learning

In this paper, we propose a novel scheme to improve the accuracy of remote sensing image classification by integrating data fusion, multiple feature combination and ensemble learning. Intensity-Hue-Saturation (IHS), Gram-Schmidt (GS), Brovey and wavelet fusion methods are first performed to obtain the optimal fusion images of high resolution and multispectral images. Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is then adopted to classify the fused image with different feature sets, and ensemble learning algorithm based on dynamic classifier selection (DCS) is finally used to integrate multiple classification maps. The proposed classification scheme is implemented with three remote sensing data sets, obtaining the highest overall accuracy and kappa coefficient in all cases (92.63% and 0.8917 for BJ-1 data set, 81.89% and 0.7513 for Landsat TM and SPOT4 data set, 92.21% and 0.8838 for ALOS data set respectively). The experimental results show that the integration of data fusion, feature combination and ensemble learning improves the classification performance obviously and has great potential in practical uses.     

Evaluation of Landsat TM data for forest cover type and landuse classification in subtropical forests of Kumaon Himalaya (U.P.)

LANDSAT-TM has been evaluated for forest cover type and landuse classification in subtropical forests of Kumaon Himalaya (U.P.) Comparative evaluation of false colour composite generated by using various band combinations has been made. Digital image processing of Landsat-TM data on VIPS-32 RRSSC computer system has been carried out to stratify vegetation types. Conventional band combination in false colour composite is Bands 2, 3 and 4 in Red/Green/Blue sequence of Landsat TM for landuse classification. The present study however suggests that false colour combination using Landsat TM bands viz., 4, 5 and 3 in Red/Green/Blue sequence is the most suitable for visual interpretation of various forest cover types and landuse classes. It is felt that to extract full information from increased spatial and spectral resolution of Landsat TM, it is necessary to process the data digitally to classify land cover features like vegetation. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood algorithm has been attemped to stratify the forest vegetation. Only four bands are sufficient enough to classify vegetaton types. These bands are 2,3,4 and 5. The classification results were smoothed digitaly to increase the readiability of the map. Finally, the classification carred out using digital technique were evaluated using systematic sampling design. It is observed that forest cover type mapping can be achieved upto 80% overall mapping accuracy. Monospecies stand Chirpine can be mapped in two density classes viz., dense pine (<40%) with more than 90% accuracy. Poor accuracy (66%) was observed while mapping pine medium dense areas. The digital smoothening reduced the overall mapping accuracy. Conclusively, Landsat-TM can be used as operatonal sensor for forest cover type mapping even in complex landuse-terrain of Kumaon Himalaya (U.P.)