| dc.description.abstract | Landscape management is based on the maintenance of natural
ecosystems and recognizes the importance of maintaining the habitat
diversity of all ecosystem types. Acquiring information about the size,
distribution and location of wetlands is the first step towards evaluating
their habitat value in a landscape perspective. An explicit review about
the strengths and limitations of any landcover database is critical prior to
input into the decision making process. Techniques were developed for
characterizing wetland habitat components in a landscape context utilizing
remote sensing and geographic information system technologies. A
hierarchy of remotely sensed data ranging from 1:5000 colour infrared
aerial photography to LANDSAT Thematic Mapper satellite data was
employed to compare detail of information available at each scale of data.
These techniques included evaluation of ground-based wetland
classification systems, air photo interpretation, investigation of approaches
to image classification, and development of accuracy assessment
techniques. The developed techniques were applied to a Northwestern
Ontario landscape to produce a thematic layer of wetland habitat
information. The effectiveness of these techniques was evaluated by
assessing the accuracy of each remote sensing scale for mapping the broad
scale wetland habitat at the physiognomic group level. 1:5,000 and
1:10,000 scale colour infrared aerial photography provided the best
thematic accuracy at 94 percent, whereas 1:20,000 scale allowed wetland
mapping at 84 percent accuracy. Satellite based mapping using Landsat
Thematic Mapper integrated with digital Forest Resource Inventory map
data allowed wetlands to be mapped with 72 percent accuracy. Combining
physiognomically similar wetland classes increased satellite based mapping
accuracy to 81 percent. | |
