MONITORING FOREST PLANTATIONS USING LANDSAT THEMATIC MAPPER DATA

Landsat's Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery was used to evaluate its feasibility in differentiating among forest species and age groups of plantations to assist forest managers in planning and managerial operations. The Catahoula and Kisatchie ranger districts of the Kisatchie National Forest were selected as the study site. The Landsat imagery was evaluated on the basis of its spectral band combinations and spatial properties for differentiating among pine species, age groups, stocking rate, and hardwood acreage within the pine plantations. The vector data utilized in the study included the transportation network, hydrography, and the compartment map of the districts. The results revealed that TM imagery is inadequate for differentiating among pine species. However, the differentiation among selected pine age groups was feasible using the band combination of TM Bands 5, 4, and 3. High classification accuracies were achieved with most of the pine age classes for both forest districts. Significant differences were found in differentiating among age groups between the two districts. The 6-10, 11-20, and 21 plus age classes were the major contributors to the differences observed. The small differences observed between the two TM band combinations (TM 5, 4, 3 and TM 5, 4, 3, 2) were not significant. However, the combination of TM Bands 5, 4, and 3 is better based on the higher individual class accuracies and Kappa statistical values produced.