University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 1999 Forest inventory classification using aerial image texture in the New Brunswick Acadian forest region Maudie, Alan John Maudie, A. J. (1999). Forest inventory classification using aerial image texture in the New Brunswick Acadian forest region (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/11450 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/25178 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Forest Inventory Classification using Aerial Image Texture in the New Brunswick Acadian Forest Region b!J Alan John Maudie A THESIS SUBMITTED TO TKE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIRElMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY CALGARY. ALBERTA JUNE. 1999 Q Alan John Maudie 1999 National Library Bibliothbque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Sewices services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OthwaON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K1AW Canada Canada Your M. Vmrs rib- Our - Nolre roMrma, The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pernettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microficbe/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format Bectronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts Erom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otheMise de celle-ci ne doivent Seimprimes reproduced without the author's - ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT In this study a Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager data set. acquired over the Acadian mixed-wood forest of southeastern New Brunswick was analyzed for classification using forest cover types outlined by the New Bmick Department of Natural Resources and Energy. Six spectral channels. and eight texture channels derived from second-order teme measures were used in classifications to determine the usellness of including textural idormation in a maximum iikelihood decision rule. Two separate images were classified three times using si-es generated fiom spectral channels alone. texture channels alone. and a combination of spectral and texture channels. Field data used to determine classification accuracies incIuded a plot level survey of species composition by percent crown. crown closure. stems per hectare. and understory. On average, the use of texture channels in a hierarchical si-pature merging approach improved per-pixel classificationaccuracies by 2 8%. per-plot accuracies by 25%. and KHAT scores by 32% over classifications that used spectral channels alone. At the lower ckdetail end of the hierarchies an average per-pixel accuracy of 82%. per-plot accuracy of loo%, and a KHAT score of 0.78 were achieved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without support from several people and organizations this research would have not been possible. My supervisor. Dr. Steven Franklin. contributed a substantial quantity of time and etliot-t to this project, for which I am greatiy indebted. His enthusiasm towards research and demand for independent thinking allowed me to achieve a level of understandine that I did not think was possible. Enough can not be said about Dr. Mike Lavigne of the Canadian Forest Service. he is a fine piece of work and a superior research scientist. Dr. Lavigne organized the logistics and fhding for the majority of the field campaign. played an integral part in the research design. and served on the thesis committee. I would also like to give a special acknowledgment to the other members of my committee. Dr. Darren Sjogren and Dr. Ed Johnson for providing a thorough review of my thesis. Thanks to all of the staff and students in the Department of Geography. Special thanks to the office staff'for being so kind Mooika Moskal for her input and response to my ideas. Medina Dueling for her assistance with software and hardware, and Dt. Clarence Woudsma for participating in my thesis proposal defense. 'Ihanks to Julia Linke and Andrew Ness from UNB for providing assistance in the field. I would also like to thank Dr. Mike Wuider of the Canadian Forest Service for providing detailed answers to all of my e-mail queries. and performing the geometric and atmospheric corrections to the casi imagery. The majority of the hding for this project came through scholarships fiom the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Forest Service (NSERC supplement). Initial financial support for this thesis came &om two Teaching Assistantships and a Graduate Research Scholarship supplied by the Faculty of Graduate Studies. through the Department of Geography. Last but not least I would like to thank my parents (Ken and Brenda) for brid-@ng the financial gaps I encountered along the way as well as providing affordable housing during the duration of my thesis. DEDICATION To Suzanne and all of the Bombers. TABLE OF CONTENTS .* APPROVAL PAGE....................................................... ....-......-......................................................... 41 ... ABSTIWCT........................................................................................................................................... 111 ACKNOWLEDGLMENTS........................................... ...-..-.........-.............*........................................ iv DEDICATION......................................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................... ... .......................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES................ ....... ....................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES AND PUTES....-I... .~.~.~~a~.~.~.~*~~~-...rrrr- ....x 1. OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................... ........................ 1 1 .I . Introduction.......................................................................................................................... I I .2. Research Objectives .............................................................................................................. 5 1 .3 . Orsanization of Thesis ......................................................................................................... 6 2 .REMOTE SENSING OF FOREST SPECIES COMPOSITION AM) STRUCTURE ....................7 2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2. Aerial Photo Interpretation for Forest Inventory ................................................................... -8 2.2. I . Overview of Forest Inventory Map Production...................................................... 9 -7.2.2. Map Accuracies and Update Procedure ........................ .. ................................. 11 7.3. Digital lM apping in Forestry ............................................................................................. 13 2.3.1. Supervised DigrgrtuIClassification Theoq............................................................. I3 2.3.1 Forest Inventory Applica lions of Digilal $tapping .............................................. 1 6 2.3.3. Texture Analysis Theory.................................................... ... ................... ........--77 2.3.4 Texturefor Improved Classx~cationAccuracies ................................................. -29 2.4. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 30 3. STUDY AREA AND DATA COLLECTION................................................................................ 32 3.1. Location and Description of Study Area ................................................ .-'7 ... 3.2. Data Acqu~s~t~on................................................................................................................. 34 3.2.1. Compact -4 irborne Spectrographic Imager fcasij ............................................... -35 3.2.2. Ground Based Data ........................................................................................... 38 ., 4 J.J. Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................-I 7 4 . .METHODOLOGY FOR LMULTISPECTWCLASIFICATION USING TEXTURE.............. 18 4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 48 4.2. Classification Procedure ..................................................................................................... 50 4.2.1.