Remotely sensed data may not be enough to map all LUC accurately alone. Ancillary data provide additional information on physical land dynamics, vegetation, climate, social geography and surface variability in LUC classification. When suitable ancillary dataset used, classification accuracy would be more accurate. In this chapter, only elevation (physical), texture (surface variability) and vegetation data (vegetation indices) were discussed in USP using DT and RT classifiers.
4.2 Physical data integration
Land physical dynamics such as elevation is vital physical input to LUC mapping. Digital elevation models (DEM) can be derived from stereo image pairs (e. g. ASTER) or radar (e. g. SRTM). Especially, vegetation formation and species vary according to elevation, aspect and climate. Using these ancillary data may improve accuracy of LUC maps (Coops et al. 2006, §atir 2006). It is also possible to integrate soil characteristics into LUC mapping, because vegetation distribution and plant species are strongly dependent on soil depth, texture and moisture.
DEM was integrated to the DT and MLC classification in Eastern Mediterranean area discussed in section 4. Overall accuracy of the classification was increased approximately 4% and particularly bulrush, sand dunes and forestlands classified more accurately using DT. If topography vary in a study area, integrating the DEM may improve the LUC mapping accuracy. However, MLC classification overall accuracy was stable with and without DEM information. Most of the ancillary data increased the accuracy when using non-parametric techniques because parametric techniques like MLC uses the statistical equation to calculate distance of each LUC signature mean to the unknown pixel. However, DT creates rules based on the training data ranges, including elevation and spectral wavebands.
