Accurate and current land use information for urban areas is important for effective
management and planning. Over the years, researchers/planners have relied heavily on
aerial photographs for land use information of urban areas because of the limitations of
deriving more accurate land use estimates from satellite remote sensing data. The main
problem involved in producing accurate land use maps of cities and towns from satellite
images is that urban areas consist of a complex assemblage of different land cover types,
many of which have very similar spectral reflectance characteristics. This is because land
use is an abstract concept- n amalgam of economic, social and cultural factors-that is
defined in terms of functions rather than forms. The relationship between land use and
the multispectral signals detected by a satellite sensor is therefore both complex and
indirect.
In many European cities, residential areas are characterized by a complex spatial
assemblage of tile roof, slate roof, glass roof buildings, as well as tarmac, concrete and
pitch roads, and gardens (comprised of grass lawns, trees and plants). In North American
cities, roofing materials are more commonly composed of wood and shingles. In both
settings all these "objects" together form the residential areas or residential districts of
town or city, but each of them has a different spectral reflectance. So, in generating a land
use map from remotely sensed image, buildings, roads, gardens, open spaces will be
identified separately.
Keeping this in mind, this thesis evaluates eight selected land use classification methods
for the Vancouver metropolitan area, identifies the most accurate and suitable method for
urban land use classification, and produces a land use map of the study area based on the
most suitable method.
The study area is a part of Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). It includes
Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Delta, and parts of seven other municipalities. The
whole area is highly urbanized and commercialized. Agricultural lands are present in the
southern part of the study area (which includes parts of Richmond, Delta and Surrey).
For this study four sources of data have been used. The 1996 Greater Vancouver regional
District (GVRD) land use map is the basic source of land use information. A remotely
sensed image of May 1999 (Landsat 7) has been used for the identification of land cover
data, Vancouver and Fraser valley orthophotos (May/July 1995) have been used to locate
sample sites, and aerial photos of May 1999 (1:30,000) have been used for ground
verification.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11867 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Sinha, Jayati |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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