Land Use and Mapping

From the standpoint of technology, the most encouraging thing about ERTS has been the level of land-use identification. Land-use detail has exceeded the expectations of the Interagency Steering Committee and the requirements of land-use classification proposed by the Department of Interior. Whereas in the latter instance it was anticipated that only nine classes of land use would probably be identifiable, in fact some 14 to 18 classes have been identified. The success in the level of land-use identification results primarily from the various attributes of the ERTS system. These include the ability to provide repetitive coverage, and in particular seasonal coverage; the ability to image in four bands of the electromagnetic spectrum (green, red, and two near-infrared), which allows for manipulation of various combinations of bands; and the provision by the ERTS system of computer-compatible tapes for machine processing of data. Furthermore, the resolution of ERTS imagery has been better than expected. Although there is some question as to its exact resolving power, it is safe to say objects as small as 100 meters (300 feet) in diameter have been identified. Linear features as narrow as 16 meters (50 feet) can be detected (Figure 1).