On the accuracy of landscape pattern analysis using remote sensing data

• Published in: Landscape ecology Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 505 - 511
• Main Authors: Shao, Guofan, Wu, Jianguo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01.05.2008; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Ecological studies; Ecology; Environmental Management; Errors; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; General aspects. Techniques; Land cover; Land use; Landscape Ecology; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; landscapes; Life Sciences; Nature Conservation; Pattern analysis; Pattern recognition; Perspective; Remote sensing; Sustainable Development; Teledetection and vegetation maps; Landscape pattern; Errors; Classification accuracy; Landscape metrics; Land use and land cover maps; Remote sensing; Errors .Remote sensing; Landscape; Classification accuracy .Landscape metrics; Error; Land use; Accuracy; Maps; Classification; Metric; Pattern analysis
• ISSN: 0921-2973; 1572-9761
• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-008-9215-x

Advances in remote sensing technologies have provided practical means for land use and land cover mapping which is critically important for landscape ecological studies. However, all classifications of remote sensing data are subject to different kinds of errors, and these errors can be carried over or propagated in subsequent landscape pattern analysis. When these uncertainties go unreported, as they do commonly in the literature, they become hidden errors. While this is apparently an important issue in the study of landscapes from either a biophysical or socioeconomic perspective, limited progress has been made in resolving this problem. Here we discuss how errors of mapped data can affect landscape metrics and possible strategies which can help improve the reliability of landscape pattern analysis.