Multi-temporal analysis of landsat data to determine forest age classes for the mississippi statewide forest inventory~preliminary results

Abstract

The use of Landsat data to aid in forest sampling stratification, area estimation, and future resource assessment through growth models is currently being investigated for the state of Mississippi with the goal of better understanding present and future wood resources. In such analyses, and as a part of this investigation, change detection techniques are being exploited to help determine these forest stand ages in approximate five year intervals. This preliminary report looks at post classification comparisons and temporal image differencing as two means to find these dates. The results find the post classification comparisons techniques, in an unrefined use, to work moderately well (overall accuracy = 0.6157, KHAT = 0.5386) and temporal image differencing with NDVI and tasseled cap transformations to disagree with each other in predicted age class sizes with no assessment data to validate accuracy at this time.