Preparation of a 1:25000 Landsat map for assessment of burnt area on Etajima Island

Abstract

The Etajima fire of 1978 in Japan was used to assess the accuracy of a method of classification, mapping and area estimation of the devastation caused by forest fire using Landsat MSS data. The classification and mapping method developed was limited to field sizes of about 10 km × 10 km, and the registration of Landsat data for mapping was performed by affine transformation using corresponding ground control points both on the Landsat imagery and the topographical map. The classified results of burnt area obtained from multivariate analysis of Landsat MSS data were completely superimposed on a 1:25 000 topographical map published by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan. This display, called a Landsat Map System, can assist the user to improve his capability of interpretation. The accuracy of the burnt area categorization achieved was comparable with official estimates of the burnt area. Two methods of achieving greater accuracy are suggested: (i) combining MSS 6 and 7 bands of pre-fire and after-fire Landsat scenes and (ii) introduction of a digital terrain model for the compensation of variation of the sun illumination on each Landsat MSS image pixel.