| Pak. J. Bot., 38(3): 571-582, 2006. | Back to Contents | ||||
|
|
Updated: 09-07-09 | ||||
|
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES USING REMOTELY SENSED DATA RIFFAT NASEEM MALIK* AND SYED ZAHOOR HUSAIN** Abstract: In Pakistan in spite of few attempts for mapping land-cover types,
satellite remotely sensed data has not been used extensively; and its
potential is not being explored for providing information on mapping
vegetation cover in general and ecological communities in particular.
In this study, we used SPOT(Systeme Pour l'Observation de la Terre)
multispectral (XS) satellite sensor data in visible and near infrared
portion of the light spectrum as a surrogate for distribution of
ecological vegetation groups defined by the classification and
ordination methods (the most commonly used multivariate techniques used
in floristic composition classification in vegetation ecology) and
non-vegetation classes. The results indicate that classification of
vegetation groups based on species composition identified using
classification and ordination techniques to some extent resemble to
those groups classified using SPOT XS data with least accuracy in
comparison to non-vegetation classes which were more homogenous and
spectrally separable and were classified more accurately in comparison.
Two classification models i.e. supervised maximum likelihood and fuzzy
supervised classification showed similar overall level of accuracies.
The possibilities of lower classification accuracies and difficulties of
classifying ecological communities based on the species composition
using remotely sensor data are discussed.
* Department of Biological Sciences Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad,
Pakistan. |
|||||
| Back to Contents |
|
Back to Contents | |||