Lab 3: Land Use/Land Cover

This week's lab applied skills I learned from Lab 2, but now identifying features of land use and land cover.  The main objective was to find features and classify them using LULC classification,

Categorizing by land use and land cover

While identifying features in the aerial image, I wanted to look for patterns, association, and shapes to identify land use and land cover.  I started with the largest areas which were mainly residential features. This was easy to identify because of the small features, in a pattern.  I also was able to see the drive ways and yards.

The next thing was identify the different bodies of water.  This was easy to identify because of the color/shade and shapes of these features.  It was clear to see a long, narrow feature was a river.  It was also easy to identify the deciduous forest and shrubs by looking at texture and grouping with each other.

I struggled a little with identifying the different between commercial and industrial features.  Both require large square/rectangle buildings.  Parking lots can also be found at both.  However, commercial seemed to be along major road ways.  Industrial also seemed to have other smaller buildings besides the main building.  Industrial also seemed to have open land used for storage of possible trucks where as that is not necessary for commercial use.

I can see how digitizing aerial images can take months and a lot of patience.  I hope to improve my skills to make identifying features easier.