Geography

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Integrating raster-based categorical maps from multiple sources necessitates the transformation of geometric characteristics to compare maps, as in land change analyses. By projecting maps to a new geographic reference framework and scaling pixel values to a new size, distortions of map information are introduced that can affect the proportion and arrangement of thematic classes across the landscape. Using a sample land cover dataset depicting a heterogeneous landscape, this paper examines these impacts using three common raster-based transformation methods and introduces a new vector-based method that minimizes error propagation. While relative class area was best preserved by a nearest-neighbor resampling method, distortions to the contiguity of thematic classes and the overall fragmentation of the landscape were minimized when using the vectorbased projection and resampling method. Results demonstrate that more than a third of pixel values of a categorical map may be affected by common projection and scaling methods and reinforce the need for careful attention to impacts of error propagation in categorical data transformations. © 2012 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Publication Title

Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing

Publication Date

2012

Volume

78

Issue

6

First Page

617

Last Page

624

ISSN

0099-1112

DOI

10.14358/PERS.78.6.617

Keywords

data set, error analysis, geometry, landscape change, nearest neighbor analysis, pixel, raster

Included in

Geography Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.