Impending development of Wyoming's vast fuel resources requires a quick and efficient method of land use inventory and evaluation. Preliminary evaluations of ERTS-1 imagery have shown that physiographic and land use inventory maps can be compiled by using a combination of visual and automated interpretation techniques. Test studies in the Powder River Basin showed that ERTS image interpretations can provide much of the needed physiographic and land use information. Water impoundments as small as one acre were detected and water bodies larger than five acres could be mapped and their acreage estimated. Flood plains and irrigated lands were successfully mapped, and some individual crops were identified and mapped. Coniferous and deciduous trees were mapped separately using color additive analysis on the ERTS multispectral imagery. Gross soil distinctions were made with the ERTS imagery, and were found to be closely related to the bedrock geology. Several broad unstable areas were identified. These were related to specific geologic and slope conditions and generally extended through large regions. Some new oil fields and all large open-cut coal mines were mapped. The most difficult task accomplished was that of mapping urban areas. Work in the urban areas provides a striking example of snow enhancement and the detail available from a snow enhanced image

Breckenridge, R. M.

Marrs, R. W.

Murphy, D. J.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

P 
I 
Paper L 13 
REMOTE SENSING APPLIED TO LAND-USE STUDIES IN WYOMING 
Roy M. Breckenridge, Ronald W. Marrs and Donald J. Murphy, Oepartment of 
Geology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82070 
ABSTRACT 
Impending development of Wyoming's vast fue l  resources requires a 
quick and e f f i c i e n t  method o f  land-use inventory and evaluation. Pres- 
ently, l i t t l e  o r  no land-use information or  cartographic control is 
available f o r  many areas o f  concern. 
pends upon land-use and physiographic information representing a l l  as- 
pects of the affected area, including agr icu l tu ra l  and urban develop- 
ment, natural vegetation, hydrology geology, topography, and mineral 
resources development. Preliminary evaluations o f  ERTS-1 imagery have 
shown tha t  physiographic and land-use inventory maps can be compiled by 
using a combination of visua1 and automated in terpretat ion techniques. 
Test studies i n  the Powder River Basin showed that ERTS image In- 
Proper control o f  development de- 
terpretat ions can provide much of  the needed physiographic and land-use 
information. Water impoundments as small as one acre were detected and 
water bodies larger than f i v e  acres could be mapped and theirsacreage 
estimated. Flood p la ins and i r r i ga ted  lands were successfully mapped, 
and some individual crops were ident i f ied  and mapped. Coniferous and 
deciduous trees were mapped separately using color-addit ive analysis on 
the ERTS mult ispectral imagery. Gross s o i l  d is t inc t ibns  were made w i th  
the ERTS imagery, and were found t o  be c losely  related t o  the bedrock 
geology. Several broad unstable areas were ident i f ied.  These were re- 
lated t o  spec i f i c  geologic and slope conditions and generally extended 
through large regions. Some new 011 f i e l d s  and a l l  large open-cut coal 
mines were mapped. 
The most d i f f i c u l t  task accomplished was that o f  mapping urban 
areas. Most Wyoming towns are surrounded by agr icu l tu ra l  land, natural 
f lood plains, and/or rangeland. With these widely varying sett ings the 
populated areas are of ten d i f f i c u l t  or  impossible t o  delineate by visual 
photointerpretat ion techniques. Densitometry proved t o  be of consider- 
able a id  i n  making the subtle d is t inc t ions  necessary i n  urban mapping. 
Four-color isodensitracings were made f o r  each o f  the four ERTS-MSS 
bands. In terpretat ion of  these isodensitracings permitted accurate 
mapping of the populated area, and usually allowed segregation o f  new 
98 1 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730019577 2020-03-17T08:49:44+00:00Z
and old residential, industrial, commercial and business, and open seg- 
ments within the towns. Larger features such as airstrips, factories, 
schools, golf courses, parks, and cemeteries were mappable as individ- 
ual installations but most could not be identified. 
Areas of new development can usually be defined, allowing a capa- 
Snow-cover bi 1 ity for change detection and updating of obsolete maps. 
provides a considerable degree of enhancement of  the urban areas by in- 
creasing the contrast between the populated areas and the surrounding 
country. Work in the urban areas provides a striking example of this 
snow-enhancement and the detail available from a snow-enhanced image. 
TEXT 
Land-use considerations have become critically impor.tant In Wyo- 
ming where greatly increased development of natural resources is anti- 
cipated. O f  prime concern at the present is the development of coal re- 
sources in the Green River and Powder River Basins as fuel for huge 
generators. The direct impact of mining, the diversion o f  water, and 
the effluent from coal-fired electrical generators will be considerable, 
but the associated increase in population and the necessary urbaniza- 
tion will have far-reaching effects on the environment in Wyoming. The 
construction and operation of the power plants and supporting mines will 
result in a substantial increase in the state's population (perhaps as 
much as 50%). These population increases w i  1 1 ,  in turn, affect almost 
every aspect o f  land-use. 
Governmental agencies have recognized the need for thorough land- 
.use planning in order to properly control development and prevent cost- 
ly or unnecessary damage to the land and its inhabitants but there is 
very little land-use data available for use as a basis for such plan- 
ning. A5 i s  commonly the case, the problem requires an immediate solu- 
tion. It is totally impractical to begin a program for gathering de- 
tailed land-use data by conventional means because l) such a program 
would be too expensive, 2) insufficient time i s  available, 3) much of 
the data would be obsolete by the time the program is complete. Con- 
sequently, planners must find a rapid and efficient means of obtaining 
the necessary land-use information and a way to continually up-date that 
i nf orma t i on. 
As soon as it became apparent that the ERTS satellite program of- 
fered considerable potential for obtaining much of the needed land-use 
data, the state planning office of the Department of Economic Planning 
and Development contracted the University of Wyoming Remote Sensing 
Laboratory for a pilot study fo determine what land-use data might be 
gained from the ERTS-1 imagery. The pilot program was to be a quick- 
look study designed to assess the ERTS-1 imagery as a tool for acquisi- 
tion of land-use data. The Powder River Basin was chosen as a general 
982 
test area (Fig. 1 )  and suitable sub-areas within the basin were selected 
fortesting individual applications. 
Because the pilot program was time-limited, a suite of tasks was 
selected as a representative group of ERTS applications which might yield 
information necessary for land-use planning. Included in this group 
were: 
1. Identification and mapping of water impoundments 
2. 
3. Mapping of flood plains, irrigated land, and crops 
4. Discrimination of coniferous and deciduous trees 
5. Range mapping (type and/or quality) 
6. Mapping of soi 1 types 
7. Slope estimation 
8. Mapping of mined areas 
9. Mineral resources mapping (actual and potential) 
10. Areas having potential for construction materials 
1 1 .  Mapping of areas of urban and rural development 
Detection of potentially unstable areas 
Application of standard photointerpretation, color-additive view- 
ing, and/or isodensitometry to these tasks provides results which sug- 
gest that many of these tasks can be done routinely. Figure 2 is a 
land-use classification map for the Powder River Basin test area, con- 
structed from interpretations of ERTS imagery. In addition to the broad 
land-use categories represented on this map, there is a great deal of 
other significant land-use information available from the ERTS data. 
Water impoundments can be readily mapped from the infrared (band 7) 
ERTS imagery. impoundments covering 5 acres or more can be mapped re- 
liably and most impoundments larger than 1 acre can be located. How- 
ever, the actual size of these smaller impoundments cannot be accurate- 
ly estimated because they are represented by too few scanner resolution 
elements. 
Although in some parts of Wyoming, local unstable areas (land- 
slides, slumps, etc.) have been identified from the ERTS imagery none 
could be identified in the Powder River Basin test area. Potentially 
unstable areas were identified on the basis of their regional associa- 
tions. The potentially unstable areas in the Powder River basin map- 
pable from ERTS include 1 )  dune fields, 2) flood plains, 3) areas o f  
potential mineral development (coal, oi 1 ,  uranium), and 4) areas 1 ike- 
ly to be underlain by clay-bearing soils. 
areas from the ERTS imagery required integrated interpretation of all 
ERTS bands. 
flood plains and aided in soil and lithologic distinctions. 
Identification of these 
Color-additive viewing provided some enhancement of the 
Color-additive viewing was of considerable utility in mapping of 
natural flood plain vegetation and irrigated farm land. The red and 
infrared bands (5 and 7) have the greatest utility in distinguishing 
983 
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t 
0 
d 
t 
0 
Io 
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0 0 n N 
t t 
0 
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t 
0, 
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984 
0, 
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Figure 2. Land-use c l a s s i f i c a t i o n  map f o r  the Powder River Basin, Wyoming 
constructed from ERTS-1 image interpretat ions.  
985 
contrasts w l  t h l n  the vegetatlon, In terpretat ion o f  the ERTS-1 imagery 
provlded adequate de ta l l  f o r  mapptng broad-sc l e  agricultural paiterns, 
Some de ta l l  features were recognized In  the agr icu l tu ra l  pat ter  
might a1 low crop l den t l f l ca t ton  t f  supplemented wtth other lmag 
pretat ions showing seasonal vartatlons. 
Maps o f  d t s t r l bu t l on  of coni fers and declduous vegetatlon were 
maps are necessarlly generalized due t o  the very small scale o f  the ERTS 
images, but they y i e l d  a f a l r l y  re1 lab le estlmate o f  the d i s t r l bu t l on  o f  
these ma f o r  forest  subd I v 1 s ions 
Rangeland i s  read1 l y  dlst lngulshable from other agr icu l tu ra l  lands 
and can be subdlvlded on the basts o f  tone and texture, The resu l t fng  
map can be correlated t o  standing blomass a t  the tlme o f  the s a t e l l i t e  
overpass, but range type and qual 1 t y  (a tfme-dependent factor )  cannot 
be establ lshed wl thout control  data and complementary Interpretat ions 
from rape t i t 1 ve cove rage 
, complled from ERTS-1 Interpretat ions f o r  the Bfghorn Mountains, These 
Broad s o l l  c lass i f l ca t lons  can be interpreted from the ERTS Imag- 
ery  on the basis o f  tone, texture, and regional assoclatlon. The re- 
s y l t l n g  maps show excel lent  correspondence with the s tate s o i l  map 
which c lass i f i es  s o i l s  on the basis o f  composition (which relates t o  
parent mater ia l ) .  Very 1 i t t l e  corre la t ion i s  evident between the s o i l  
in terpretat ions derived from ERTS and the more detai led s o l l  maps based 
on the newer Seventh Approximation c lass i f i ca t ion ,  but s i m i l a r i t i e s  may 
e x i s t  between the larger s o i l  groups and the ERTS in terpretat ion.  
Slope estimations were based on stream pattern analysis. The fre- 
quency and patterns o f  drainages were used as c r i t e r i a  f o r  subdividing 
the Powder River Basin i n to  zones o f  equivalent slope. The actual slope 
values f o r  the various areas were then determined from the topographic 
maps, This appl icat ion was pa r t i cu la r l y  successful i n  the Powder River 
Basin which has a very I n t r i c a t e  system o f  small drainages that  r e f l e c t  
even subt le changes i n  regional slope. 
Abandoned, producing, and developing open-cut coal mines are v ts-  
i b l e  on the ERTS imagery, but small open-cut uranium, bentonite, and 
gypsum mines and surface evidence o f  underground mines i n  the Powder 
River Basin could not be seen on the ERTS imagery. 
uranium mines i n  the Gas H i l l s  d i s t r i c t  o f  central  Wyoming can be seen 
on the imagery. 
However the large 
A map of known and potent ia l  coal resources was constructed from 
the combined mine locations and geologic Interpretat ions o f  the Powder 
River Basin. This generallzed map i s  useful f o r  def in ing areas of prob- 
able o r  possible coal mine development f o r  the proposed e lec t r i ca l  power 
ins ta l la t ions  or  other energy needs. Maps o f  potent ia l  areas f o r  the 
development o f  other mineral resources were compl led w l th  the favorable 
986 
locat  
dunes 
grave 
1 ime, 
nated 
s t ruc  
ons def ined on the basis of  geologic in te rpre ta t ion .  For example, 
and terraces were designated as p o t e n t i a l  sources o f  sand and 
, areas of limestone outcrop were mapped as poss ib le  sources o f  
and areas o f  s t r u c t u r a l l y  favorable geologic patterns were desig- 
as areas o f  po ten t ia l  petroleum resources (a1 though v i r t u a l  l y  a1 1 
ures v i s i b l e  on the surface have already been tested). 
Perhaps the most d i f f i c u l t  task attempted was the mapping of urban 
areas. C i t i e s  and towns o f  Wyoming are r e l a t i v e l y  small (populat ion 
60,000 o r  less).  Ear ly attempts t o  o u t l i n e  the areas of urban develop- 
ment by standard photo in terpretat ion techniques were unsuccessful. A l -  
though the urban areas could genera l ly  be located on the imagery, there 
was o f t e n  i n s u f f i c i e n t  cont rast  w i t h  the surrounding r u r a l  development 
t o  a l low d e f i n i t i o n  o f  the urban area. Color-addi t ive viewing was use- 
f u l  i n  some instances where subt le  contrasts on two or  more bands could 
be enhanced by composite display,  but  i t  was soon discovered tha t  the 
a b i l i t y  t o  discern urban areas was l a r g e l y  dependent on the overa l l  con- 
t r a s t  w i t h  the surrounding area, and t h a t  the urban areas were genera l ly  
too small t o  e x h i b i t  a c h a r a c t e r i s t i c  tex tu re  or pat tern.  Even under 
magni f icat ion the urban areas general 1y appear as fuzzy-grey areas w i t h  
sub t le  v a r i a t i o n s  i n  in te rna l  tone and texture.  The pat terns are too 
i n t r i c a t e  and tonal  var ia t ions  too subt le  f o r  v isua l  in te rpre ta t ion .  
This problem was circumvented by employing the isodensi t racer as a 
t o o l  for enlarging the images f o r  the urban areas (up t o  SOX) and enhanc- 
ing subt le  densi ty contrasts.  In te rpre ta t ion  o f  the r e s u l t i n g  isodensi ty 
contour maps usual l y  allows separation o f  the urban areas from the sur- 
rounding rangeland and natura l  vegetat ion but  s t i l l  provides l i t t l e  d i s -  
t i ' nc t ion  between urban and a g r i c u l t u r a l  land. A more powerful technique 
was devised t o  segregate urban areas from a g r i c u l t u r a l  land. 
technique, four c o l o r  isodensi t racings are prepared f o r  each o f  the 
mul t i spec t ra l  images and the isodensi t racings are then composited t o  
form a c o l o r  composite map. 
In t h i s  
Both isodensi t racing techniques reveal pat terns w i t h i n  the urban 
areas t h a t  can o f t e n  be re la ted  t o  type o r  i n t e n s i t y  o f  development. I n  
some instances the i n d u s t r i a l  and/or business d i s t r i c t s  can be segre- 
gated from res ident ia l  areas. New res ident ia l  areas are commonly d is -  
t i n c t  from o lder  r e s i d e n t i a l  areas which have mature t rees. Parks or 
recreat ional  areas are sometimes i d e n t i f i a b l e .  
The advantages of  r e p e t i t i v e  coveragearewel l  demonstrated i n  our 
attempts a t  urban mapping. We were forced to go t o  great lengths t o  ac- 
cura te ly  def ine urban areas and s i g n i f i c a n t  zones w i t h i n  the urban areas 
us ing the e a r l y  ERTS images (taken i n  the summer and autum o f  1972). 
However, when we received the f i r s t  winter  maps over Wyoming, i t  became 
apparent t h a t  snow-cover provides great enhancement o f  urban areas. Not 
on ly  does the snow mask a l l  contrasts i n  r u r a l  areas and increase the 
contrast  between the urban areas and t h e i r  surroundings, but i t  provides 
987 
means of obtaining a pseudo-thermal map that records intensity of cul- 
tural activity in remarkable detail* The urban areas and transporta- 
tion routes are readily apparent on the images showing snow-cover and, 
with isodenstty contouring, zones of increased activity (business dis- 
tricts, industrial facitities, etc.) are shown In patterns o f  Increas- 
ing density which reflect the degree to which the snow-cover has been 
. disturbed, Interpretations of  the isodensity contour maps from these 
winter ERTS images compare very favorably with interpretations o f  com- 
parable aircraft photography and provide considerable data for updating 
most city maps (Fig, 3). 
This study demonstrates, that even though photointerpretative tech- 
niques using ERTS data cannot provide detail that many land-use applica- 
tions require, it i s  capable of  providing a great deal of broad-scale, 
bastc land-use data on a cor;tinulng basis. This fnformation can be de- 
r i v e d  from the ERTS data far more quickly and efficiently than by con- 
ventional techniques. Consequently, t h e  ERTS program can supply infor- 
mation fo r  land-use planning as long a$ there Is a need for constructing 
or revising the broad-scale land-use data base. 
988 
INTERPRETAf lON OF ISODENSITRACING 
FROM ERTS-5 
C I S P E R  W V W A # O  
MAP OF CASPER. WYOMING FROM YlSSiON 213 IMAGERY 
Figure 3. Comparison o f  interpretation o f  an ERTS image isodensitracing with 
an interpretation of  a l:3O,OOO scale aerial photograph. The ERTS 
image (1101-17185) Was taken with snow o n  the ground. 
989 


Remote sensing applied to land-use studies in Wyoming

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