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Deselm, H. R.

Taylor, T. W.

English

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E7.4- 1 0.7 1.7,
(E74-10717) VEGETATION BOUNDARIES ON N74-31798
ERTS-1 IMAGERY (Tennessee Univ.) 10 p
EC $4.00 CSCL 08F
Unclas
G3/13 00717
VEGETATION BOUNDARIES
ON
ERTS-1 IMAGERY
H.R. DeSelm T.W. Taylor
Department of Botany
and
Graduate Program in Ecology
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville
Remote Sensing of Earth Resources II: 925-933.
Technical papers selected from the Conference on
Earth Resources Observation and Information
Analysis System held in Tullahoma, Tennessee,
March .26-28, 1973.
Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory,
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville,
N.S. No. 389.
Org na M Oly be purchased tMa
,f t"Made available under NASA Sponso6ho.in the interest of early and wide dis-semination of Earth Resources Survey
rograny inforuse mation and without liabilityfor any use made thereot"
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19740023685 2020-03-23T03:48:25+00:00Z
VEGETATION BOUNDARIES ON
ERTS-1 IMAGERY*
H. R. DeSelm+o, T. W. Taylor
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Abstract
Comparison of systems corrected ERTS-1 imagery and micro-
densitometer scan printouts derived from them with base vege-
tation maps and current 1:120,000 and 1:60,000 scale imagery
of the Great Smoky Mountains is in progress. It reveals good
separation of the spruce-fir forest from the other forest areas
but band seven does not distinguish between hardwood and heath
dominated vegetation.
Introduction
This paper compares apparent boundaries of vegetation
types in restricted portions of the Southern Appalachians
with various levels of ground, other image, and map truth.
Within the Southern Appalachians are extensive wildlands of
which most are forested; in Tennessee, for example, 47 per
cent of the land area is forested and counties along the
Tennessee-North Carolina boundary average 53 per cent forested
but counties are as high as 81 per cent forest covered.' In
several counties National Forests, and in two counties the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and other forms of
federal ownerships are high proportions.' The forest land-
scape is used for wood products, recreation and aesthetics
but increasing pressure is being applied for use as recrea-
tional-home 
- summer home developments. In the Cumberland
Research supported by the National Aeronautics and Space
dministration Earth Resources Technology Satellite Program.
Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory, the University of
Tenneysee-Knoxville, N.S. No. 389.
Graduate Program in Ecology, ODepartment of Botany,
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
925
H. R. DESELM, T. W. TAYLOR
Mountains and Plateau to the west, deep pit and strip mining
is devastating extensive areas. The biota of these areas
serve as a gene pool from which we will doubtless extract
organisms which produce fibers and chemicals needed in future
centuries. Monitoring of this landscape resource is an es-
sential feature of our national activities. 2
This study centers on vegetation interfaces in the South-
ern Appalachians - particularly in the Blue Ridge Physiographic
province of East Tennessee and western North Carolina. Of
particular interest is the Tennessee-North Carolina state line
ridge extending northeast-southwest through the Great Smokies,
and the Balsam Mountain ridges extending southeast from Tri-
corner Knob on the state line ridge. The topography is
rugged and mountainous, slopes, and stream gradients are steep.
Most of the above crests areas are about 1372 m (4500 ft ) and
elevation to 2018 m (6621 ft ) occur. The area is underlaid
by intensively folded faulted and usually metamorphosed Pre-
cambrian rocks, Thunderhead sandstone, the silty to argilla-
ceous slates, phyllites and schists of the Anakeesta Formation,
and by muskovite and other schists and gneisses.3 '4  Soils are
spodosols and Ultisols: Hapludults, Paleudults and Dystro-
chrepts. 5 They are shallow, stony , sandy, acid and of low
fertility. Rooting is commonly shallow - often in contact
with litter layers which occur to 117 mt/ha (48 tons/acre) in
the spruce vegetation.6 Climates of the mountain axes vary
with elevation, exposure and position relative to sheltering
from radiation and prevailing winds. They fall within the
Caf and Cb types of Koppen 7 and those at 1219 - 1524 m (4000 -
5000 ft ) are similar to those in the eastern Great Lakes area
and New England. Those higher approach the low elevation
climates of Maine and the Canadian Maritime provinces. 8 '9
During one five year study a mean temperature decrease of 1.3C
(2.3F) and 17.37 cm (6.84 in) of precipitation with each 305 m
(1000 ft.) upward. Annual soil temperatures varied with air
temperatures but averaged ca.h.5F low. 8' 1 High elevation
vegetation is of several types: 1) heath slicks, 2) northern
hardwood forests, 3) s ruce-fir forests, and 4) intergrades
among those above.
Methods
This study has used bulk (systems corrected) 70 mm and
24 cm ERTS-1 imagery dated 15 October, 1972: 1084-15431,
band 7. It has been compared visually with base data: base
and vegetation maps and 1:60,000 and 1:120,000 scale imagery.
926
VEGETATION BOUNDARIES
Microdensitometer scan print outs of a portion of the 70 mm
imagery are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with
the base data. 1
Results and Discussion
The first question that arises is what is represented
on the ERTS-1 imagery; photographic copy in Fig. 1. The darker
central area is the one of chief interest and it corresponds
in general with land above 1372 m (4500 ft ) elevation, it has
lower air and soil temperatures and higher precipitation than
is experienced on lower slopes. It seems possible that this
represents the microthermal climatic regime found by Shanks in
the high Smokies. However, the dark area does not appear on
all ridges above 1372 m (4500 ft ), for example, Thomas
Divide does not appear dark - nor does this ridge possess
the spruce-fir vegetation which caps most crests.
Comparison of Figs. 1 and 2 suggests a general relation-
ship between the extent of spruce-fir and the dark area. The
area "S" on Fig. 2 is a sketch of the boundary of spruce-fir
forest but includes small bodies of other vegtation. It was
prepared from 1:60,000 scale NASA RB-57 imagery, obtained
April 1972. Differences in scale and skew in imagery make
direct imparisons difficult. However, more feasible compari-
sons may be made by scanning the imagery (Fig. 3). The
larger scale print out is of a scale similar to that of the
RB-57 imagery, as well as those of our base and vegetation
maps. It is apparent that density levels greater than 107
(8 and denser symbols) approximates spruce-fir forest although
certain areas mapped as continuous boreal forest are here
discontinuous and the reverse is also true. Types appeared
to exhibit density ranges as suggested in Table 1.
Clouds and their shadows appear (Fig. 3). Large valleys
(V on Figs. 2 and 3) simulate spruce. Small valleys are often
represented by X (densities 91-98) intermediate between hard-
wood forest and heath peaks. Hardwood forest and heath cover,
gray versus pink on false color imagery are not well separated
here.
Conclusions
The ERTS-1 imagery offers unparallelled opportunity to
examine landscape characteristics. Certain vegetation inter-
faces are susceptible to analysis - especially ones exhibiting
927
H. R. DESELM, T. W. TAYLOR
major morphological, emission or reflectance differences. The
spruce-fir versus hardwood vegetation interface visible on
bands 4, 5, 6, and 7 is well distinguished on band 7 but adja-
cent heath vegetation is not well distinguished there. Refine-
ments using scene-corrected, color ERTS imagery and increased
map precision from e.g., 1:120,000 scale modern imagery are
current.
References
'Hedlund, A. and J. M. Earles. Forest statistics for Tenn-
essee counties. U.S.D.A. Forest Serv. Res. Bull. 50-32. 1971.
2DeSelm, H. R., C. C. Amundsen and P. F. Krumpe. Remote sens-
ing of the Appalachian wildland resources. Proc. conf. earth
resources observation and information analysis system. March
13-14, 1972. University of Tennessee Space Inst., Tullahoma.
Remote Sensing of Earth Resources I: 193-205. 1972.
3King, P. B., R. B. Neuman and J. B. Hadley. Geology of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North
Carolina. USGS Prof. Paper 587. 1968.
4Hadley, J. B. and A. E. Nelson. Geological map of the
Knoxville quadrangle, North Carolina, Tennessee and South
Carolina. USGS Misc. Invest. Map. 1-654. Washington, D.C.1971
5U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Distribution of principle
kinds of soils: Orders, Suborders, and Great Groups. Map.
National Atlas of the United States. U.S. Department of
Interior. Washington, D. C. hl7pp.
6McGinnis, J. T. Forest litter and humus types of East
Tennessee. M.S. Thesis, Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville. 82pp.
1958.
7Trewartha, G. T. An introduction to weather and climate.
McGraw-hill. New York. pp. 392-486. 1943.
8Shanks, R. E. Climates of the Great Smoky Mountains. Ecol.
35: 354-361. 1954.
9Tennessee Valley Authority. Precipitation-altitude study,
Snowbird Mountains, North Carolina. Hyd. Data Br., Div.
Water Cont. Plan. Rept. 0-5620. Knoxville. 1955.
928
VEGETATION BOUNDARIES
10Shanks, R. E. Altitudinal and microclimatic relationships
of soil temperature under natural conditions. Ecology
37: 1-7. 1956.
1 1Whittaker, R. H. Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Ecol. Monog. 26: 1-80. 1956.
12U.S. National Park Service. Vegetation type map. Great
Smoky Mountains National Park. Master Plan. 1939.
1 3Bodenheimer, R. and W. L. Green. Information processing
of photographic images. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual (1971)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference.
April 26-28, 1971. Charlottesville, Va. 1971.
14 Bodenheimer, R. and W. L. Green. Digital image processing
and interpretation of photographic film data. Proc. 1972.
I.E.E.E. Region III conference. April, 1972 pp. mh-1:mh-5.
Knoxville, Tennessee. 1972.
20 March 1973
929
Density Range
Vegetation 58-65 66-73 7h-81 82-90 91-98 99-106 107-132 133-156 157-256
Spruce-Fir 0.0 0..0 0.0 0.9 2.6 7.0 11.3 7..0 6.1
Spruce-Hardwoods 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 6.1 8.7 3.5 0.9
Hardwoods 2.6 6.1 2.6 1.7 0.9 0.0 5.2 0.0 0.0
Heath 0.0 12.2 4.3 5.2 2.6 0.9 0.9 0.0 0.0
Table 1. Comparison of microdensitometer print out density scale division groups and vegetationtypes on RB-57 imagery.
4,4* 4
I vI
g. A 41 t
lril
Figure 1. Photographic positive ccpy of ERTS-1 imagery of
15 October 1972 over the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains.
931
U)
Figure 2. Sketch of boundary of mountain crest area chiefly
in spruce forest (S). Big Creek valley is also outlined (V).
932
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,,,,1.----------
____ri~ -. Fs-
A:: O ........' ~~
r0 z
'" Z : n ,. -- *
o p 4~ ~ a~ tJJ
h.........
IN
................
iCaE
Figure 3. Printout of microdensitometer scan of the original
of which Figure l was derived. Clouds and their shadows (C),
Big Creek valley Mv, and small valleys (D) appear. The main
dark area is spruce forest. The highest ridges are shown as
a heavy line.
933


Vegetation boundaries on ERTS-1 imagery

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