The author has identified the following significant results. A multiband classification scheme was applied to ERTS-1 MSS digital tape data in a portion of the Yukon Flats area. Primary analytic objectives of mapping the extent of recent wildfire burns and mature forest were realized illustrating application to moose and caribou biology. Additionally, the analysis indicated the presence of new lakes as well as disappearance of lakes present in 1956. Because this is an important waterfowl production area, similar analyses may have significant application potential to waterfowl biology for rapid updating of habitat information. Further field confirmation of this finding is required

Lent, P. C.

English

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"Made available under NASA sponsorshlp 7. 4- 1. .29 .
in the interest of early and wide dis- NINTH BI-MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT 0,'
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKAsemination of Earth.Resources Survey ERTS PROJECT 110-7
ERTS PROJECT 110-7Program information and without liability JANUARY 31, 1974
for any use made thereo."
A. TITLE OF INVESTIGATION: Application of ERTS-1 imagery to the study
of caribou movements and winter dispersal in relation to
prevailing snowcover
B. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/GSFC ID: Peter C. Lent/U682
C. PROBLEMS IMPEDING INVESTIGATION: None
D. PROGRESS REPORT:
1. Accomplishments during the reporting period: A discriminate analysis
was carried out on a portion of scene 1407-20371 for the following
features: recent fire (within 5 years) areas, mature closed spruce
o forest, alluvial gravel, lakes, potholes, silty rivers, and clear
0o streams. This analysis indicated band 7 density as the most useful
l I single variable overall in the discrimination and results in Table 1
H a were obtained using only band 7. Incorporation of band 5 data signi-
S ficantly improved results (table 2) but addition of bands 4 and 6
S MCo did not improve results in the gravel, burn, or forest classifications.
Therefore, a classification scheme based on bands 5 and 7 was formulated
and applied to MSS digital tape data. Each pixel was classified
and shown on the printout as either burn (b), forest (f), gravel (g),
lake (1), river (r), or unknown (blank).
In the resulting output, 53% of the total area was classified into
U "known" categories and 47% as unknown. Analysis of the output revealed
4 o that a substantial amount of the area classified as unknown is shown
D C1 U as lakes on the USGS map prepared in 1956. Additionally, the output
d (U indicated a number of "new" lakes which are not present on the 1956
SU USGS map. Several plausible explanations exist but 
it is apparent
S that there is a relatively high rate of lake formation 
and disappearance
En Z o in this area. Some of these are readily explained by river channel
r = m changes but other "new" lakes do not seem to have been formed 
as the
.Po -4J result of a shift in stream channels. Because the Yukon Flats is an
o0 H OU important waterfowl production area, further analyses of this type
rtI~ should be of interest and value to waterfowl biologists.
00H Within our own sphere of analytic interest, the mature forest stands
: 4 Z Fq are suitable winter caribou range whereas recently burned areas 
are not
H U O suitable for caribou. Dr. George Scotter of the Canadian 
Wildlife
P U MAService used pellet density as an index of utilization and found moose
N o 0 E 0 utilization maximal 11 to 30 years after burning whereas caribou utiliza-
-I q tion was insignificant during the first 50 years. Winter caribou
al P utilization was maximal in mature forested areas which had not burned
- C Hfor 120 or more years (Scotter 1970). Millions of acres burn each
"vIH .year in Alaska and Canada and it has been suggested by some (e.g.
OWP H Scotter 1970, Leopold and Darling 1953) that fire has played 
an important
Z rI ~role in the decline of North American caribou populations. Conversely,
r 0H W
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19740008967 2020-03-23T11:07:48+00:00Z
other biologists (Bergerud 1969, Skoog 1968) seriously disagree with the
former but, until now, there has been no timely, cost effective means
of annually monitoring the extent of wildfires on extensive and remote
caribou and moose range. Our analysis indicates the discriminations
involved are not particularly difficult with ERTS data.
In a similar multiband analysis of scene 1375-21002, the scheme in
Table 3 is being applied to the digital tape product. In this scheme,
the "water" categories correspond more to approximate depths than the
descriptive hydrologic feature labels. For example, "S" indicates
water depth of 2/3 meter or less, "I" indicates depth of about 1 meter,
"R" indicates depths of 1 to 2 meters, and "D" indicates depths of
approximately 2 meters or more.
The analysis will be a supervised classification and the anticipated
small percentage of misclassifications involving bare mountain rock
(k) and cloud shadow will be manually corrected on the output. Printer
distortion will be eliminated through development of a new program,
thus reducing overall output distortion to the .3% or less which is
inherent to the original digital tape product. Therefore, resulting
output will be a direct feature mapping at roughly 1:15,000 scale.
This will eliminate the necessity for correcting distortion with a
Zoom Transfer score or other optical device, This program eliminates
the requirement for scale reduction described in the previous analysis
for wildfire burns.
Three other techniques for map production were also applied to the
same portion of scene 1375-21002. These techniques are direct visual
interpretation of a 9.5" band 6 positive transparency, direct visual
interpretation of a 9.5" color composite transparency, and VP-8 analysis
of a 9.5" band 6 positive transparency. Careful examination of Table
3 clearly indicates that certain discriminations are not possible without
use of all four bands. However, the purpose of using all four
techniques is to make comparative cost and effectiveness evaluations
which will be submitted in the final report.
Scene 1375-20595 is currently being analysed for caribou trail systems
and selected habitat types on the Alaskan Arctic coastal plain. A
printout of digital tape data was produced and feature areas for use
as training sets have been identified by Dr. Robert LeResche of the
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Preliminary indications are that
bands 6 and 7 will be the ones most useful in this analysis.
During the past summer, we obtained ground truth data on vegetation,
pellet density, browse index, and soils at eleven different areas large
enough for use as training sets in connection with ERTS MSS digital
data. These field data have been punched on IBM cards in appropriate
format for analysis by existing Forest Service programs. In cooperation
with the Institute of Northern Forestry these card decks have been
forwarded to the Forest Service computer facility at Portland, Oregon
and analysis is currently underway. The primary objective of this
analysis is to evaluate particular vegetation types in terms of habitat
value to specific species. In this regard, our utilization indices
for each area are based on pellet density for caribou, moose, hare,
and ptarmigan as well as browsing indices for caribou, moose and hare.
2-
2. Plans for the next reporting period: The three alternate feature mapping
techniques described above will be applied to a portion of scene 1407-20371.
Feature enhanced displays of caribou trail systems (scene 1375-20595)
will be set up on the CDU and evaluated by Dr. Robert LeResche
provided the CDU becomes functional before our project termination
date.
A.comparative cost and effectiveness evaluation for the four feature
mapping techniques used will be prepared.
TABLE 1
Linear Discrimination Based
on Band 7
Number of Cases Classified into Group
Group Lake Pothole Stream River Gravel Burn Forest % correct
Lake 33 4 2 0 0 0 0 85%
Pothole 12 3 13 0 0 0 0 11%
Stream 2 9 13 0 0 0 0 54%
River 17 15 3 0 0 0 0 0%
Gravel 0 0 0 0 20 2 0 91%
Burn 0 0 0 0 0 28 4 88%
Forest 0 0 0 0 0 0 57 100%
TABLE 2
Linear discrimination based on bands 5 and 7
Number of cases classified into group
Group Lake Pothole Stream River Gravel Burn Forest % Correct
Lake 33 6 0 0 0 0 0 85%
Pothole 12 13 3 0 0 0 0 46%
Stream 0 5 16 3 0 0 0 67%
River 0 0 3 32 0 0 0 91%
Gravel 0 0 0 0 22 0 0 100%
Burn 0 0 0 0 0 31 1 97%
Forest 0 0 0 0 0 1 56 98%
TABLE 3
Multiband Classification Scheme for
Scene 1375-21002
Features Density Ranges
Band 4 Band 5 Band 6 Band 7
Open Spruce Forest (F) 21-24 14-19 25-28 13-17
Low Density Spruce (0) 19-24 14-19 29-32 12-18
Eriophorum Tussocks (E) 22-23 15-18 30-35 19-20
Upland Shrub
community (willow). (L) 17-21 11-16 31-36 19-20
Riparian willow (W) 25-29 20-22 23-30 14-15
Shallow Lakes (S) 16-32 20-27 9-18 1-4
m Streams (I) 17-20 10-15 9-22 3-8
4 Rivers (R) 22-27 14-19 10-18 3-7
Deep Lakes (D) 16-20 8-11 6-8 0-3
Bare Mountain Rock (K) 22-33 20-29 11-22 5-12
Alluvial Gravel (G) 29-35 25-30 23-29 9-13
Unmelted Snowbanks (A) 20-23 15-20 37-44 21-25
Clouds (C) 27+ 22+ 36+ 21+
Upland Shrub
Community (Birch) (B) 24-26 11-16 31-36 19-20
Literature Cited:
Bergerud, A. T. 1969. The caribou have returned. Ecology
50: 940-941.
Leopold, A. S. and F.F. Darling. 1953. Wildlife in Alaska.
Ronald Press Company, New York. 129 pp.
"Scotter; G. W. 1970. Wildfires in relation to the habitat of
barren ground caribou in the taiga of northern Canada.
Proc. Ann. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conf. Edmonton,
Alberta
Skoog, R. O. 1968. Ecology of the caribou (Rangifer tarandus
granti) in Alaska. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of
Calif., Berkeley, Calif.
E. SIGNIFICANT RESULTS:
A multiband classification scheme was applied to ERTS MSS-digital
tape data in a portion of the Yukon Flats area. Primary analytic
objectives of mapping the extent of recent wildfire burns and mature
forest were realized illustrating application to moose and caribou
biology. Additionally, the analysis indicated the presence of new
lakes as well as disappearance of lakes present in 1956. Because
this is an important waterfowl production area, similar analyses may
have significant application potential to waterfowl biology for
rapid updating of habitat information. Further field confirmation of
this finding is required.
F. PUBLICATIONS: None
G. RECOMMENDATIONS: None
H. CHANGES IN STANDING ORDER FORM: None
_3-


Application of ERTS-1 imagery to the study of caribou movements and winter dispersal in relation to prevailing snowcover

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