COMPARING DIFFERENT SATELLITE IMAGE CLASSIFICATION METHODS: AN APPLICATION IN AYVALIK DISTRICT,WESTERN TURKEY.

The different satellite image classification methods were compared using the satellite images of the Ayvalık district located on the western coast of Turkey covering approximately 560 km2. For this purpose, landuse classification of the investigation area was made by different supervised image classification procedures and the results were compared with one another. Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite image, IDRISI Klimanjaro image processing and the GIS package were used in this study. Of the classified images, the maximum likelihood method is found to be more applicable and reliable for the satellite image classification purposes. While the minimum distance method has given more reliable results than the linear discriminant procedures, the parellelpiped method is found to give the least reliable results compared to the other methods. 1