An Analysis of Milwaukee County Land Use by Machine-Processing of ERTS Data

The identification and classification of urban and suburban phenomena through analysis of remotely-acquired sensor data can provide information of great potential value to many regional analysts. Such classifications, particularly those using spectral data obtained from satellites such as the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) orbited by NASA, allow rapid, frequent and accurate general land use inventories that are of value in many types of spatial analyses. In this study, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin was classified into several broad land use categories on the basis of computer analysis of four bands of ERTS spectral data (ERTS Frame Number E1017-16093). Categories identified were: 1) road-central business district, 2) grass (green vegetation), 3) suburban, 4) wooded suburb, 5) heavy industry, 6) inner city, and water. Overall, 90 percent accuracy was attained in classification of these urban land use categories