A Review of: “Applied Geomorphology: Geomorphological Surveys for Environmental Development.” By H. TH. VERSTAPPEN. (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1983.) [Pp. 437.] Price $95.75 (U.S.A. and Canada) Dfl. 225.00 (Rest of World).

Abstract

This research was conducted to assess the utility of Landsat Thematic Mapper thermal data (10.4 to 12.5/μm) for urban feature analysis. Seven band thematic mapper data collected on 25 October, 1982 for the Chicago metropolitan area were used to determine the relative importance of the thermal band as a component of an urban land use classification.|Analysis consisted of: (1) the use of a transformed divergence measure (separability) to test the interclass spectral variability of selected features for different channel combinations and (2) a comparison of classification results, with and without thermal data using a supervised layered classification algorithm. The use of thermal data resulted in an overall 9.3 per cent increase in classification accuracy. Elimination of classes such as forest, asphalt and railroad resulted in an increase of 12.0 per cent in classification performance. Examination of the separability analysis and classification results indicated there were specific areas of success resulting from the use of thermal data. Increased classification accuracy occurred in several classes such as shadow (+ 36.7 per cent), residential ( + 41.1 per cent), active industry ( + 20.0 per cent) and commercial industrial fringe ( + 77.1 per cent). These results demonstrated that the information content of thermal data was valuable for urban area analysis.