The integration of spectral analyses of Landsat ETM+ with the DEM data for mapping mangrove forests

This study aims to develop an efficient method to extract mangrove forests at a regional scale using remote sensing data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique. A regional mangrove forests mapping method was developed based on the spectral characteristics and the topographic existence condition of mangrove forests. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) and digital elevation model (DEM) were used to enhance the discrimination between mangrove forests and other different kinds of forests and vegetations to achieve the purpose of this study in the southern part of Japan. The maximum likelihood supervised classification technique was applied to map mangrove forests. The resultant mangrove forests map were further validated by using aerial photographs, topographic maps and other local vegetation maps. This study revealed that mangrove forests in the study area could be accurately mapped from integration of spectral data derived from Landsat ETM+ together with topographic information.