The purpose of this work was to explore low-cost techniques for
land-use mapping. Landsat TM imagery was classified by two
widely used and established classification approaches, and these
two methods were combined and compared. Next, the hypothesis
that integrating current satellite remote-sensing data together with
data from the Israeli GIS will improve the land-use mapping
significantly was tested. The land-use classification technique
presented in this work can be used to produce information pertaining
changes in land-uses, such as monitoring of land-use
conversion and land degradation. The information could be further
used to study the relations between land-use changes and other
phenomena such as carbon fixation, biodiversity, climate change,
and sustainable management of natural resources.
Specific objectives of the current study are: