Delineation of forest/nonforest land use classes using nearest neighbor methods

Abstract

The k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) method of forest attribute estimation and mapping has become an integral part of national forest inventory methods in Finland in the last decade. This success of kNN method in facilitating multi-source inventory has encouraged trials of the method in the Great Lakes Region of the United States. Here we present results from applying the method to Landsat TM and ETM+ data and land cover data collected by the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. In 1999, the FIA program in the state of Minnesota moved to a new annual inventory design to reach its targeted full sampling intensity over a 5-year period. This inventory design also utilizes a new 4-subplot cluster plot configuration. Using this new plot design together with 1 year of field plot observations, the kNN classification of forest/nonforest/water achieved overall accuracies ranging from 87% to 91%. Our analysis revealed several important behavioral features associated with kNN classification using the new FIA sample plot design. Results demonstrate the simplicity and utility of using kNN to produce FIA defined forest/nonforest/water classifications.