ABSTRACT
The northwestern Michigan region of Grand Traverse Bay has the highest concentrations of cherries in the Midwestern United States. High-resolution IKONOS multispectral and panchromatic images from July 17, 2011, were used to estimate cherry orchard acreage. Corresponding fieldwork acquired global positioning system (GPS) locations of 250+ cherry trees across 25 orchards. eCognition object-oriented classification delineated medium or sparse, dense cherry orchards for the Antrim County section. Accuracy assessment performed on 127 stratified random points generated overall classification accuracy of 74.80%, with a kappa statistic of 0.678. Cherry orchard area estimates compared with 2007 and 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture censuses were within ±3.09% of the census cherry orchard acreage amount. Therefore, high spatial resolution imagery is an effective tool for estimating orchard acreage.
