ABSTRACT
A method for rapidly and extensively documenting land use/land cover in order to obtain 'ground truth' that can be used to evaluate and classify satellite imagery is described. Newly developed technology and software that have become available over the past five years now allow rapid acquisition and recording of digital still and video images of land use/land cover that are automatically georeferenced with GPS (Global Positioning System) readings and incorporated into GIS (Geographical Information System) spatial datasets. Because the location of the images is normally locatable within the approximate area of a pixel in Landsat images, when they are accurately registered along with the GIS containing the locations where the photos or video shots were taken, photographic images of some typical or problematic pixels can be readily recovered and viewed on screen if they are among those that have been recorded. The research agenda I am following involves the digital capture of typical and atypical landscape features in representative locations throughout the People's Republic of China, beginning in 1999 and continuing to the present and beyond. Because the visual record I am compiling is georeferenced with GPS and accessible via GIS databases, it should be of considerable interest to researchers for an indefinite future.
