Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Urban and regional land use change detected by using Landsat data

January 1, 1977

The Atlanta Regional Commission and the Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center participated in a demonstration of the use of Landsat digital data to detect land use change in the Atlanta, Ga., area. Temporal overlays combining Landsat band-5 data from October 1972 and 1974 were made by using the General Electric Image 100 system. The 1972 data were divided by the 1974 data, and low ratios indicate areas where land use and land cover had changed. These low ratios were classified into a land-use-change theme. A classification based on the use of the four bands of the multispectral scanner data, taken in 1974, yielded six land use categories: (1) Commercial-industrial-multifamily, (2) single-family residential, (3) cleared land, (4) open space, (5) forested land, and (6) water. These six 1974 categories and the change theme were combined to determine changes between 1972 and 1974.

Publication Year 1977
Title Urban and regional land use change detected by using Landsat data
Authors William J. Todd
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey
Index ID 70112341
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center