Classification of tree species using high-resolution QuickBird-2 satellite images in the valley of Ui-dong in Bukhansan National Park

This study was performed in order to suggest the possibility of tree species classification using high-resolution Quick-Bird-2 images spectral characteristics comparison(digital numbers [DNs]) of tree species, tree species classification, andaccuracy verification. In October 2010, the tree species of three conifers and eight broad-leaved trees were examined inthe areas studied. The spectral characteristics of each species were observed, and the study area was classified by imageclassification. The results were as follows: Panchromatic and multi-spectral band 4 was found to be useful for tree speciesclassification. DNs values of conifers were lower than broad-leaved trees. Vegetation indices such as normalized differencevegetation index (NDVI), soil brightness index (SBI), green vegetation index (GVI) and Biband showed similar patternsto band 4 and panchromatic (PAN); Tukey’s multiple comparison test was significant among tree species. However,tree species within the same genus, such as Pinus densiflora-P. rigida and Quercus mongolica-Q. serrata, showed similarDNs patterns and, therefore, supervised classification results were difficult to distinguish within the same genus; Randomselection of validation pixels showed an overall classification accuracy of 74.1% and Kappa coefficient was 70.6%. Theclassification accuracy of Pterocarya stenoptera, 89.5%, was found to be the highest. The classification accuracy of broadleavedtrees was lower than expected, ranging from 47.9% to 88.9%. P. densiflora-P. rigida and Q. mongolica-Q. serratawere classified as the same species because they did not show significant differences in terms of spectral patterns.