Urban ecotope mapping using QuickBird imagery

The main purpose of this paper was to explore the potential of QuickBird data in ecotope mapping in the urban context. A part of Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province was taken as the test area. In the paper, four test sampling areas, which represented different land cover composition, were selected for the analysis and inferring of land use in the test area. The combination of rules on different features of land cover was used in the determination of land cover in QuickBird imagery. The process was a gradual one, in which step by step more detailed and determined classes of land cover were inferred out. After the finish of inferring of classes, smooth filtering was conducted on the results and ecotope maps were generated. It was found that the QuickBird imagery was a valuable data source for the mapping of ecotope in urban areas.