Determination of the most suitable method for forest type mapping in central Zagros using landsat-8 satellite Images

The forest type map is one of the most important thematic maps for forest ecosystem management. Forest mapping using field methods or aerial photos is labor-intensive and time consuming. In contrast, satellite data with its own characteristics like large and repetitive coverage, update and useful information in various wavelengths provides a good opportunity in this regard. This research was carried out with the aim of providing forest type map of central Zagros forests (Chahartagh forest reservoir), of Iran, using the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data, in August 2016.Two ground-truth maps based on tree density and tree crown area were prepared by field surveying. Moreover, ancillary data such as tree species, location and crown area was taken. In order to increase the spatial resolution of multispectral bands, various image fusion techniques were applied. The best result obtained by the maximum likelihood algorithm with kappa coefficient and overall accuracy values of 57 and 63%, respectively. Due to high species diversity in this area the results showed that the OLI images have a moderate capability to produce forest type maps in Zagros forest.