Use of airborne video data for the characterization of tropical savannas in northern Australia: the optimal spatial resolution for remote sensing applications

Very high resolution airborne video data were used to assess the optimal sp atial resolution for mapping the land cover types occurring in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Canopy cover and principal component image s were extracted for four vegetation communities and investigated separatel y. Analysis of average variance in conjunction with a proposed visual analy sis method proved more successful in establishing the optimal resolution th an analysis of spatial autocorrelation using semivariograms. The optimal re solution was found to be dependent on the structure of the vegetation commu nity as well as the image component under investigation. A resolution of be tween 20 and 27 m is optimal for all instances examined.