Comparison of 1991 Oxford County crop area estimates derived from satellite imagery and Statistics Canada census.

摘要

The availability of satellite imagery has permitted inventorying agricultural crops regionally and nationally. Crop information is needed for crop yield studies, soil conservation efforts, and agricultural land use planning. This study compared 1991 Statistics Canada and remote sensing agricultural crop information of Oxford County in southwestern Ontario at the enumeration area, township, and county level.;The main objectives of this study were to (1) classify a July 1991 Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper image and calculate crop area estimates of major crops; (2) compare these estimates with Statistics Canada crop figures; and (3) perform a statistical comparison of the two data sets. Image classification accuracy was generally very high. It was found that area estimates for the two data sets were highly correlated at the township and county level for most crops. Enumeration area level crop estimates varied considerably for most crops.;Remote sensing may provide accurate and reliable crop area information at the enumeration area level.