WSP11837

• File Number: 8200.760
• Description: Yampa River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 10/1/1978
• Author: USGS
• Title: Preliminary Applications of Landsat Images and Aerial Photography for Determining Land-Use - Geologic - and Hydrologic Characteristics - Yampa River Basin - Colorado and Wyoming - October 1978
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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In G J.)(.

Table 4. --Final land-use and land-covel' classes selected f01'
classification using Intel'act.:ve DigitaZ Image ManipuZation System

Class number

Color code

Class

1---------
2---------
3---------
4---------
5---------

6---------
7---------
8---------
9---------
10---------

11---------
12---------
13---------
14---------
15---------
16---------

Dryland agriculture 1------------------
Dryland agriculture 2------------------
Dryland agriculture 3------------------
Rangeland (sage and grass)-------------
Rangeland (brush and shrub)------------

Cottonwoods----------------------------
Wet meadow-----------------------------
Water----------------------------------
Rangeland (sparsely vegetated)---------
Bare soi1------------------------------

Deciduous vegetation-------------------
Mixed grass and brush (wet areas)------
Meadow---------------------------------
Conifers-------------------------------
Clouds---------------------------------
Cloud shadows--------------------------

Light green.
01 ive.
Dark green.
Brown.
Orange.

Red.
Aqua.
Dark blue.
Sand.
Gray.

Red.
Aqua.
Aqua.
Purple.
Whi te.
Black.

proportion of cloud CoVer. Overlap of signatures between deciduous trees and
cottonwoods precluded the effective separation of these two classes.
Although cottonwoods and other deciduous trees were kept as spectrally
separate classes, they were displayed on the color-coded classification with
the same color. Overlap in signatures between the other classes was minor
and probably was caused either by spectral similarity of classes or inaccu-
rate delineation of training sets. The same color-classification code was as-
signed to wet-meadow (class 7l, mixed grass and brush (wet areas) (class 12),
and meadow (class 13) classes (table 4) because of physical similarity of
classes and a lack of availabil ity of different colors for display purposes.

A color-coded classification of the area along the Yampa River, from the
confluence of Elkhead Creek east to about Steamboat Springs, Colo. (fig. 1),
is shown on figure 13.

The IDIMS, like the Image-lOO System, has the capability of computing
total acreages for each of the land-use and land-cover classes selected;
however, it was not done for this study because of time limitations and lack
of ground information for comparison and confirmation of results. Comparison
of land-use classes defined from 1973 black-and-white photographs with ground
information and Landsat classification results indicated an increase in
dryland-agriculture activity between 1973 and 1975.

Color-infrared aerial photographs of the southern part of the basin were
obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Dennis Parker, written
commun., 1977) subsequent to the classification of the Landsat imagery. The

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