Use of GIS and remote sensing techniques to estimate coconut cultivation area: Case study of Kaloleni subcounty

Abstract

This study was aimed at estimating area under coconut cultivation in Kaloleni Sub-County by employing the use of GIS and remote sensing techniques. The viability of high resolution satellite imagery (GeoEye) was tested to locate the distribution of the coconut trees in the study area. After image pre-processing, the image was subjected to maximum likelihood classification to produce a land cover map showing the distribution of coconut palm trees and other land-cover types. The classifier was trained and the accuracy of the results assessed using ground truth data of the coconut palm trees and other land-cover types that were collected. Ground truth data, in the form of field mappings, high resolution reference data and expert knowledge were used to gain further insights and produce reliable results. Results of the supervised classification showed an overall classification accuracy of 76.67%. A total of 303.82 hectares of coconut palms were detected from the image analysis.