Division of Crop Improvement, Central Planfafion Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod 671 724
* Present address: Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut 673 012
* Department of Geography, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam
Detection and quantitative assessment of green vegetation is one of the major applications of remote sensing for environmental resource management and decision-making. The spectral signature for the green plants are very characteristic and hence it is easy to understand and predict the area under a particular crop with the help of FCC image and classified image, when the knowledge about the crop is available as in the case of coconut in Kasaragod. A high resolution data such as 1: 25,000 and outline idea of the vegetation set up of the place is essential for such prediction. The coconut plantations of Kasaragod district were well understood in the FCC image and DN value classification on the computer screen with the help the ERDAS software. The colour variation was found very clear and the ground survey reports were also in agreement with the image.
Mapping of coconut resources in other parts of the country would be possible with the information generated from the present study, which could be used for planning coconut based industry.
