Spectral analysis for articulating scenic color changes in a coniferous landscape

Scenic resources represent a significant economic gain with regard to regional recreation and tourism. Measuring their scope and spatial distribution, however, has proved challenging because scenic amenities relate to both the physical environment and the responses of people interacting with those settings. The reported research addressed the documentation of scenic resources, and presented an integrated approach toward (1) the acquisition and processing of color/change relationships from scanned ground-based photographs, and (2) the creation of computer simulations using the above photographs to illustrate the color shifts measured during image processing. A geographic information system (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and image processing technologies were applied to insure that the simulated environments displayed high levels of spatial and spectral accuracy. The derived techniques could ultimately provide managers with a cost-effective means to assess scenic change, through the use of indexed color/change data that could be documented, reproduced, and integrated with other quantitative data.