Mapping landforms in orthophotos (.ecw/.tiff)

[MichaelCurran]

Hi all,
For a while now I have wondered how botanists create detailed vegetation maps. Usually these are in the form of shapefiles comprising many polygons, e.g. pages 15-17 of Example report
So, there has likely been field sampling (quadrats/transects) and this data is mapped over an orthophoto (.ecw or .tiff).  I assume they use a program/extension that classifies the orthophoto based on colour ranges. This covers the orthophoto in polygons, which they then re-group into the appropriate vegetation units based on the field sampling data.
Any help is appreciated.
Cheers, Michael

[JakeSkinner]

Hi Michael,

If you have the Spatial Analyst extension you can easily perform an image classification using the image classification toolbar.  With this toolbar you can create training samples and then perform a interactive supervised classification.