Development of land-cover spatial database using satellite imagery: Lesson learned from southern part of Sumatera

Development of spatial databases for systematic thematic mapping is a relatively complex activity, as compared to mapping a small area with arbitrary boundary. This research was conducted in the provinces of Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung Islands, Jambi, and Bengkulu, southern Sumatera. The stages of spatial databases development involved remote sensing, GIS, and cartographic activities. A synoptic overview of the landscape was carried out prior to the spatial database development. The landscape complexity was assessed using landscape-ecological approach, which was implemented in the delineation and classification. The remote sensing process started from spatial data collection of various images with various spatial resolutions, image pre-processing, followed by image analysis and interpretation. Pan-sharpened Landsat-8 images (15 meters) were used as main data, supported by SPOT 6/7 imagery (6 meters), Sentinel-2A imagery (10 meters) and DEMNAS digital elevation model (8 meters) for particular areas. This stage gave consequences to the multi-scale analysis in the process of land-cover delineation. The GIS process comprised the stages of compiling the interpretation results to form a seamless mosaic, topology construction, coding into Indonesian Geographic Element Catalog (KUGI) standard, metadata development, followed by topology checking. Those processes aimed to achieve a single map of Sumatera at 1: 50,000 scale. The cartographic layout design was the final stage of the spatial database development, where the land-cover classes symbol was also carried out in accordance with the established standards. Some problems and solutions in the whole processes were also discussed in this paper.