Abstract:
Remote sensing technology and GIS can successfully increase the performance in various
type of study such as forestry, agriculture and managing development of certain area
without going to the area. In this study, this technology was used to detect the distribution
of Melaleuca leucodendron or locally known as Gelam and other land cover area. The
study area are rich with diverse type of vegetation and rural residential. Satellite image
(SPOT-5) captured on 15
March 2006 with medium resolution was used for the Gelam
distribution area and was analyzed and classified using 'Maximum Likelihood Classifier'
(MCL) with 90% of overall accuracy. From the results, eight classes of land cover were
differentiating with band combination of 4, 3 and 2. There are 'Gelam', 'Water bodies',
'Mixed mangrove', 'High vegetation', 'Low vegetation', 'Rubber and Oil palm',
'Swamp' and 'Open area'. In this study, a total of37600.5l l ha were classified as classes
of the area. The area covered 98.93% of the image. Gelam area cover 10.5% of the total
area with the area extent is 3965.6 ha. Gelam distributed mostly on Loamy Sand soil
texture and with an acidic soil.
