This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999
Today, validation or accuracy assessment is an integral component of most
mapping projects incorporating remotely sensed data. Other spatial information
may not be so stringently evaluated, but at least requires meta-data that
documents how the information was generated. This emphasis on data quality was
not always the case. In the 1970s only a few brave scientists and researchers
dared ask the question, ‘How good is this map derived from Landsat MSS
imagery?’ In the 1980s, the use of the error matrix became a common tool
for representing the accuracy of individual map categories. By the 1990s, most
maps derived from remotely sensed imagery were required to meet some minimum
accuracy standard. A similar progression can be outlined for other spatial
information. However, this progression is about 5 years behind the validation
of remotely sensed data. This paper presents a series of steps moving towards
better assessment and validation of spatial information and asks the reader to
evaluate where they are in this series and to move forward.
