Multipolarized and Multitemporal Analysis of Envisat Asar Data for Agricultural Inventories (invekos) in Germany

On the base of the Integrated Agricultural Administration and Controlling System (InVeKos) the Federal State of Thuringia (Germany) has a strong interest in actual, area covering land use types and borders. Until now the inventory is based on optical orthophotos. Goal of this study is to analyze, whether these orthophotos might be replaced by spaceborne remote sensing data, especially by multitemporal, multipolarized ENVISAT ASAR data, to develop cost and time efficient operational evaluation procedures. ERS-2 SAR and ENVISAT ASAR data were evaluated over selected testsite within the Thuringian Basin in the center of Germany. The multitemporal and multipolarized evaluations enabled the distinction between arable land and grassland (pastures). Further separations of different land use classes within the arable land were possible, although some were overlapping quite a lot. ENVISAT ASAR data improves the possibilities of classifying land use classes immense, but although its multipolarized sensor capabilities, it is still a one frequency system.