Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is free Geographic Information System (GIS) software used for geospatial

data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. Land cover is the observed (bio) physical cover on the earth's surface. When considering land cover in a very pure and strict sense it should be confined to describe vegetation and man-made features. Consequently, areas where the surface consists of bare rock or bare soil are describing land itself rather than land cover. Also, it is disputable whether water surfaces are real land cover. However, in practice, the scientific community usually describes those aspects under the term land cover. Land use is characterized by the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it. Definition of land use in this way establishes a direct link between land cover and the actions of people in their environment. The following examples are a further illustration of the above definitions:

"grassland" is a cover term, while "rangeland"(Land suitable for grazing livestock) or "tennis court" refer to the use of a grass cover; and

"recreation area" is a land use term that may be applicable to different land cover types: for instance sandy surfaces like a beach; a built-up area like a pleasure park; woodlands; etc.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have collected information about Earth from space. This science, known as remote sensing, has matured with the Landsat Program.

Landsat satellites have taken specialized digital photographs of Earths continents and surrounding coastal regions for over three decades, enabling people to study many aspects of our planet and to evaluate the dynamic changes caused by both natural processes and human practices. The Thematic Mapper (TM) is an advanced, multispectral scanning, Earth resources sensor designed to achieve higher image resolution, sharper spectral separation, improved geometric fidelity and greater radiometric accuracy and resolution than the MSS sensor. TM data are sensed in seven spectral bands simultaneously. Band 6 senses thermal (heat) infrared radiation. Landsat can only acquire night scenes in band 6. A TM scene has an Instantaneous Field Of View (IFOV) of 30 square meters in bands 1-5 and 7 while band 6 has an IFOV of 120 square meters on the ground.

TM Bands Band Number m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Resolution

0.45-0.52 30 m 0.52-0.60 30 m 0.63-0.69 30 m 0.76-0.90 30 m 1.55-1.75 30 m 10.4-12.5 120 m 2.08-2.35 30 m

A digital terrain model (DTM) is a topographic model of the bare earth terrain relief - that can be manipulated by computer programs. The data files contain the spatial elevation data of the terrain in a digital format which usually presented as a rectangular grid.