Visual interpretation and comparison of different land cover products in a region mixed with natural forest and oil palm plantation.

A) the location of the case region in Borneo Island, Southeast Asia; B) the false color composited graph of Landsat 5 image (30 m, path/row = 117/56, R/G/B  =  Band NIR/Red/Green) on August 11, 2009; C) the false color composited graph of PALSAR image (R/G/B  =  HH, HV, HH/HV) in 2009; D) PALSAR-based land cover map (50 m) in 2009 from this study; E) GlobCover 2009 land cover map (300 m); and F) MCD12Q1 2009 land cover map (500 m). The differences of these three products in separating natural forest and oil palm plantation are obvious, MCD12Q1 considers oil palm plantation as forest, while GlobCover and PALSAR don't, and PALSAR has better performance in separating natural forest and oil palm plantation.