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How would I create a conversion matrix in ArcMap 10.2.2 to display the changes between two rasters (Land Use Land Cover Maps)?

I have produced Land Use Cover Change maps from temporal satellite images and I need to do change detection between them. Therefore, I need to create a conversion matrix to display changes in each land cover class, and also to give information regarding direction of change; something detailed that indicates what the changes were.

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    Please elaborate on the term conversion matrix, and what format the output you'd like to create is. Is it a simple binary raster that shows which cells changed and which did not? Or do you want something more detailed that indicates what the changes were?
    – Chris W
    May 25, 2015 at 19:23
  • Dear Chris Thank you very much for your reply. Actually I have produced Land Use Cover Change maps from temporal satellite images and I need to do change detection between of them by using ArcMap ver10.2. Therefore, I need to create conversion matrix to display changes in each land cover class and also to give information regarding direction of change. Sure, I want something more detailed that indicates what the changes were. Your reply and advice are highly appreciated.
    – A M D
    May 26, 2015 at 21:18
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    To show this result as a single raster, the first thing that comes to mind is the Combine tool. Depending on how many classes you have, there may be too many possible unique combinations between the too rasters for the default (~65k), so you'd have to increase that limit (see help). The result of the tool is a raster with a unique value for each pair of inputs. I'm not sure if AB would be the same as BA though, and if so it wouldn't work since you want to know the direction of change.
    – Chris W
    May 27, 2015 at 1:10

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I just tried with combine (local in Spatial stat tools) and it worked just fine (need to be carefull with the raster parametes in each date data set), the first column shows the first year, whereas the second shows the last (LC change analysis). Now I'll compare these values with the ones I got from Idrisi land cover change modeler and see if they're the same, I think Idrisi's model is a good one but the change of software is not my favourite thing...

I compared both methods and they're similar, with differences up to 30 hectares.

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