Land-use or land-cover classification of satellite images is one of the important tasks in remote sensing application and many researchers have tried to enhance classification accuracy. Previous studies have shown that the classification technique based on wavelet transform is more effective than traditional techniques based on original pixel values, especially in complicated imagery. Various basis functions such as Haar, daubechies, coiflets and symlets are mainly used in 20 image processing based on wavelet transform. Selecting adequate wavelet is very important because different results could be obtained according to the type of basis function in classification. However, it is not easy to choose the basis function which is effective to improve classification accuracy. In this study, we first computed the wavelet coefficients of satellite image using ten different basis functions, and then classified images. After evaluating classification results, we tried to ascertain which basis function is the most effective for image classification. We also tried to see if the optimum basis function is decided by energy parameter before classifying the image using all basis functions. The energy parameters of wavelet detail bands and overall accuracy are clearly correlated. The decision of optimum basis function using energy parameter in the wavelet based image classification is expected to be helpful for saving time and improving classification accuracy effectively.