Accuracy assessment on multi‐temporal land‐cover change detection using a trajectory error matrix

This study develops a practical methodology to assess the accuracy of multi‐temporal change detection using a trajectory error matrix (TEM). In this error matrix one axis represents the land‐cover change trajectory categories derived from single‐date classified images, and the other represents the land‐cover change trajectories identified from reference data. The overall accuracies of change trajectories and states of change/no‐change are used as indices for accuracy assessment. As the number of possible land‐cover change trajectories can be enormous, a practical processing flow for computing accuracy assessment indices has also been developed to avoid listing all possible change trajectories in the error matrix. A case study using this method was conducted to assess the accuracy of land‐cover change over a period with five observations in a study area in China's arid zone. This method simplifies the process of estimating overall accuracy in the change trajectory analysis, and provides a more realistic and detailed assessment of the results of multi‐temporal change detection using post‐classification comparison methods.     

An integrated spatio-temporal classification method for urban fringe change detection analysis

The urban fringe is the transition zone between urban land use and rural land use. It represents the most active part of the urban expansion process. Change detection using multi-temporal imagery is proven to be an efficient way to monitor land-use/land-cover change caused by urban expansion. In this study, we propose a new multi-temporal classification method for change detection in the urban fringe area. The proposed method extracts and integrates spatio-temporal contextual information into multi-temporal image classification. The spatial information is extracted by object-oriented image segmentation. The temporal information is modelled with temporal trajectory analysis with a two-step calibration. A probabilistic schema that employs a global membership function is then used to integrate the spectral, spatial and temporal information. A trajectory accuracy measurement is proposed to assist the comparison on the performances of the integrated spatio-temporal method and classical pixel- and ‘snapshot’-based classification methods. The experiment shows that the proposed method can significantly improve the accuracies of both single scene classification and temporal trajectory analysis.     

基于智能CASE库的多时相SAR影像分类方法-土地利用及变化监测

针对SAR影像分类,提出了一种基于智能案例(CASE)库多时相SAR影像分类方法。该方法主要分为4部分:SAR影像预处理;智能CASE的建构;基于CASE相似度匹配的SAR影像分类;分类后处理。在智能CASE建构期间,引入时空分析技术去除“伪”CASE,从而保证了CASE库中CASE信息的可靠性。接着,在基于CASE匹配的SAR影像分类过程中,采用分层相似度评价的方法,消除CASE特征相互之间的混叠效应。最后,采用面向对象的方法进行影像分类后处理。该方法有效地考虑了分类地块的形状因子,使分类结果更精确、更符合逻辑性。以2000年(4景,包含4个季度)和2004年(3景,包含3个季度)的多时相SAR影像作为实验数据,结果表明,使用我们提出的方法能达到较好的SAR影像分类结果,分类总体精度达到85%～90%,这为利用多时相SAR影像实施土地利用和变化监测(Land Use and Land Cover Change,LULC)奠定了良好基础。     

基于多时相TM影像的城市边缘区划分及其变化监测

城市边缘区作为城市和农村之间的过渡地带,是城市扩张过程中土地利用变化最为活跃的部分。在城市边缘区,城市用地类型与其他的土地利用类型,比如耕地、林地、牧草地和水域等混合在一起,并且这些非城市用地类型随着城市化的进程很快转换为城市用地。城市边缘区被定义为城市内边界和外边界之间的环状区域,内边界分离城市核心区与城市边缘区,外边界分离城市边缘区与农村腹地。本研究采用一种新的方法来对城市边缘区进行界定,以及对其动态变化进行监测研究。通过多时相遥感数据的分类,提取城市及其周边的土地利用信息,并对其空间结构模式用地理景观指标进行定量的描述,最后借助空间聚类获取边界阈值来划分城市边缘区并对其变化进行监测。     

Monitoring the change of urban wetland using high spatial resolution remote sensing data

Accurate and timely information describing wetland resources and their changes over time, especially in coastal urban areas, is becoming more important. In this study, we mapped and monitored land-cover change in an urban wetland using high spatial resolution IKONOS images acquired in June 2003 and January 2006. An optimal iterative unsupervised classification (OIUC) method was used to overcome the limitations of unsupervised classification. The images were categorized into six classes, and an accuracy assessment was conducted using error matrices and the Kappa coefficient. The overall accuracies were 83.2% and 86.3% for the 2003 and 2006 images, respectively. A post-classification comparison method was used to detect the wetland change by calculating a detailed land-cover type transformation matrix. The results indicated a decrease in the area of water bodies and an increase in the area of vegetation in the wetland. This paper shows that high spatial resolution remote sensing data is advanced in studying an urban wetland at a local scale. An OIUC method, combined with visual interpretation, could yield high classification accuracy. A post-classification comparison method is also efficient in wetland change detection.     

Land cover change detection with a cross‐correlogram spectral matching algorithm

Timely extraction of reliable land cover change information is increasingly needed at a wide continuum of scales. Few methods developed from previous studies have proved to be robust when noise, changes in atmospheric and illumination conditions, and other scene‐ and sensor‐dependent variables are present in the multitemporal images. In this study, we developed a new method based on cross‐correlogram spectral matching (CCSM) with the aim of identifying interannual land cover changes from time‐series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. In addition, a new change index is proposed with integration of two parameters that are measured from the cross‐correlogram: the root mean square (RMS) and (1?R _max), where R _max is the maximum correlation coefficient in a correlogram. Subsequently, a method was proposed to derive the optimal threshold for judging ‘change’ or ‘non‐change’ with the acquired change index. A pilot study was carried out using SPOT VGT‐S images acquired in 1998 and 2000 at Xianghai Park in Jilin Province. The results indicate that CCSM is superior to a traditional Change Vector Analysis (CVA) when noise is present with the data. Because of an error associated with the ground truthing data, a more comprehensive assessment of the developed method is still in process using better ground truthing data and images at a larger time interval. It is worth noting that this method can be applied not only to NDVI datasets but also to other index datasets reflecting surface conditions sampled at different time intervals. In addition, it can be applied to datasets from different satellites without the need to normalize sensor differences.     

Mapping and monitoring riparian vegetation distribution,structure and composition with regression tree models and post-classification change metrics

Riparian systems have become increasingly susceptible to both natural and human disturbances as cumulative pressures from changing land use and climate alter the hydrological regimes. This article introduces a landscape dynamics monitoring protocol that incorporates riparian structural classes into the land-cover classification scheme and examines riparian change within the context of surrounding land-cover change. We tested whether Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery could be used to document a riparian tree die-off through the classification of multi-date Landsat images using classification and regression tree (CART) models trained with physiognomic vegetation data. We developed a post-classification change map and used patch metrics to examine the magnitude and trajectories of riparian class change relative to mapped disturbance parameters. Results show that catchments where riparian change occurred can be identified from land-cover change maps; however, the main change resulting from the die-off disturbance was compositional rather than structural, making accurate post-classification change detection difficult.     

Pre-classification and post-classification change-detection techniques to monitor land-cover and land-use change using multi-temporal Landsat imagery: a case study on Pisa Province in Italy

This article explores the simultaneous use of pre-classification and post-classification change-detection techniques to map and monitor land-cover and land-use change using multi-temporal Landsat Multi-spectral Scanner and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus data over one of the most important tourism centres of Italy (e.g. Pisa Province) for 1972, 2000 and 2006.

Pre-classification approaches of principal-component analysis and band combination are potentially tailored to reduce data redundancy of the satellite imagery in order to highlight different objects of significance for change-detection analysis across time-series data. In this work, the application of pre-classification techniques could contribute to produce land-cover and land-use maps with higher quality of classification. At this point, the average value of overall classification accuracies for the three classification outputs was an estimated 90%.

Then, ‘from–to’ change information, as well as the area and the type of landscape transformations, are provided through the post-classification technique. The findings of this study show that the province of Pisa has significantly experienced a high rate of deforestation and urban development over past decades. It is revealed that artificial structures (e.g. urban and industrial zones) in Pisa Province increased at a change rate of around 265% and forested land decreased from approximately 45% to 32% of the total area of the province between 1972 and 2006. Likewise, the perceptible growth of built-up structures from about 4% to 10.6% in Pisa City during this 34-year period has imposed a heavy pressure on the landscape of Pisa.     

Remote sensing in land-use planning: an application in west central Scotland using SPOT-simulation data

Abstract

The urban fringe area is often characterized by a conflict between competing demands for land from many types of development; thus it requires active planning to achieve a landscape compatible with green-belt designation. Data were obtained from the NRSC SPOT-simulation campaign for an area near eastern Glasgow in an exercise to assess the value of remotely sensed data for surveying the structure of this urban fringe area. Digital enhancement and classification methods were applied to the data, identifying eight rural and six urban land-cover classes. Cloud and cloud shadow prevented a statistical accuracy assessment being performed. The most useful results were obtained by first stratifying the area into urban and rural subdivisions, followed by an interactive classification approach to the training and classification of desired fringe classes involving an analyst with local knowledge. Results showed that important urbanfringe classes of land cover can be readily identified from SPOT data, but the 20 m resolution is insufficient to discriminate inner city detail. These interim conclusions using suboptimal simulation data imply that high-resolution satellite data, rectified to a map base, classified and accuracy assessed, can be used as a survey tool to aid the physical planning of urban-fringe areas.     

Use of metatruth image concept to assess forest change detection accuracy at pixel level

Traditionally, the validation of a classified multispectral image only quantifies its correspondence to ground reference data containing thematic information generalized at the stand level, with stands represented as vector polygons. Little is known of the accuracy of such classifications at a scale below the stand. This study presents a methodology to assess classification accuracy at pixel level, i.e. sub-polygon, where the classification procedure is embedded in a change detection environment. A new type of reference data (Metatruth Image) was generated based on the integration of the outputs of various independent change detection procedures. The integration consisted of calculating for each pixel a probability distribution or pixel purity index for each change class by independent change detection procedures, defined by the number of times the pixel has been classified as a certain change class. First, the relationship between purity and accuracy was successfully validated. Next, the Metatruth Image was created based on ‘high purity pixels’. Performing traditional accuracy assessment on the outputs of individual change detection procedures using the Metatruth Image as reference dataset, demonstrated that former outputs identified change events accurately at pixel level. As a consequence, traditional accuracy assessment at polygon level underestimates the true accuracy at pixel level of the change detection procedure in a systematic way with differences in kappa coefficients of agreement around 20%.     

耕地变化的影像比例化分析

应用遥感手段检测耕地变化常采用分类后处理方法，这种方法在分类标识过程中没有充分考虑混合像元因素影响。针对这一现象，本文引入纹理分析做法，对分类后影像实施划分一致性区域和确定零星像素归属，最后各像素以比例形式反映耕地的变换。     

基于多尺度特征融合的土地利用分类算法

针对土地利用分类中高空间分辨率遥感图像已标注样本少和传感器高度变化导致地物形变等问题,提出一种基于多尺度特征融合的土地利用分类算法。通过对多个卷积层特征进行多尺度自适应融合,降低地物形变对分类精度造成的影响。为进一步提高分类精度,利用预训练网络提取的深度特征对多尺度特征融合部分和全连接层进行预训练,采用增广数据集对整个网络进行微调。实验结果表明,自适应融合方法改善了融合效果,有效提高了土地利用分类的精度。     

Approaches for the production and evaluation of fuzzy land cover classifications from remotely-sensed data

Remote sensing is an attractive source of data for land cover mapping applications. Mapping is generally achieved through the application of a conventional statistical classification, which allocates each image pixel to a land cover class. Such approaches are inappropriate for mixed pixels, which contain two or more land cover classes, and a fuzzy classification approach is required. When pixels may have multiple and partial class membership measures of the strength of class membership may be output and, if strongly related to the land cover composition, mapped to represent such fuzzy land cover. This type of representation can be derived by softening the output of a conventional ‘hard’ classification or using a fuzzy classification. The accuracy of the representation provided by a fuzzy classification is, however, difficult to evaluate. Conventional measures of classification accuracy cannot be used as they are appropriate only for ‘hard’ classifications. The accuracy of a classification may, however, be indicated by the way in which the strength of class membership is partitioned between the classes and how closely this represents the partitioning of class membership on the ground. In this paper two measures of the closeness of the land cover representation derived from a classification to that on the ground were used to evaluate a set of fuzzy classifications. The latter were based on measures of the strength of class membership output from classifications by a discriminant analysis, artificial neural network and fuzzy c-means classifiers. The results show the importance of recognising and accommodating for the fuzziness of the land cover on the ground. The accuracy assessment methods used were applicable to pure and mixed pixels and enabled the identification of the most accurate land cover representation derived. The results showed that the fuzzy representations were more accurate than the ‘hard’ classifications. Moreover, the outputs derived from the artificial neural network and the fuzzy c-means algorithm in particular were strongly related to the land cover on the ground and provided the most accurate land cover representations. The ability to appropriately represent fuzzy land cover and evaluate the accuracy of the representation should facilitate the use of remote sensing as a source of land cover data.     

Land Cover Classification for Different Spatial Resolution Images from CNN

Based on convolutional neural networks and five different spatial resolution remote sensing images, the land use/land cover classification study was carried out on a small area in the eastern part of Xining City, aiming at exploring the differences of image classification by CNN with different spatial resolutions and CNN’s ability to extract different features. In order to improve the selection efficiency of the samples, a window sliding method was introduced to assist the samples selection. The research shows that the overall classification accuracy of the five different spatial resolution images is above 89%, the Kappa coefficient is above 0.86. The result further shows that within the resolution scale the higher the resolution, the performance of the CNN classification results for the details is better, and can maintain high classification accuracy, indicating that CNN is more suitable for high spatial resolution images; at the same time, the image spatial resolution is too high, the ground objects exhibit high intra-class variability and low inter-class variability, the classification accuracy tends to decrease. In comparison, CNN has the best classification effect on SPOT 6 images in this study, and window sliding is an effective sample-assisted selection method. This research has certain reference significance for similar research in the future.     

基于CNN的不同空间分辨率影像土地覆被分类研究

基于卷积神经网络（Convolutional Neural Networks, CNN）和5种不同空间分辨率的遥感影像,对西宁市东部一区域开展土地覆被分类研究,旨在探索CNN在不同空间分辨率下进行影像分类的差异性和对不同地物的提取能力。为提高样本的选择效率,引入了窗口滑动方法进行辅助选样。研究表明5种不同空间分辨率影像的总体分类精度均达89%以上,Kappa系数达0.86以上,分类精度较高。在所涉及的分辨率尺度范围内,空间分辨率越高,CNN分类结果越精细,并能保持较高的分类精度,表明CNN更适合高空间分辨率影像分类;但同时影像空间分辨率越高,地物表现出较高的类内变异性和低类间差异性,分类精度有降低的趋势。相比较而言,SPOT 6影像的分类精度最高,同时窗口滑动是一种有效的样本辅助选择方法。研究对今后同类工作具有一定的借鉴意义。     

基于像素比值的面向对象分类后遥感变化检测方法

结合基于像素的变化检测和面向对象分类后变化检测方法的各自特点,提出首先由改进后小窗口像素均值比值法确定一个发生变化的最小范围,然后在这个确定的最小范围的基础上进行面向对象分类后比较,最终确定分类图斑类型信息变化的方法。通过对北京房山区2002年、2006年两期SPOT5影像进行实验分析,评价结果表明本方法大大降低了传统变化检测方法因对未发生变化区域分类产生的误差传递的影响,从而提高了检测结果的精度。     

Mapping coffee plantations with Landsat imagery: an example from El Salvador

Considering the potential of shaded coffee plantations mixed with natural vegetation for promoting biodiversity conservation, this project assessed the utility of multi-date Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery for the characterization of natural vegetation versus coffee plantations in western El Salvador. For assembling a multi-temporal Landsat TM data set, we applied a regression analysis model to remove cloud cover and cloud shadows. Then, through a hybrid classification approach, a nine-class land use/land cover (LULC) map was generated. We identified two types of coffee plantations (‘open-canopy’ and ‘close-canopy’) along with natural forest/shrubland, mangrove, water bodies, sandy coastal soils, bare soil, urban areas and agriculture. Notwithstanding the small sample size of the accuracy data, our assessment revealed an overall accuracy of 76.7% (Kappa coefficient?=?0.68), considering only the four classes with independent field data. The overall classification accuracy for distinguishing coffee plantations from non-mangrove natural forest was 81.6% and the classification accuracy for distinguishing ‘open-canopy’ from ‘close-canopy’ coffee plantations was 85.7%. We are encouraged by the results of this prototype study. They indicate that remote-sensing techniques can be used to distinguish different classes of coffee production systems and to differentiate coffee from natural forest.     

Comparison of pixel- and object-based classification in land cover change mapping

Land use/land cover (LULC) change occurs when humans alter the landscape, and this leads to increasing loss, fragmentation and spatial simplification of habitat. Many fields of study require monitoring of LULC change at a variety of scales. LULC change assessment is dependent upon high-quality input data, most often from remote sensing-derived products such as thematic maps. This research compares pixel- and object-based classifications of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data for mapping and analysis of LULC change in the mixed land use region of eastern Ontario for the period 1995–2005. For single date thematic maps of 10 LULC classes, quantitative and visual analyses showed no significant accuracy difference between the two methods. The object-based method produced thematic maps with more uniform and meaningful LULC objects, but it suffered from absorption of small rare classes into larger objects and the incapability of spatial parameters (e.g. object shape) to contribute to class discrimination. Despite the similar map accuracies produced by the two methods, temporal change maps produced using post-classification comparison (PCC) and analysed using intensive visual analysis of errors of omission and commission revealed that the object-based maps depicted change more accurately than maximum likelihood classification (MLC)-derived change maps.