Texture extraction for object-oriented classification of high spatial resolution remotely sensed images using a semivariogram

A Semivariogram, as defined in geostatistics, is a powerful tool for texture extraction of remotely sensed images. However, the traditional texture features extracted by a semivariogram are generally for pixel-based classification. Moreover, most studies have been based on the original computation mode of semivariogram and discrete semivariance values. This article describes a set of semivariogram texture features (STFs) based on the mean square root pair difference (SRPD) to improve the accuracy of object-oriented classification (OOC) in QuickBird images. The adaptive parameters for the calculation of a semivariogram were first derived from semivariance analysis, including directions, moving window size, and lag distance. Then, 22 STFs were extracted from the discrete and mean/standard deviation semivariance, and 15 features were selected from the extracted STFs based on feature optimization. Then five grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture features (mean, homogeneity, contrast, angular second moment, and entropy) were calculated based on segmented image objects using the panchromatic band. A comparison of classification results demonstrates that the STFs described in this article are useful supplement information for the spectral OOC, and the spectral + STFs classification method can be used to obtain a higher classification accuracy than can the combination of spectral and GLCM features.