Geography
Contextual land-cover classification: Incorporating spatial dependence in land-cover classification models using random forests and the Getis statistic
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Land-cover characterization of large heterogeneous landscapes is challenging because of the confusion caused by high intra-class variability and heterogeneous landscape artefacts. Neighbourhood context can be used to supplement spectral information, and a novel way of incorporating spatial dependence in a heterogeneous region is tested here using an ensemble learning technique called random forests and a measure of local spatial dependence called the Getis statistic. The overall Kappa accuracy of the random forest classifier that used a combination of spectral and local spatial (Getis) variables at three different neighbourhood sizes (3 × 3, 7 × 7, and 11 × 11) ranged from 0.85 to 0.92. This accuracy was higher than that of a non-spatial random forest classifier having an overall Kappa accuracy of 0.78, which was run using the spectral variables only. This study demonstrated that the use of the Getis statistic with different neighbourhood sizes leads to substantial increase in per class classification accuracy of heterogeneous land-cover categories.
Publication Title
Remote Sensing Letters
Publication Date
2010
Volume
1
Issue
1
First Page
45
Last Page
54
ISSN
2150-704X
DOI
10.1080/01431160903252327
Keywords
accuracy assessment, artifact, image classification, land cover, spatial analysis, spectral analysis, texture
Repository Citation
Ghimire, B.; Rogan, J.; and Miller, J., "Contextual land-cover classification: Incorporating spatial dependence in land-cover classification models using random forests and the Getis statistic" (2010). Geography. 672.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/672