Land Cover Mapping and

Applications of Remote Sensing

GmE 202 Lecture ● area
Understanding of the type and amount of land cover in an
is an important characteristic from the standpoint of
IMAGE CLASSIFICATION understanding of Earth as a system

● identification
Remote sensing has become a powerful tool for land cover
and classification of various features of the
land surface in an image taken from satellite

● Digital processing of remote sensing data has gained

momentum in the last decade

● The investment in the development of this technology has

contributed to Precision Agriculture which involves land
cover characterization and classification

Spectral Space
Spectral Space Thing One

Thing Two

NIR
=Increasing
R R G Radiance
Red
G B B
R G B R G B R G B R G B

NIR
0 255 0 127 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255
0 255 0 0 255 255 0 0 255 255 255 255
0 127 0 0 0 127 255 0 255 255 127 255 =Increasing
0 0 0 127 0 0 255 0 0 255 0 0 Radiance
3 MIR 4

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 Land Information Extraction from Satellite Images
Spectral Classifications
Y/X

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The Traditional Approach for Recent advances in satellite

Land Cover Mapping image classification
Development of components of the classification
algorithm, including training, learning and
approaches to class separation

e.g. artificial neural networks, decision trees
Development of new systems-level approaches
that augment the underlying classifier algorithms

e.g. fuzzy or similar approaches that soften the results
of a hard classifier, multiclassifier systems that integrate
the outputs of several classification algorithms
Exploitation of multiple types of data or ancillary
information (numerical and categorical) in the
classification process

e.g. use of structural or spatial context information from
the imagery, use of multitemporal data, use of
multisource data, use of ancillary geographical
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 Thematic Information Extraction
from Satellite Images
1. Definition of the mapping approach*
2. Geographical stratification
3. Image segmentation
4. Feature identification and selection*
5. Classification*
6. Ancillary data integration
7. Post-classification processing
8. Accuracy assessment*
* Mandatory
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1. Definition of the mapping approach 1. Definition of the mapping approach

MMU = Minimum mapping unit

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1. Definition of the mapping approach 1. Definition of the mapping approach

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1. Definition of the mapping approach 2. Geographical Stratification

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 3. Image Segmentation 3. Image Segmentation

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4. Feature Identification and Selection 4. Feature Identification and Selection

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4. Feature Identification and Selection 4. Feature Identification and Selection

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4. Feature Identification and Selection 4. Feature Identification and Selection

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4. Feature Identification and Selection 5. Classification

Classification is the process of partitioning
an image data set into a discrete number
of classes in accordance with specific
criteria that are based, in part, on the
individual image point data values.

Classification is one of the most widely used analysis
techniques in RS.

Not only 2-d, but are extended to every band in image

If two classes are similar in spectral space, then
classification accuracy will be low.

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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 5. Classification 5. Classification
Three types of classification

Supervised

Requires “training pixels”, pixels where both the spectral values and the
class is known.

Unsupervised

No extraneous data is used: classes are determined purely on difference in
spectral values.

Hybrid

Use unsupervised and supervised classification together

Useful fact: we aren’t limited to using only raw DNs, radiance, or

reflectance in our classifier. We can use ratio or difference indices,
spatial data (distance from some target) or any other data
transformation we might think would be appropriate in the classifier.

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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 5. Classification 5. Classification
Parallelepiped Classifier Parallelepiped Classifier

The minimum and maximum DNs for each class are

determined and are used as thresholds for classifying
the image.
Benefits: simple to train and use, computationally fast
Drawbacks: pixels in the gaps between the
parallelepipes can not be classified; pixels in the
region of overlapping parallelepipes can not be
classified.

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5. Classification
Minimum Distance Classifier
A “centroid” for each class is
determined from the data by
calculating the mean value by
band for each class. For each
image pixel, the distance in n-
dimensional distance to each of
these centroids is calculated, and
the closest centroid determines
the class.

Benefits: mathematically simple

and computationally efficient

Drawback: insensitive to different

degrees of variance in spectral
response data.

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 Maximum Likelihood Classifier

Max likelihood uses the

variance and covariance in
class spectra to determine
classification scheme.

It often, but not always,

assumes that the spectral
responses for a given class
are normally distributed.

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5. Classification
Maximum Likelihood Classifier
We can then determine a
probability that a given DN is a
member of each class. The pixel
is classified by using the most
likely class or “Other” if the
probability isn’t over some
threshold.

Benefits: takes variation in

spectral response into
consideration.

Drawbacks: computationally
intensive; multimodal or non-
normally distributed classes
require extra care when training
the classifier, if high accuracy is
to be achieved.

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 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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5. Classification 5. Classification

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 5. Classification 5. Classification

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6. Ancillary Data Integration 7. Post-Classification Processing

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7. Post-Classification Processing 7. Post-Classification Processing

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7. Post-Classification Processing

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