Digital Image Classification

Digital Image Classification

Land cover mapping using satellite images
1. Study Information
1.1. Learning aim
To practice land cover interpretation and classification of satellite images
After this exercise you are able to:

• Establish a preliminary legend based on image characteristics

• Perform satellite image interpretation
• Relate image characteristics with objects in the field
• Define a final legend based on field observations
• Carry out supervised classification of a satellite image
• Use reference data to validate an image classification
• Produce a thematic map
• Explain basic principle of land cover mapping methodology using satellite data
• Identify error types using knowledge about the procedure, analyses of results and
software tools

1.2. Type
Exercise

1.3. Expected time investment

3 days

1.4. Resources
PC with ERDAS

1. SPOT satellite data of Enschede, 27 June 2011, named sp27jun11

2. Field point data of Enschede from June 2011, named coverjune2011.xlsx
3. Field photos of representative areas

Data becomes available via Canvas

Theory on this subject is dealt with in chapter 6.2 of “The core of GIScience” book.

1.5. Exercise output

Results of the exercise:
1. classification result (img)
2. signature file (sig)
3. accuracy report (txt)

1.6. Link to other activities

Theoretical background on this subject is given in lecture Digital image
classification_2016.pptx and Accuracy_assessment_2016.pptx.

Author : Westinga, adapted by Kuffer and Tolpekin

Date : July 2018
Version : 4

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Exercise description

Methodology
The methodology of mapping land cover with satellite images consist of the following steps:

1. Interpretation of satellite image

2. Field data collection
3. Field data analysis
4. Classification
5. Accuracy assessment
6. 5 Classification
cation
Flowchart of the methodology of land cover mapping with satellite image

Print satellite data Satelite image Point field data

data
1.1. Image Image
inspection legend

1.2. Image 6.1 class

Interpretation numbering

Interpreted
Image
Point with
2. Fieldwork class
numbers

Field data

3.1 Sorting 3.2 Correlation Mapclasses 4 Classicfication

Field 4.1 Collect

classes signatures

4.2 Evaluate
signatures

4.3 Classify

Classified
Image

Overall
6.3 Calculation Matrix 6.2.Crossing
accuracy

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 Digital Image Classification

1. Interpretation (1st practical period, unsupervised)

Visual interpretation of the SPOT satellite FCC print of Enschede 27 June 2011 band 3, 4 and
2 RGB, scale 1: 40,000. The interpretation process is similar as the one with aerial
photographs.

1.1. Image inspection

 First you need to establish a legend before you start drawing polygons. Describe the
different legend units in terms of image characteristics. Only after establishing the legend
an interpretation can be started.

1.2. Interpretation

 The result of your land cover interpretation should be a polygon map. Thus observed line
features should not be delineated. However, if these line features are desired they might
be delineated with another colour (and therewith indicating another layer).

2. Fieldwork
The purpose of the field survey is to observe what the different image characteristics are on
the ground (in terms of land cover and land use).
 Thus you have to visit all the different units in the field and see what it is. In the field, the
land cover is recorded at different locations. The locations should be chosen in such a way
that all units are covered.

For this course you will do a virtual fieldwork, analysing pictures that have been taken in the
field approximately at the same moment that the image was captured.

3. Analysis (2nd practical period, group discussion)

After fieldwork, you have to structure the field data, define classes and relate them to the image.
In this exercise this step will be moderated by the supervisor in the cluster.

3.1. Sorting
 You have to order/sort your fieldwork data in such a way that you can define field classes.
Thus classes recognizable in the field based on certain criteria. All field classes should be
at the same level of detail. The field classes will be discussed in the lecture room.

3.2. Relating
 Compare the field classes with the colour in the satellite image. Make a list of
map/information classes you would like to classify in the image and indicate which
colour they represent in the image.

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 Exercise description

4. Supervised Classification (individual work)

Once you have defined the map/information classes you can use the information from your
fieldwork, other fieldwork groups as well as the fieldwork photographs to collect samples and
derive signatures and classify the image. You will perform the following operations within this
section:

4.1. Define signatures

Make sure that you take samples from homogenous areas and that the standard deviation is
kept low (find statistics under View). It is advisable to make several subclasses of the same
information class, which appear in different colours (and thus are different spectral classes) in
the image. Make sure to give them distinct class names but the same Value.

1. Why is it advisable to make separate subclasses in such cases?

These spectral classes (subclasses) can be combined into a single information class during
or after the classification.

 Open the Signature Editor from Raster/Classification/Supervised

 Select the areas in an image to be used as a signature and zoom-in. One option to collect
signature is by delineating a polygon of the selected area.

 From the Contextual Tab Drawing/Insert geometry choose Polygon . An AOI layer is
now created. In the Viewer, draw a polygon around the area you just identified. Middle-
click or double-click to close the polygon. After the AOI is created, a bounding box
surrounds the polygon, indicating that it is currently selected.

 In the Signature Editor, click the Create New Signature(s) from AOI icon or select
Edit | Add from the menu bar to add this AOI as a signature. Change name and color for
the selected item.

! Under Count you see the number of pixels, which are sampled. In order to use the maximum
likelihood classifier, theoretically you need n+1 pixels for each class (n = no. of bands).

! Verify also that there is a cross in the cell in the I column. This column identifies whether or
not the covariance matrix can be inverted. This is necessary for such functions as maximum
likelihood and divergence. It is not editable. If the standard deviation is zero than no cross will
appear and nothing can be assigned to this class, using the maximum likelihood.

! The Value column represents the actual classification label; signatures with the same value
will all be classified with the same class label. The name of that class comes from the
signature with the highest Class #.

 Continue and select a few more distinct signatures.

 For other more methods to Define signatures see Workflows/ Classification Workflows.
Read the Help from the Signature editor to for example find out how to display an AOI of a
sample which you have added to the Signature editor. A functionality which you will need
frequently.

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 Digital Image Classification

4.2. Evaluate signatures

You can visualize signatures statistics in graphs. The ellipses can be displayed in a Feature
Space image (two-dimensional histogram).

 Calculate the desired (optimal) feature space using Feature Space Image under Raster |
Classification | Supervised or from the Signature editor select Feature | Create |
Feature Space Layers. Select to show immediately in a viewer or open a new viewer and
display the calculated feature space plot (image file).

 Display the selected signature on top of the feature space plot by selecting Signature
Editor | Feature | Objects

2. Which band combination creates a feature space in which most classes overlap or are
very close?

Assess statistics
More options and functionality exists to evaluate signatures. One numerical evaluation is
by assessing the statistics from the samples.

 Select View | Columns. . . from the Signature editor and select to add Statistics.

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 Exercise description

 Select which statistical parameters you would like to evaluate. And select Close.

The Signature Editor now displays new columns: one column for each parameter for each
band of the image. You can sort on any column for your assessment. Which parameter
and order will you focus on to identify inhomogeneous samples?
 For other evaluation methods see Evaluate signatures under Workflows/ Classification
Workflows.

4.3. Process a supervised classification

When you are satisfied with the signatures you can perform the digital image classification
using the (statistics derived from the) signatures. In this exercise we use the Maximum
Likelihood classifier.
 Select the signatures which you would like to get classified (or none to have all classified),
select the Supervised classification function from the Signature editor and accept the
defaults.

 Visually inspect the result and repeat the process from 4.1 to 4.3 until you have a
potentially successful classification of the information classes of interest.

5. Accuracy assessment
For the accuracy assessment you cross the classified image with ground truth or reference
data. In this exercise we make use of randomly selected field point data. The field data is
stored in coverjune2011.xlsx. These points were selected randomly, but only points in
sufficiently large homogeneous land cover objects were maintained. The groundcover is
partly based on fieldwork in July and August 2011.

5.1 Class numbering

In order to make the classes in this sheet corresponding with the Values used in your
classification you have to add a new column. Enter the corresponding Values of your
classification in this column. This table will be used as input in the accuracy assessment.
Save the file as a Comma Separated Value file.

5.2 Accuracy report

Perform the accuracy assessment. This generates a confusion matrix comparing the field
data with the classification result (both having the same numbering of classes).

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 Digital Image Classification

 Select Accuracy Assessment from Raster | Classification | Supervised

 Enter the classified image in the Accuracy Assessment dialog, select File | Open or click
the Open icon.

 In the Accuracy Assessment dialog, select Edit | Import User-defined Points and select the
.csv or .txt file created from the excel point data. You can only import the X and Y
coordinates, not any other attribute data!

 With the input preview you can see the table and verify whether you are importing the
correct columns and rows. In the preview you can verify the correct settings (skip rows,
select columns, set structure etc), click OK and the X and Y coordinates of the points are
added in the accuracy assessment table.

 For entering the (reference) classes of theses reference points you have to copy the
complete column from the excel sheet and paste this in Reference column of the accuracy
assessment table. Make sure you select exactly the same sequence! First select the
column Reference. The column turns blue. Right click the column name Reference and
select Edit | Paste. Double check the table carefully because an error is easily made.

 In the Accuracy Assessment dialog, select Edit | Show Class Values. This will copy the
Values/labels from the respective pixels in the table.

 In the Accuracy Assessment dialog, select Report | Options. For the final accuracy
assessment check only Accuracy Totals. If you want to assess User and producer
accuracies select also Error matrix.

5.3 Calculation

 Calculate the overall Accuracy Report….

Use your knowledge about the land cover classes, spectral bands and spatial resolution of
the image to assess whether accuracies and confusion match expectation.

5.4 Improvement

Try to improve the classification accuracy and understand possible sources of errors in your
classification. Return to 4 or even 3 in an attempt to improve your result.

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