ComparingMethodsofImageSegmentation

andClassificationofWorldView2Imagery
UsingSPRING
AlixHartmann
February2016
ESCI442

Abstract
Highspatialresolutionimageryismoreeffectivelyclassifiedthroughobjectoriented
classification,whichincludestheuseofimagesegmentationtools,thanpixelbased
classification(Campbell,2011).Inthisanalysis,IusetheimagesegmentationtoolinSPRING
usinghighspatialresolutionWorldView2imageryofarurallandscapeinWesternWashington.
Igeneratetwosegmentedimages:oneusingfouroftheeightavailablebands,andandone
usingalleightbands.ThetwoimagesarethenclassifiedusingtheISODATAunsupervised
classificationtechniqueandassessedforaccuracyusinggroundtruthdata.Ifoundthatthe
fourbandimagedidasuperiorjobatdifferentiatingclassesthantheeightbandimage.
However,manymoreadjustmentsareneededtoimproveaccuracyintheimagesegmentation
andclassificationprocess.

Methods

ThisanalysisisbasedontheproceduresdescribedinDavidWallinsImage
SegmentationwithSPRINGandENVI:WorldView2,eightbandimageofAcme,WA.(Wallin,
2016)

TheImagery
TheimageryusedinthisanalysiswasacquiredonSeptember29,2010byDigitalGlobes
WorldView2satellite.Thestudyarea(Figure1)isasubsectionofthefullimage,covering
approximately4squarekilometersinthevalleyoftheSouthForkoftheNooksackRiverin
Acme,Washington.Landcovertypespresentintheimageincludecropland,pasture,farm
buildings,deciduousforest,coniferforest,baresoilandrock,standingwater,andriverwater.
Theimagerycontainseightspectralbandsandhasaspatialresolutionof2x2meters.

Figure1:Atruecolorrepresentationofthestudyarea,locatedinthevalleyoftheSouth
ForkoftheNooksackRiverinAcme,Washington.Thisimagerywasacquiredon
September29,2010.

ImageSegmentation
Imagesegmentationisaprocessusedtoidentifyregionswithhomogenousspectraland
spatialproperties.Becausehighresolutionimagerycontainsmoreheterogeneitywithin
individualinformationclasses,imagesegmentationmaybeamoresuitablemethodfor
classificationthanpixelbasedclassification.
InSPRING,Iruntheimagesegmentationtoolontheimagerytwiceusingdifferent
parameters.Thefirstsegmentationwasperformedusingalleightbandspresentintheimagery
(coastal,blue,green,yellow,red,rededge,nearinfrared1,andnearinfrared2).Thesecond
segmentationwasperformedusingonly4bands(blue,green,red,andnearinfrared1).The
followingparametersremainconstantbetweenthetwosegmentationprocesses:
Minimummappingunitissetto25pixels(100squaremeters).Thisensuresthateach
segmentgeneratedmustbeatleast25pixelsinsize.
Similarityissetto10.Greatersimilarityvaluesallowhigherheterogeneitywithin
individualsegments.
ArcSmoothingisapplied.
Imagesegmentationissettousetheregiongrowingmethod.

ClassificationandAccuracyAssessment
Next,IperformanISODATAclassificationofthetwosegmentedimagesinSPRING.Both
imagesareclassifiedusinganacceptancethresholdof95%and5iterations.Boththebrightness
valuesofeachpixelwithinasegmentandtheareameasurementsofeachsegmentareusedin
classification.
ThesetwoclassifiedimagesareexportedtoENVI.Usingvisualcomparisonwith
truecolorandcolorinfraredimagesofthestudyarea,Iassigninformationclassestosegments
intheeightbandandfourbandimage.Theeightbandimageoriginallycontains33unique
classes,whilethefourbandimagecontains33uniqueclasses.
Finally,theaccuracyofthisclassificationisassessedusinggroundtruthdatadeveloped
byDavidWallin(2016).

Results
FourBandImage
Theresultoftheimagesegmentationandclassificationusingonlyfourbandsisseenin
Figure2.Nineuniqueinformationclasseshavebeenidentified.Crops,pasture,water,andfarm
buildingsareclassifiedfairlyaccurately(over60%accuracyinbothuserandproducer
categories).Rock/soilanddeciduousforesthavesignificantlypoorerclassificationaccuracy.

Figure2:Theclassifiedimagesegmentscreatedusingfouroftheeightbandsavailablein
theWorldView2imagery.

Table1:Anaccuracyassessmentoftheimagesegmentationandclassificationusingfour
oftheeightbandsavailableintheWorldView2imagery.

EightBandImage
Theresultoftheimagesegmentationandclassificationusingalleightbandsisseenin
Figure2.Sevenuniqueinformationclasseshavebeenidentified.Afterrunningtheimage
segmentationandclassificationtools,theeightbandimagecontainedfewerclasses.There
werenoclassesthatappearedtocontainmostlyclearcutordeciduouslandcover,although
theselandcovertypesarepresentinsignificantportionsoftheimage.Becauseofthis,Ichose
toclassifytheseaspasture,whichconstitutedthemajorityoftheareawithintheclasses.In
addition,therewaslittledifferentiationbetweenrockandroadcovertypes,andbetween
residentialandfarmbuildingcovertypes.Ichosetomergethesecloselyrelatedclasses
becausetheprocessofimagesegmentationandclassificationdidnotadequatelyseparate
them.Thislossofdifferentiationbetweenlandcovertypesisasignificantsourceoferrorinthis
analysis.

Figure3:Theclassifiedimagesegmentscreatedusingalleightbandsavailableinthe
WorldView2imagery.

Table2:Anaccuracyassessmentoftheimagesegmentationandclassificationusingall
eightbandsavailableintheWorldView2imagery.

Discussion
Ihaveconcludedthatthefourbandimagedidasuperiorjobatdifferentiatingbetween
covertypesinthestudyarea.However,Ibelievethatbothoutcomesofthisanalysisarestill
poorlyclassifiedandwouldgreatlybenefitfromadjustmentstotheparametersusedinimage
segmentation.
Ifoundthatcrops,pasture,water,andfarmbuildingwereclassifiedrelatively
accurately.Rockandsoilbothimageshaveverylowrock/soiluseraccuracy.Crossreferencing
groundtruthdatawithmyclassificationshowsthatthisisduetolargeareasofconiferand
deciduousforestmisclassifiedasrock.Somelandcoverclasses,whencomparedtothe
truecolorimage,appeartocontainmanydistinctinformationclasses.Forexample,many
individualclassescontainlargeareasofbaresoil/rock,deciduousforest,andrecentclearcuts.
Thisundersegmentationintheimagesmaybefixedwiththeuseofalowersimilarityvaluein
furtheranalysis.
Oversegmentationisanothersourceoferrorinthisanalysis.TheparametersIhave
useddidwellatseparatingtheindividualcrownsoftrees,butthishighsensitivityto
heterogeneitycausessomeareastobesegmentedmorethanisnecessaryforanalysis.For
example,farmhousesandlargeareasofhomogenouscroplandappeartobehighlysegmented
andhavepoorlydefinedboundaries.Furtheranalysisthataimstoclassifytheseareaswith
moreaccuracymaybenefitwiththeuseofagreaterminimummappingunitvalue.
Anotherpossiblesourceoferrorinthisanalysisisthesubjectivitypresentinclassifying
imagesegments.Astheanalyst,Ihavelimitedclassificationtoasmallsetofinformationclasses
thatIbelievearepresentinthestudyareaandareimportanttoidentify.
Finally,thelimitedgroundtruthdatahasaffectedtheoutcomeofthisanalysis.An
accuracyassessmentofthissegmentationandclassificationmaybeimprovedwiththeaddition
ofmoredatapoints,orwiththeadditionofmoreinformationclassesidentified.

LiteratureCited

Campbell,J.B.,&Wynne,R.H.(2011).Introductiontoremotesensing.GuilfordPress.

Wallin,D.(2016).ImageSegmentationwithSPRINGandENVI:WorldView2,eightband
imageofAcme,WA.
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/wallin/envr442/ENVI/442_segmentation_ENVI_acme2.
htm