An automated satellite image classification design using object-oriented segmentation algorithms: A move towards standardization

Numerous segmentation algorithms have been developed, many of them highly specific and only applicable to a reduced class of problems and image data. Without an additional source of knowledge, automatic image segmentation based on low level image features seemed unlikely to succeed in extracting semantic objects in generic images. A new region-merging segmentation technique has recently been developed which incorporates the spectral and textural properties of the objects to be detected and also their different size and behaviour at different stages of scale, respectively. Linking this technique with the FAO Land Cover Land Use classification system resulted in the development of an automated, standardized classification methodology. Testing on Landsat and Aster images resulted in mutually exclusive classes with clear and unambiguous class definitions. The error matrix based on field samples showed overall accuracy values of 92% for Aster image and 89% for Landsat. The KIA values were 88% for Aster images and 84% for the Landsat image.