Assessment of the impact of dimensionality reduction methods on information classes and classifiers for hyperspectral image classification by multiple classifier system

•Land cover classes prefer for certain combinations of classifiers and dimensionality reduction methods.•Designing MCS with multiple dimensionality reduction methods increases accuracy compared to SVM approach.•Classification accuracy increases with classifiers combined at land cover category level.•We suggest land cover specific adaptive selection of classifiers in the MCS.

Identification of the appropriate combination of classifier and dimensionality reduction method has been a recurring task for various hyperspectral image classification scenarios. Image classification by multiple classifier system has been evolving as a promising method for enhancing accuracy and reliability of image classification. Because of the diversity in generalization capabilities of various dimensionality reduction methods, the classifier optimal to the problem and hence the accuracy of image classification varies considerably. The impact of including multiple dimensionality reduction methods in the MCS architecture for the supervised classification of a hyperspectral image for land cover classification has been assessed in this study. Multi-source airborne hyperspectral images acquired over five different sites covering a range of land cover categories have been classified by a multiple classifier system and compared against the classification results obtained from support vector machines (SVM). The MCS offers acceptable classification results across the images or sites when there are multiple dimensionality reduction methods in addition to different classifiers. Apart from offering acceptable classification results, the MCS indicates about 5% increase in the overall accuracy when compared to the SVM classifier across the hyperspectral images and sites. Results indicate the presence of dimensionality reduction method specific empirical preferences by land cover categories for certain classifiers thereby demanding the design of MCS to support adaptive selection of classifiers and dimensionality reduction methods for hyperspectral image classification.