Polarimetric SAR decomposition parameter subset selection and their optimal dynamic range evaluation for urban area classification using Random Forest

Random Forest (RF), which is an ensemble decision tree learning technique, was used in this study. RF performs parameter subset selection as a part of its classification procedure. In this study, parameter subsets were obtained and analyzed to infer scattering mechanisms useful for urban area classification. The Cloude-Pottier α, the Touzi dominant scattering amplitude αs1 and the anisotropy A were among the top six important parameters selected for both the datasets. However, it was observed that these parameters were ranked differently for the two datasets. The urban area classification using RF was compared with the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) for both the datasets. RF outperforms SVM by 4% and MLC by 12% in Dataset 1. It also outperforms SVM and MLC by 3.5% and 11% respectively in Dataset 2.