Automatic Classification of Remote Sensing Images Using Multiple Classifier Systems

• Main Authors: Bin Yang, Chunxiang Cao, Ying Xing, Xiaowen Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2015-01-01
• Series: Mathematical Problems in Engineering
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/954086
• ISSN: 1024-123X; 1563-5147

It is a challenge to obtain accurate result in remote sensing images classification, which is affected by many factors. In this paper, aiming at correctly identifying land use types reflec ted in remote sensing images, support vector machine, maximum likelihood classifier, backpropagation neural network, fuzzy c-means, and minimum distance classifier were combined to construct three multiple classifier systems (MCSs). Two MCSs were implemented, namely, comparative major voting (CMV) and Bayesian average (BA). One method called WA-AHP was proposed, which introduced analytic hierarchy process into MCS. Classification results of base classifiers and MCSs were compared with the ground truth map. Accuracy indicators were computed and receiver operating characteristic curves were illustrated, so as to evaluate the performance of MCSs. Experimental results show that employing MCSs can increase classification accuracy significantly, compared with base classifiers. From the accuracy evaluation result and visual check, the best MCS is WA-AHP with overall accuracy of 94.2%, which overmatches BA and rivals CMV in this paper. The producer’s accuracy of each land use type proves the good performance of WA-AHP. Therefore, we can draw the conclusion that MCS is superior to base classifiers in remote sensing image classification, and WA-AHP is an efficient MCS.