Several machine-learning algorithms have been proposed for remote sensing image classification during the past two decades. Among these machine learning algorithms, Random Forest (RF) and Support ...Vector Machines (SVM) have drawn attention to image classification in several remote sensing applications. This article reviews RF and SVM concepts relevant to remote sensing image classification and applies a meta-analysis of 251 peer-reviewed journal papers. A database with more than 40 quantitative and qualitative fields was constructed from these reviewed papers. The meta-analysis mainly focuses on 1) the analysis regarding the general characteristics of the studies, such as geographical distribution, frequency of the papers considering time, journals, application domains, and remote sensing software packages used in the case studies, and 2) a comparative analysis regarding the performances of RF and SVM classification against various parameters, such as data type, RS applications, spatial resolution, and the number of extracted features in the feature engineering step. The challenges, recommendations, and potential directions for future research are also discussed in detail. Moreover, a summary of the results is provided to aid researchers to customize their efforts in order to achieve the most accurate results based on their thematic applications.
Post-disaster recovery (PDR) is a complex, long-lasting, resource intensive, and poorly understood process. PDR goes beyond physical reconstruction (physical recovery) and includes relevant processes ...such as economic and social (functional recovery) processes. Knowing the size and location of the places that positively or negatively recovered is important to effectively support policymakers to help readjust planning and resource allocation to rebuild better. Disasters and the subsequent recovery are mainly expressed through unique land cover and land use changes (LCLUCs). Although LCLUCs have been widely studied in remote sensing, their value for recovery assessment has not yet been explored, which is the focus of this paper. An RS-based methodology was created for PDR assessment based on multi-temporal, very high-resolution satellite images. Different trajectories of change were analyzed and evaluated, i.e., transition patterns (TPs) that signal positive or negative recovery. Experimental analysis was carried out on three WorldView-2 images acquired over Tacloban city, Philippines, which was heavily affected by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Support vector machine, a robust machine learning algorithm, was employed with texture features extracted from the grey level co-occurrence matrix and local binary patterns. Although classification results for the images before and four years after the typhoon show high accuracy, substantial uncertainties mark the results for the immediate post-event image. All land cover (LC) and land use (LU) classified maps were stacked, and only changes related to TPs were extracted. The final products are LC and LU recovery maps that quantify the PDR process at the pixel level. It was found that physical and functional recovery can be mainly explained through the LCLUC information. In addition, LC and LU-based recovery maps support a general and a detailed recovery understanding, respectively. It is therefore suggested to use the LC and LU-based recovery maps to monitor and support the short and the long-term recovery, respectively.
Soil property and class maps for the continent of Africa were so far only available at very generalised scales, with many countries not mapped at all. Thanks to an increasing quantity and ...availability of soil samples collected at field point locations by various government and/or NGO funded projects, it is now possible to produce detailed pan-African maps of soil nutrients, including micro-nutrients at fine spatial resolutions. In this paper we describe production of a 30 m resolution Soil Information System of the African continent using, to date, the most comprehensive compilation of soil samples (Formula: see text) and Earth Observation data. We produced predictions for soil pH, organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N), total carbon, effective Cation Exchange Capacity (eCEC), extractable-phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn)-silt, clay and sand, stone content, bulk density and depth to bedrock, at three depths (0, 20 and 50 cm) and using 2-scale 3D Ensemble Machine Learning framework implemented in the mlr (Machine Learning in R) package. As covariate layers we used 250 m resolution (MODIS, PROBA-V and SM2RAIN products), and 30 m resolution (Sentinel-2, Landsat and DTM derivatives) images. Our fivefold spatial Cross-Validation results showed varying accuracy levels ranging from the best performing soil pH (CCC = 0.900) to more poorly predictable extractable phosphorus (CCC = 0.654) and sulphur (CCC = 0.708) and depth to bedrock. Sentinel-2 bands SWIR (B11, B12), NIR (B09, B8A), Landsat SWIR bands, and vertical depth derived from 30 m resolution DTM, were the overall most important 30 m resolution covariates. Climatic data images-SM2RAIN, bioclimatic variables and MODIS Land Surface Temperature-however, remained as the overall most important variables for predicting soil chemical variables at continental scale. This publicly available 30-m Soil Information System of Africa aims at supporting numerous applications, including soil and fertilizer policies and investments, agronomic advice to close yield gaps, environmental programs, or targeting of nutrition interventions.
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