Using Google Earth Engine to classify unique forest and agroforest classes using a mix of Sentinel 2a spectral data and topographical features: a Sri Lanka case study. Issue 25 (13th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nandasena, W. D. K. V.; Brabyn, Lars; Serrao-Neumann, Silvia
• Is Part Of: Geocarto international. Volume 37:Issue 25(2023)
• Page Start: 9544
• Page End: 9559
• Publication Date: 2022-12-13
• Subjects: home garden -- random forest -- grey-level co-occurrence matrix; Remote sensing -- Periodicals; Geographic information systems -- Periodicals; Geology -- Periodicals; Cartography -- Periodicals; 621.3678
• DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2021.2022010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1010-6049

Abstract

Abstract: Global land cover classifications may lead to the loss of important local and national nuances such as forest and agroforestry classes. These classes are important to local contexts because they contribute to sustainable land management systems. This paper demonstrates the application of Sentinel-2A satellite images, elevation data, and the Google Earth Engine platform to generate more detailed, specialist land cover classification for forestry classes important in Sri Lanka deriving ten spectral, 16 textural, and three topographical features from the input datasets. The random forest classification model discriminates vegetation types as forest, forest plantations, shrub, grassland, home garden, and cultivation with an overall accuracy of 94% and kappa value of 0.91. Results indicate the elevation feature contributes the most to discriminate forest and agroforestry classes, and red band (664.6 nm) textural metrics derived from grey-level co-occurrence matrix analysis are more useful for separating the home garden from other land cover classes.