Mapping grazed vegetation communities

on Macquarie Island using a binary

ensemble classifier
Arko Lucieer
School of Geography and Environmental
Studies,
University of Tasmania

14th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry

Conference (ARSPC), Darwin, Australia

30 September 2008
Overview

• Macquarie Island
• Quickbird Satellite imagery
• Binary classification
• Ensemble classifiers
• The aim is to accurately map the vegetated
areas that have been severely grazed by
rabbits by applying a binary classification with
different classifiers and combining the results
in an ensemble-classification approach
Subantarctic island
approximately
halfway between
Tasmania and
Antarctic
Macquarie Island

Source: Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Antarctic Polar
Frontal Zone
Rabbit numbers

Source: Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania, Keith Springer

• 130 000 rabbits (2006)
• Eradication plan: $25 M

Source: Phillippa Bricher

Source: Aleks Terauds
Source: Noel Carmichael, Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service
Quickbird Imagery
Field sample locations
Field samples
Classification results
Binary Ensemble Classifier
• Binary classifier focuses on one class
• Ensemble classifier combines multiple
classification results
• Classifiers:
1. Maximum likelihood: parametric
2. Supervised fuzzy c-means (SFCM) Euclidean
distance: parametric
3. SFCM Mahalanobis distance: parametric
4. SFCM k-nearest neighbour (kNN): non-parametric
5. Support Vector Machine (SVM): non-parametric
Training areas
 Fuzzy c-means Distance measure (in
feature space) from
pixel i to cluster c

2 − 1/( q −1)
[( d ic ) ] Fuzziness or overlap
µ ic = k
parameter

Membership value
[0-1] for pixel i for
∑ [( d
c =1
ic ) ]2 − 1/( q −1)

cluster c Sum of distances from

pixel i to all cluster centres
Distance metrics:
• Euclidean (distance to mean)
• Mahalanobis (covariance)
• k-NN
Distance to Mean
Mahalanobis Distance
K-NN Nearest Neighbour
Support Vector Machine (SVM)
Consensus theory

• Linear Opinion Pool (LOP)

Addition of probabilities

Multiplication of probabilities (veto)

• Log Opinion Pool (LOGPL)

Maximum likelihood SFCM mindist SVM
Accuracies
1

0
GEOBIA
Quickbird images 2005 - 2007

2005 2005

2007 2007

2005 2007
Quickbird NDVI change
Conclusions
• Quickbird imagery contains valuable information
on vegetation health and density.
• Binary classifier allows us to focus on one class
• Ensemble classifier creates more robust
classification results and quantifies uncertainty
• High classification accuracies were achieved
• RS Classification products used for management
• Future
– Inclusion of texture from panchromatic band
– Fuzzy change detection
– GEOBIA
– Validation with georeferenced coastal slope photographs
– Illumination correction
Questions?

Arko Lucieer
University of Tasmania
School of Geography & Environmental Studies
Arko.Lucieer@utas.edu.au
http://www.lucieer.net

Acknowledgements:
Dana Bergstrom, Kate Kiefer, Jane Wasley
Australian Antarctic Division
Theresa Adams
Asako Ikeura
Institutional Research Grant Scheme (IRGS)