Multisource remote sensing data classification based on consensus and pruning

Multisource classification methods based on neural networks, statistical modeling, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy methods are considered. For most of these methods, the individual data sources are at first treated separately and classified by either statistical or neural methods. Then, several decision fusion schemes are applied to combine information from the individual data sources. These schemes include weighted consensus theory where the weights of the individual data sources control the influence of the sources in the combined classification. Using all the data sources individually in consensus-theoretic classification can lead to a redundancy in the classification process. Therefore, a special focus in this letter is on neural networks based on pruning and regularization for combination and classification. The considered methods are applied in classification of a multisource dataset.