Support vector machines for remote sensing image classification

In the last decade, the application of statistical and neural network classifiers to remote-sensing images has been deeply investigated. Therefore, performances, characteristics, and pros and cons of such classifiers are quite well known, even from remote-sensing practitioners. In this paper, we present the application to remote-sensing image classification of a new pattern recognition technique recently introduced within the framework of the Statistical Learning Theory developed by V. Vapnik and his co-workers, namely, the Support Vector Machines (SVMs). In section 1, the main theoretical foundations of SVMs are presented. In section 2, experiments carried out on a data set of multisensor remote-sensing images are described, with particular emphasis on the design and training phase of a SVM. In section 3, the experimental results are reported, together with a comparison between the performances of SVMs, neural network, and k-NN classifiers.