Forest type classification using data fusion of multispectral and panchromatic high-resolution satellite imageries

This paper proposes fusion analysis of high-resolution multispectral and panchromatic satellite imageries for forest type classification. We have shown the performance of forest type classification using panchromatic and multispectral high-resolution QuickBird satellite imageries separately. With texture features obtained from a panchromatic imagery, forest was classified into two types, such as coniferous and broad-leaved forests. On the other hand, with spectral features obtained from a multispectral imagery, forest was classified into six types, such as three coniferous, one broad-leaved and two mixed forests. These results showed that both texture and spectral features are effective for classification of forest types. In this paper, we apply the object-based classification using the common segments obtained from a pansharpen imagery to fusion and single imagery analysis in order to compare the difference only between texture and spectral features. The mean value of each texture and spectral feature from a segment is adopted in the supervised classification, the standard nearest neighbor method, using radiometrically corrected satellite imageries. We selected the contrast as texture feature, and normalized band values and differences between normalized band values as spectral features. From the comparison of the result with ones obtained from a single imagery analysis, we demonstrated that data fusion analysis exceeds a single imagery analysis in accuracy.