Evaluation of Different Classification Algorithms for Land Use Land Cover Mapping

For efficient sustainable management and monitoring landscape changes over times, reliable land use land cover (LULC) mapping using the most accurate classification algorithms is required. Increasing innovative classification algorithms and satellite data demands finding the most suitable classifier to create accurate maps of different features efficiently. The challenge addressed in this study is to identify the most accurate algorithm for classifying and generating reliable LULC. The objective of this research was to identify the best classification among several algorithms both overall and in each individual class by using ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth Engine with Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 datasets for Ranya city as the study area. Support vector machine (SVM), maximum likelihood, random tree, classification and regression tree, K-Nearest Neighbor and iterative self organizing cluster algorithms were used to classify the satellite image of the study area. The kappa coefficient matrix was used to assess the performance of each classifier and method. The study showed that the random tree algorithm achieved highest overall accuracy using Sentinel-2 with 83%. Meanwhile, when the specific class accuracy is priority, the result suggests the use of SVM algorithm using Sentinel-2 for building footprint extraction with 92% accuracy. The result also showed that the outcomes of most algorithms were better using Sentinel-2 rather than Landsat 8, making Sentinel-2 more suitable for accurate LULC mapping. The outcomes of the research assessed different classification algorisms to find the best algorithms and methods that can be used to generate accurate and efficient LULC maps.