Evaluating training data for crop type classifıcation using support vector machine and random forests

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of three different training datasets for crop type classification using both support vector machines (SVMs) and random forests (RFs). In supervised classification, one of the main facing challanges is to define the training set for the full representation of land use/cover classes. The adaptation of traning data, with the implemented classifier and its characteristics (purity, size and distribution of sample pixels), are of key importance in this context. The experimental results were compared in terms of the classification accuracy with 10-fold cross validation. Results suggest that higher classification accuracies were obtained by less number of training samples. Furthermore, it is highlighted that both methods (SVMs and RFs) are proven to be the effective and powerful classifiers for crop type classification.

Keywords

• training data
• crop type classification
• support vector machines
• random forests
• machine learning