Accuracy Assessment of different classifiers for Sustainable Development in Landuse and Landcover mapping using Sentinel SAR and Landsat-8 data

Sentinel satellites make use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) which produces images with backscattered signals at fine spatial resolution from 10 m to 50 m. This study is mainly focused on evaluating and assessing the accuracy of various supervised classifiers like Random Forest classifier, Minimum Distance to mean classifier, KDTree KNN classifier, and Maximum Likelihood classifier for landuse / landcover mapping in Maduranthakam Taluk, Kancheepuram district, Tamilnadu, India. These classifiers are widely used for classifying the Sentinel SAR images. The SAR images were processed using speckle and terrain correction and converted to backscattered energy. The training datasets for the landcover classes, such as vegetation, waterbodies, settlement, and barren land, were collected from Google Earth images in high-resolution mode. These collected training datasets were given as input for the various classifiers during the classification. The obtained classified output results of various classifiers were analyzed and compared using the overall classification accuracy. The overall accuracy achieved by the Random Forest classifier for the polarization VV and VH was 92.86%, whereas the classified accuracy of various classifiers such as KDTree KNN, Minimum distance to mean, and Maximum Likelihood are found to be 81.68%, 83.17%, and 85.64% respectively. The random forest classifier yields a higher classification accuracy value due to its greater stability in allocating the pixels to the right landuse class. In order to compare and validate the results with sentinel data, the random classifier is applied with optical Landsat-8 satellite data. The classification accuracy obtained for Landsat-8 data is 84.61%. It is clearly proved that the random forest classifier with sentinel data gives the best classification accuracy results due to its high spatial resolution and spectral sensitivity. Thus accurate landuse and landcover mapping promote sustainable development by supporting decision-making at local, regional, and national levels.