Evaluation of image fusion methods using PALSAR, RADARSAT-1 and SPOT images for land use/ land cover classification

Fusun Balik Sanli, Saygin Abdikan*, Mustafa Tolga Esetlili, Filiz Sunar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This research aimed to explore the fusion of multispectral optical SPOT data with microwave L-band ALOS PALSAR and C-band RADARSAT-1 data for a detailed land use/cover mapping to find out the individual contributions of different wavelengths. Many fusion approaches have been implemented and analyzed for various applications using different remote sensing images. However, the fusion methods have conflict in the context of land use/cover (LULC) mapping using optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images together. In this research two SAR images ALOS PALSAR and RADARSAT-1 were fused with SPOT data. Although, both SAR data were gathered in same polarization, and had same ground resolution, they differ in wavelengths. As different data fusion methods, intensity hue saturation (IHS), principal component analysis, discrete wavelet transformation, high pass frequency (HPF), and Ehlers, were performed and compared. For the quality analyses, visual interpretation was applied as a qualitative analysis, and spectral quality metrics of the fused images, such as correlation coefficient (CC) and universal image quality index (UIQI) were applied as a quantitative analysis. Furthermore, multispectral SPOT image and SAR fused images were classified with Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) method for the evaluation of their efficiencies. Ehlers gave the best score in the quality analysis and for the accuracy of LULC on LULC mapping of PALSAR and RADARSAT images. The results showed that the HPF method is in the second place with an increased thematic mapping accuracy. IHS had the worse results in all analyses. Overall, it is indicated that Ehlers method is a powerful technique to improve the LULC classification.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)591-601
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing
Volume45
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Indian Society of Remote Sensing.

Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • Fusion
  • Land cover
  • Land use
  • Multispectral
  • SAR

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluation of image fusion methods using PALSAR, RADARSAT-1 and SPOT images for land use/ land cover classification'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this