Proceedings of the 2nd International conference on Electronics, Communication and Aerospace Technology (ICECA 2018)

IEEE Conference Record # 42487; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-0965-1

Survey on Classification techniques used in remote

sensing for satellite images

Rahul Neware Prof. Amreen Khan

Computer Science and Engineering Department Computer Science and Engineering Department
GHRCE, Nagpur GHRCE, Nagpur
Nagpur, India Nagpur, India
rneware00@gmail.com Amreen.khan@raisoni.net

Abstract—Remote sensing deals with high resolution of In remote sensing there are two types of sensing,
geospatial data. It work on the various fields like agriculture,
water resource, environment, forests, land use or land cover, Passive sensing:
ocean applications, soil, geosciences, disaster warning and The energy which is generated by natural source that
management. To get required information from satellites images is sun, which is measured by remote sensing is called passive
we need to do some image processing on it. Remote sensing image sensor. Advantage of passive senses that is freely available and
processing consists of various steps in which classification and
limitless. Only limitation of passive sensor is it is available
segmentation of image into its land cover type is very essential
only at day time[3].
part. This paper gives classification technique used to find the
land cover classes in satellite images. In this paper three most
used classification ion technique is studied that is supervised
classification, unsupervised classification and Object oriented
classification.

Keywords— Remote sensing, Classification, Segmentation,

Sensors, Land cover and Use

I. INTRODUCTION
Remote sensing is the science (and to some extent, art) of Fig 1.1 Passive Sensing
acquiring information about the Earth's surface without
actually being in contact with it. This is done by sensing and (Source: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/node/14639)
recording reflected or emitted energy and processing, Active sensing:
analyzing, and applying that information”[1]. Process of
remote sensing consist of sending radiation from satellite to The energy which is generated by satellites own
earth or on object which has to be studied. As the radiation is energy source like Electro Magnetic Radiation, Radar,
incident on object it reflect the energy. This reflected energy Microwave etc. then which is measured by remote sensing is
then captured by remote sensing satellites and sent to remote called passive sensors. Active sensors sends radiations to the
station for converting it into images[2]. earth surface object which has to be investigated and reflected
energy then collected for further processing. Advantage of
In remote sensing data is gathered from the earth passive sensor is getting object information at any time and
surface with the help of energy reflected by the object on earth disadvantage is need huge energy to acquitter object[3].
surface. Remote sensing deals with the collecting of data in
image from which is reflected energy. Collected image
information is then processed with GIS (Geographical
information system)then analyzed it and apply this information
to solve the real time problems. Remote sensing technique is
very simple and they collect senses data to further process it.
First, the energy or some radiations are emitted from sensors to
the earth surface to target object. These objects reflects the
energy which is again captured by the sensor and send it to the
remote sensing centers in the form of images. Then remote
sensing centers process image data and find out required Fig 1.2 Active Sensing
information like water bodies, agriculture, situation analysis,
land cover classification etc. (Source: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/node/14639)

978-1-5386-0965-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1860

 Proceedings of the 2nd International conference on Electronics, Communication and Aerospace Technology (ICECA 2018)
IEEE Conference Record # 42487; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-0965-1
II. SENSORS USED IN REMOTE SENSING
Following sensors are used in remote sensing,
2.1 Airborne sensor:
In airborne sensors are kept on aircraft which gives
high spatial resolution. When we use airborne sensors it
perform only one time operation. Only the problem while using
airborne sensor is that it covers very less area[4].
2.2 Space borne sensor:
In space borne sensors are kept on satellite or shuttles.
It covers more earth surface as compared with air borne sensor.
When we use space borne sensors it perform continuous
monitoring of earth surface. Only problem is that it gives
images with low spatial resolution.
2.3 Radar:
Radar sensors used to measure distance between
devices. In radar Electro-Magnetic radiation is send to earth
surface object which incident on it in right angle and reflected
energy is recorded back. It is used for calculating distance and
also to detect moving objects like tracking ships, wind
direction, land cover classification ion etc.[5].
III. CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES
In remote sensing doing classification ion is very important
step. By doing classification of remote sensing images we can
analyzed and find patterns of required area. Mainly
classification is applied to find out land cover classification,
vegetation, water bodies, cloud extraction etc.
3.1 Object Oriented Classification:
Object oriented classification is alternative for pixel
based classification object oriented classification specially use
for high resolution imagery. Mainly object-oriented
classification segment satellite image into its objects so that is
called object oriented classification. In object oriented
classification knowledge base is created for segmented object
like, agency, length, shape and size etc. Object oriented
classification gives very accurate classified result of high
resolution satellites image.
J. Goldberger, S. Gordon [6] invented technique of
multi-thresholding for classification. Work on the principal of
thresholding. The threshold value selected on the moments in
gray level. Segmentation and classifications accuracy is very
high. A. Ramachandra, S. Abhilash [7] given a combined
technique feature enhancement and object oriented
classification. Studied the output results and checked the
accuracy of object oriented classed result. R. R. Muskett, C. S.
Lingle [8] developed new algorithm which used for change
detection in SAR images annual basis. Thresholding technique
of cumulative history and 5X5 mean filter is used for the
element ion of noise. The accrued of classification ion by this
algorithm is very high and also validated.
Karoui, R. Fablet [9] given a technique which is the
combination of object classification and feature enhancement
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for improving the satellites image classification accuracy using
Hrs. After using this new technique classification is very much
improved. J. Yuan, D. Wang [10] given 3D model for high
resolution image to detect car based on reference disruption.
This model detect only one vehicle at a time but it shows all the
features of car very clearly like car shadows, color and other
features. Q. Yu, P. Gong [11] proposed segmentation tool
based on the technique of semi-automatic seamen nation. This
technique is the fusion of automatic manual segmentation.
Where automatic based on bimodal technique and manual
based on dropping and filling splines. This technique gives
very good segmentation of selected area but the problem is it
involves manual validation process. M. Celenk [12] given new
technique for temporal change detection in land cover. They
used three techniques image segmentation, Gamma map filter
and block average. For segmentation they used thresholding
technique but while using thresholding efficiency is
automatically less.
E. Berthier, E. Schiefer [13] proposed a technique
which automatically segment and classify the satellites image.
They used data of Rostockuty, Germany form of QuickBird
and LiDAR images. They find k-coefficient of images and then
that coefficients is compared with other algorithm like SVM,
TF, CTF and MRF. Accuracy of segmentation and
classification by this technique is very high. G. Baudat and F.
Anouar [14] given a technique for 3D train change detection
and investigation using DEMs (Digital elevation models). They
studied deformation in earth surface by earthquake using
stereoscopic broom push technique. C. S. Fraser and H. B.
Hanley [15] given technique for Dasy metric mapping using
object oriented classification for remote sensing imagery. This
method eliminates ecological error and also various problems
occurred while using other techniques. L. Zhang, X. Huang
[16] given technique for analyzing damages in earth surface
with depth and volume. For experiment they used very high
resolution images of SPOT5.
3.2 Supervised Classification:
Supervised classification is the type of machine
learning in which training input is given then according
training inputs classification is applied. Supervised
classification is most used classification algorithm in remote
sensing. After applying this technique output is classified
image according to each class called training. In supervised
classification user has to select region of interest which is act as
classifier and pixels of whole image is classified according to
region of interest. Maximum likelihood and Spectral mapping
classification algorithm is mostly used while performing
supervised classification in remote sensing[17].
C. Xiao, M. Liu [18] studied spectral and spatial
property of remote sensing images. They used polynomial fit
classification ion teen to classify land cover and objects on
earth surface. But by using this method minute required details
of object is not get after classification. N. Gillis, D. Kuang [19]
used concept of graph theory for the classification of various
area especially urban area from satellites image. Then after
classification ion the accuracy they achieved is very very high.
They used images which has 1m resolution. T. Mei, L. An [20]
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IEEE Conference Record # 42487; IEEE Xplore ISBN:978-1-5386-0965-1
they invented a new technique for showing different type of
land cover segments by combining tabour filter and variable
means shift.
L. Gueguen [21] invented technique for the
supervised classification named pixel based system. Data
I’mages used in this experiment are very high spatial resolution
images. Output provided by this technique is accurate map and
information of spatial context. M. Espinola, J. A. Piedra [22]
proposed classification algorithm based on POK. Supervised
classification is done on the panchromatic data but the accuracy
of the classified output is very low. S. Kraft, U. Del Bello [23]
proposed a TS-MRF technique for supervised classification. It
gives very good accuracy after classification but non stationary
modeling property is not did by this technique. F. Ling, Y.
Zhang [24] classify satellites images according to their land
cover class and land use. For that they proposed GRFc and
used fuzzy system and compared their results. Finally they got
high accuracy of classification using GRFc algorithm than
fuzzy system.
Fig 3.2.1 Supervised Classification Flowchart
3.3 Unsupervised Classification:
S. Bharathi, V. Shreyas [25] Proposed DSM (Digital
Surface models) technique which maps the object points of
surface in satellites image. They proposed this technique and
chicken accrual and robustness of technique in agriculture
grounded land and hill area. Accuracy and robustness of this
technique is very good. L. Bruzzone and L. Carlin [26]
proposed technique which prefer segmentation on spectral and
texture of image. This technique reduced representative of
known and unknown features. In this technique no need to
select scales every time, it selects scale automatically which
does not require segmentation. Due to the projection problem
finer details are not proper. Y. Wang, A. I. Lyapustin [27]
given unsupervised classification technique by using
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segmentation and fuzzy algorithm. They classify quick bird
images for getting grass, forest and vegetation land. J. Feng, L.
Jiao [28] proposed DTM (Digital Terrain Models) technique
which is the extension of DSM (Digital Surface Models) this
method is used to enhance and eliminate the disadvantage of
DSM. It takes input from DSM and filter ground point and fits
that ground point to get accurate results.
T. Daniels, W. L. Smith [29] they make some changes
in segmentation and fuzzy classification techniques to get k-
coefficient, which gives very accurate land cover classification
ion for vegetation, grassland and forest land. L. Bruzzone and
L. Carlin [30] they given comparison between various
unsupervised clustering algorithms (DBSCAN, K-mean and
SOM). For non-convex cluster they said out of DBSCAN gives
very good results than k-mean and SOM. K-mean and SOM
algorithms are used when the data size is high and cluster shape
is convex. A. Baraldi and F. Parmiggiani [31] invented
unsupervised classification algorithm using cellular automata
technique. The output of this classification ion is much better
than other algorithm that is RBF, multilayer perceptron, kNN
and Naive Bayes. They perform classification of all the bands
of image that is 1to 6 and get very good accuracy of
classification but this classification ion does not work for
texture data classification. I. Sola, M. Gonzalez [32] proposed
Mahalanobis classifier. They used it for the land cover
classification ion and noted the performance of this classifier.
The performance and occupy of this classifier is very high.
This classifier shows the importance of classifier and data set
relationship for classification.
IV. CONCLUSION
After This paper gives the detailed study of classification
technique used in remote sensing for satellite images. Types of
sensors used and active and passive sensing is important part of
remote sensing. Object-based, Supervised and Unsupervised
type of classification are explained with their recent work.
Supervised classification technique is mostly used in remote
sensing because its accuracy of classification is very high as
compared to other technique.
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