Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method

Riverine environmental information includes important data to collect, and the data collection still requires personnel’s field surveys. These on-site tasks still face significant limitations (i.e., hard or danger to entry). In recent years, as one of the efficient approaches for data collection, ai...

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Main Authors: Shijun Pan, Keisuke Yoshida, Satoshi Nishiyama, Takashi Kojima, Yutaro Hashimoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Land
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/217
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author Shijun Pan
Keisuke Yoshida
Satoshi Nishiyama
Takashi Kojima
Yutaro Hashimoto
author_facet Shijun Pan
Keisuke Yoshida
Satoshi Nishiyama
Takashi Kojima
Yutaro Hashimoto
author_sort Shijun Pan
collection DOAJ
description Riverine environmental information includes important data to collect, and the data collection still requires personnel’s field surveys. These on-site tasks still face significant limitations (i.e., hard or danger to entry). In recent years, as one of the efficient approaches for data collection, air-vehicle-based Light Detection and Ranging technologies have already been applied in global environmental research, i.e., land cover classification (LCC) or environmental monitoring. For this study, the authors specifically focused on seven types of LCC (i.e., bamboo, tree, grass, bare ground, water, road, and clutter) that can be parameterized for flood simulation. A validated airborne LiDAR bathymetry system (ALB) and a UAV-borne green LiDAR System (GLS) were applied in this study for cross-platform analysis of LCC. Furthermore, LiDAR data were visualized using high-contrast color scales to improve the accuracy of land cover classification methods through image fusion techniques. If high-resolution aerial imagery is available, then it must be downscaled to match the resolution of low-resolution point clouds. Cross-platform data interchangeability was assessed by comparing the interchangeability, which measures the absolute difference in overall accuracy (OA) or macro-F1 by comparing the cross-platform interchangeability. It is noteworthy that relying solely on aerial photographs is inadequate for achieving precise labeling, particularly under limited sunlight conditions that can lead to misclassification. In such cases, LiDAR plays a crucial role in facilitating target recognition. All the approaches (i.e., low-resolution digital imagery, LiDAR-derived imagery and image fusion) present results of over 0.65 OA and of around 0.6 macro-F1. The authors found that the vegetation (bamboo, tree, grass) and road species have comparatively better performance compared with clutter and bare ground species. Given the stated conditions, differences in the species derived from different years (ALB from year 2017 and GLS from year 2020) are the main reason. Because the identification of clutter species includes all the items except for the relative species in this research, RGB-based features of the clutter species cannot be substituted easily because of the 3-year gap compared with other species. Derived from on-site reconstruction, the bare ground species also has a further color change between ALB and GLS that leads to decreased interchangeability. In the case of individual species, without considering seasons and platforms, image fusion can classify bamboo and trees with higher F1 scores compared to low-resolution digital imagery and LiDAR-derived imagery, which has especially proved the cross-platform interchangeability in the high vegetation types. In recent years, high-resolution photography (UAV), high-precision LiDAR measurement (ALB, GLS), and satellite imagery have been used. LiDAR measurement equipment is expensive, and measurement opportunities are limited. Based on this, it would be desirable if ALB and GLS could be continuously classified by Artificial Intelligence, and in this study, the authors investigated such data interchangeability. A unique and crucial aspect of this study is exploring the interchangeability of land cover classification models across different LiDAR platforms.
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spelling doaj-art-a34a7fad22084bde9e68dc540f2dc3aa2025-08-20T02:03:28ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2025-01-0114221710.3390/land14020217Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification MethodShijun Pan0Keisuke Yoshida1Satoshi Nishiyama2Takashi Kojima3Yutaro Hashimoto4Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, 2-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi 700-8530, JapanGraduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, 2-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi 700-8530, JapanGraduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, 2-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi 700-8530, JapanTOKEN C. E. E. Consultants Co., Ltd., 1-36-1 Azuma-cho, Omiya-ku, Saitama-shi 330-0841, JapanGraduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, 2-1-1, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi 700-8530, JapanRiverine environmental information includes important data to collect, and the data collection still requires personnel’s field surveys. These on-site tasks still face significant limitations (i.e., hard or danger to entry). In recent years, as one of the efficient approaches for data collection, air-vehicle-based Light Detection and Ranging technologies have already been applied in global environmental research, i.e., land cover classification (LCC) or environmental monitoring. For this study, the authors specifically focused on seven types of LCC (i.e., bamboo, tree, grass, bare ground, water, road, and clutter) that can be parameterized for flood simulation. A validated airborne LiDAR bathymetry system (ALB) and a UAV-borne green LiDAR System (GLS) were applied in this study for cross-platform analysis of LCC. Furthermore, LiDAR data were visualized using high-contrast color scales to improve the accuracy of land cover classification methods through image fusion techniques. If high-resolution aerial imagery is available, then it must be downscaled to match the resolution of low-resolution point clouds. Cross-platform data interchangeability was assessed by comparing the interchangeability, which measures the absolute difference in overall accuracy (OA) or macro-F1 by comparing the cross-platform interchangeability. It is noteworthy that relying solely on aerial photographs is inadequate for achieving precise labeling, particularly under limited sunlight conditions that can lead to misclassification. In such cases, LiDAR plays a crucial role in facilitating target recognition. All the approaches (i.e., low-resolution digital imagery, LiDAR-derived imagery and image fusion) present results of over 0.65 OA and of around 0.6 macro-F1. The authors found that the vegetation (bamboo, tree, grass) and road species have comparatively better performance compared with clutter and bare ground species. Given the stated conditions, differences in the species derived from different years (ALB from year 2017 and GLS from year 2020) are the main reason. Because the identification of clutter species includes all the items except for the relative species in this research, RGB-based features of the clutter species cannot be substituted easily because of the 3-year gap compared with other species. Derived from on-site reconstruction, the bare ground species also has a further color change between ALB and GLS that leads to decreased interchangeability. In the case of individual species, without considering seasons and platforms, image fusion can classify bamboo and trees with higher F1 scores compared to low-resolution digital imagery and LiDAR-derived imagery, which has especially proved the cross-platform interchangeability in the high vegetation types. In recent years, high-resolution photography (UAV), high-precision LiDAR measurement (ALB, GLS), and satellite imagery have been used. LiDAR measurement equipment is expensive, and measurement opportunities are limited. Based on this, it would be desirable if ALB and GLS could be continuously classified by Artificial Intelligence, and in this study, the authors investigated such data interchangeability. A unique and crucial aspect of this study is exploring the interchangeability of land cover classification models across different LiDAR platforms.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/217airborne LiDAR bathymetrycross-platformdeep learninggreen LiDAR systemriverine land cover classification
spellingShingle Shijun Pan
Keisuke Yoshida
Satoshi Nishiyama
Takashi Kojima
Yutaro Hashimoto
Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
Land
airborne LiDAR bathymetry
cross-platform
deep learning
green LiDAR system
riverine land cover classification
title Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
title_full Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
title_fullStr Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
title_full_unstemmed Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
title_short Interchangeability of Cross-Platform Orthophotographic and LiDAR Data in DeepLabV3+-Based Land Cover Classification Method
title_sort interchangeability of cross platform orthophotographic and lidar data in deeplabv3 based land cover classification method
topic airborne LiDAR bathymetry
cross-platform
deep learning
green LiDAR system
riverine land cover classification
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/217
work_keys_str_mv AT shijunpan interchangeabilityofcrossplatformorthophotographicandlidardataindeeplabv3basedlandcoverclassificationmethod
AT keisukeyoshida interchangeabilityofcrossplatformorthophotographicandlidardataindeeplabv3basedlandcoverclassificationmethod
AT satoshinishiyama interchangeabilityofcrossplatformorthophotographicandlidardataindeeplabv3basedlandcoverclassificationmethod
AT takashikojima interchangeabilityofcrossplatformorthophotographicandlidardataindeeplabv3basedlandcoverclassificationmethod
AT yutarohashimoto interchangeabilityofcrossplatformorthophotographicandlidardataindeeplabv3basedlandcoverclassificationmethod