Investigating the Usability of Uav Obtained Multispectral Imagery in Tree Species Segmentation

Relating ground photographs to UAV orthomosaics is a key linkage required for accurate multi-scaled lichen mapping. Conventional methods of multi-scaled lichen mapping, such as random forest models and convolutional neural networks, heavily rely on pixel DN values for classification. However, the limited spectral range of ground photos requires additional characteristics to differentiate lichen from spectrally similar objects, such as bright logs. By applying a neural network to tiles of a UAV orthomosaics, additional characteristics, such as surface texture and spatial patterns, can be used for inferences. Our methodology used a neural network (UAV LiCNN) trained on ground photo mosaics to predict lichen in UAV orthomosaic tiles. The UAV LiCNN achieved mean user and producer accuracies of 85.84% and 92.93%, respectively, in the high lichen class across eight different orthomosaics. We compared the known lichen percentages found in 77 vegetation microplots with the predicted lichen percentage calculated from the UAV LiCNN, resulting in a R2 relationship of 0.6910. This research shows that AI models trained on ground photographs effectively classify lichen in UAV orthomosaics. Limiting factors include the misclassification of spectrally similar objects to lichen in the RGB bands and dark shadows cast by vegetation.

show abstract

Drone Image Segmentation Using Machine and Deep Learning for Mapping Raised Bog Vegetation Communities

Bhatnagar

Gill

Ghosh

2020

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The application of drones has recently revolutionised the mapping of wetlands due to their high spatial resolution and the flexibility in capturing images. In this study, the drone imagery was used to map key vegetation communities in an Irish wetland, Clara Bog, for the spring season. The mapping, carried out through image segmentation or semantic segmentation, was performed using machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms. With the aim of identifying the most appropriate, cost-efficient, and accurate segmentation method, multiple ML classifiers and DL models were compared. Random forest (RF) was identified as the best pixel-based ML classifier, which provided good accuracy (≈85%) when used in conjunction graph cut algorithm for image segmentation. Amongst the DL networks, a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture in a transfer learning framework was utilised. A combination of ResNet50 and SegNet architecture gave the best semantic segmentation results (≈90%). The high accuracy of DL networks was accompanied with significantly larger labelled training dataset, computation time and hardware requirements compared to ML classifiers with slightly lower accuracy. For specific applications such as wetland mapping where networks are required to be trained for each different site, topography, season, and other atmospheric conditions, ML classifiers proved to be a more pragmatic choice.

show abstract

Investigating the Usability of Uav Obtained Multispectral Imagery in Tree Species Segmentation

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

Analysis of Flight Parameters on UAV Semantic Segmentation Performance for Highway Infrastructure Monitoring

Analysis of Flight Parameters on UAV Semantic Segmentation Performance for Highway Infrastructure Monitoring

Leveraging AI to Estimate Caribou Lichen in UAV Orthomosaics from Ground Photo Datasets

Drone Image Segmentation Using Machine and Deep Learning for Mapping Raised Bog Vegetation Communities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About