Appraisal of kappa-based metrics and disagreement indices of accuracy assessment for parametric and nonparametric techniques used in LULC classification and change detection

Abstract

In the face of rapid urbanization, monitoring urban expansion has gained importance to sustainably manage the land resources and minimize the impact on the environment. Monitoring urban growth using satellite data involves computing the state of land use–land cover and their change over time. A number of computing methods have been developed to process and interpret the satellite results for an urban environment. However, due to a large number of parametric and nonparametric algorithms used for land-use–land-cover classification, there is uncertainty regarding choosing the best algorithm to measure the urban processes. In this study, several parametric (maximum likelihood) and nonparametric (support vector machine, spectral angle mapper, artificial neural network and decision tree) algorithms were used. The study was aimed at finding out the best available classification technique for land-use–land-cover classification and change detection. Landsat 8, the latest in Landsat series, and Landsat 7 and 5 freely available satellite data were used. Due to the redundancy reported for the traditional kappa-based indices, we applied modern disagreement indices to assess the accuracy of the classification process. Artificial neural network for Landsat 8 image had the highest kappa coefficient, while spectral angle mapper had the highest overall agreement (97%) and least quantity allocation error (1%). Spectral Angle Mapper gave the highest accuracy, while maximum likelihood classification gave the least for allocation and spatial disagreement indices. We found that spectral angle mapper gave the best results for land-use–land-cover change analysis in terms of least omission and commission errors (2.5% each) and highest overall agreement, whereas artificial neural network performed better in land-use–land-cover classification studies.