Error modeling based on geostatistics for uncertainty analysis in crop mapping using Gaofen-1 multispectral imagery

Abstract

With the development of remote sensing technology, its applications in agriculture monitoring systems, crop mapping accuracy, and spatial distribution are more and more being explored by administrators and users. Uncertainty in crop mapping is profoundly affected by the spatial pattern of spectral reflectance values obtained from the applied remote sensing data. Errors in remotely sensed crop cover information and the propagation in derivative products need to be quantified and handled correctly. Therefore, this study discusses the methods of error modeling for uncertainty characterization in crop mapping using GF-1 multispectral imagery. An error modeling framework based on geostatistics is proposed, which introduced the sequential Gaussian simulation algorithm to explore the relationship between classification errors and the spectral signature from remote sensing data source. On this basis, a misclassification probability model to produce a spatially explicit classification error probability surface for the map of a crop is developed, which realizes the uncertainty characterization for crop mapping. In this process, trend surface analysis was carried out to generate a spatially varying mean response and the corresponding residual response with spatial variation for the spectral bands of GF-1 multispectral imagery. Variogram models were employed to measure the spatial dependence in the spectral bands and the derived misclassification probability surfaces. Simulated spectral data and classification results were quantitatively analyzed. Through experiments using data sets from a region in the low rolling country located at the Yangtze River valley, it was found that GF-1 multispectral imagery can be used for crop mapping with a good overall performance, the proposal error modeling framework can be used to quantify the uncertainty in crop mapping, and the misclassification probability model can summarize the spatial variation in map accuracy and is helpful for satisfying the need for reliable local estimates for detailed precision management planting.