Semi-automatic classification for rapid delineation of the geohazard-prone areas using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery

Abstract

The study of land use land cover has become increasingly significant with the availability of remote sensing data. The main objective of this study is to delineate geohazard-prone areas using semi-automatic classification technique and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery in Bhutan. An open-source, semi-automatic classification plugin tools in QGIS software enabled efficient and rapid conduct of land cover classification. Band sets 2-8, 8A, and 11-12 are utilized and the virtual colour composites have been used for the clustering and creation of training samples or regions of interest. An iterative self-organizing data analysis technique is used for clustering and the image is classified by a minimum distance algorithm in the unsupervised classification. The Random Forest (RF) classifier is used for the supervised classification. The unsupervised classification shows an overall accuracy of 85.47% (Kappa coefficient = 0.71) and the RF classifier resulted in an accuracy of 92.62% (Kappa coefficient = 0.86). A comparison of the classification shows a higher overall accuracy of the RF classifier with an improvement of 7.15%. The study highlights 35.59% (512,100 m2) of the study area under the geohazard-prone area. The study also overlaid the major landslide polygons to roughly validate the landslide hazards.Article highlightsSemi-automatic classification technique was applied to delineate the geohazard-prone area in the heterogeneous region of Bhutan Himalaya.Unsupervised and supervised classification technique were used to perform land cover classification using the semi-automatic classification plugin (SCP).The Random Forest classifier predicted higher accuracy and the application is rapid and efficient compared to the unsupervised classification.