Urban land use land cover classification based on GF-6 satellite imagery and multi-feature optimization

Abstract

Urban land use/land cover (LULC) classification has long been a hotspot for remote sensing applications. With high spatio-temporal resolution and multispectral, the recently launched GF-6 satellite provides ideal open imagery for LULC mapping. In this study, we utilized multitemporal GF-6 images to generate six types of land features, including spectral bands, texture features, built-up, waterbody, vegetation, and red-edge indices. The minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR) algorithm was employed to optimize feature selection. Subsequently, Random Forest (RF) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBT) were assessed using different feature selections. Besides, various feature configurations were designed for LULC classification and comparison. The results indicate that the mRMR-based RF method achieved the highest overall accuracy of 91.37%. The temporal red-edge indices were important features for urban LULC classification and contributed mainly to grassland and cropland. These results supplement existing classification methods and assist in improving LULC mapping in urban areas with complex landscapes.