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A comparison of Support Vector Machines and Object-Based Classification for Land Cover/Use Mapping from SPOT4 Imagery
K. Dimitrakopoulos1 , I.Z Gitas 1 , G. P. Petropoulos 2,3, A. Polychronaki 1, Katagis 1, C. Minakou 1
1. Laboratory of Forest Management & Remote Sensing, A.U.Th. 2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, BS8 1RJ, Bristol, United Kingdom 3. INFOCOSMOS, Pindou 71, 13341, Athens, Greece, http://www.infocosmos.eu

T.

Received: ; in revised form: / Accepted: / Published:

Abstract:
The aim of the present study has been to examine the capability of the Support Vector Machines (SVM) pixel-based and object-based image classification techniques combined with SPOT4 multispectral satellite imagery for mapping the spatial distribution of land use/cover in a Mediterranean setting. Transferability of the object-based classification scheme developed herein for one study site is also examined applying it to a second test region for which SPOT4 imagery had also been acquired. A further objective of the present study was to examine the potential added value of topographic information inclusion as an additional information layer to the SVM classification accuracy. Accuracy of the derived thematic maps was assessed using validation points acquired from field visits performed in the studied sites, assisted by photo-interpretation of very high resolution aerial imagery available for the study sites. For consistency, the same set of ground truth data was used for both classification results for accuracy assessment. Results demonstrated the potential of both classification approaches in mapping the spatial distribution of land cover/use types. The object-classification somehow outperformed the SVM classification by 4% and 0.050 in overall accuracy and kappa coefficient respectively. Yet, results obtained suggest that SVM classifier can potentially represent a viable alternative to the more sophisticated object-based image classification approach. Ttransferability of the objectclassification scheme showed successful results (81.5% overall accuracy) when applied to the second test region after necessary adjustments of the rules-set. Inclusion of altitude an additional information layer to the SVM implementation returned inconclusive results in terms of the overall classification accuracy of the thematic maps produced, although a noticeable improvement in the classification of individual classes was noticed, potential related to the appearance of those classes at certain altitude ranges. Keywords: land cover/use mapping, object-based classification, Support Vector Machines, machine learning algorithms, SPOT-4, remote sensing

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1. Introduction Land cover refers to the physical and biological cover over the surface of land including water, vegetation, bare soil, and/or artificial structures. Land use is a more complicated term. Natural scientists define land use in terms of syndromes of human activities, while social scientists and land managers define land use more broadly to include the social and economic purposes and contexts for and within which lands are managed [1]. Land cover/use is a composite term, which includes both categories of land cover and land use. Information on land use/cover and at a wider range of scales is required by user communities interested to study the division of Earths landscape according to the various classes of land cover/use. Creation of such maps is very useful for example in monitoring and controlling areas development at a local level and in taking initiatives in administrative tasks. The acquisition of accurate data regarding land cover/use types as well as of their allocation and extent of a certain region, is also a valuable tool for correct coordination and planning of actions related to maintenance of natural reserves, monitoring changes due to calamities (wildfires, floods etc) or anthropogenic factors (soil contamination, overgrazing etc), and the urban development planning on both local and national scale [2]. Mapping and monitoring of land use/cover in a consistent and cost-effective way and its changes over time is linked today also to many aspects of the human and physical environments. For example, protection of natural and semi-natural habitats and of biodiversity as well as the development of policies for sustainable land use has now been recognized more than ever as a key priority axis particularly so in most of the European Union (EU) member states (Bock, 2003), being also in line to the demands associated to the EU habitats Directive (Sanchez-Hernandez, 2007). Being able to acquire information on the land use/land cover state and monitor its spatio-temporal changes in a continuous, consistent and in an economically viable manner, consists a key requirement in developing a viable approach for producing such data. In this context, it is becoming a necessity to investigate the extent to which new technologies, such as remote sensing, can be used to produce land use/cover thematic maps.
Use of remotely sensed data for producing thematic land use/cover maps has generally been demonstrated as the most cost-effective solution for habitat monitoring and land cover mapping and

monitoring at a range of scales including those associated with demands of the EU habitats Directive (3; Amarnath et al. 2003; Yan et al., 2006; Liu et al., 2007; Sanchez-Hernandez, 2007). The general circumstances that make aerial photographs and satellite images attractive for this purpose include its ability to provide inexpensively and repetitively spatially continuous synoptic views at a range of spatial and temporal scales, even on inaccessible locations. With the development of remote sensing technology, remotely sensed data have also been widely used to classify land cover, permitting to update maps more frequently and on a near real-time basis, which is of primary importance when repeated measurements at frequent intervals are needed. The rapid development in both remote sensors and hardware technology over the last decades, with sensors providing data suitable for land use/cover mapping applications such as TM, IRS and SPOT HR/VIR, have opened up new opportunities to the remote sensing community to exploit such data. As a result, a large amount of effort has been directed towards developing more sophisticated methods, aiming to increase the accuracy with which land use/cover information can be derived from imagery acquired from space (Lu and Weng, 2007).
Producing thematic maps for information extraction related to land use/cover using remote sensing data is mainly done by performing digital image classification. A large number of classification

approaches of a wide range of complexity levels have been developed over the years, to match and exploit the capabilities that this recent technology has to offer with respect to the production of land use/cover thematic maps production from satellite imagery. A recent review of the different
classification approaches employed utilising remote sensing data can be found in Lu and Weng (2007). Two of the key groups of classification approaches include the pixel-based and the object-based classification methods. Pixel-based techniques employ the reflective characteristics of the land

surface items and of their spectral signatures in order to perform a classification by assigning
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pixels to land cover classes. The result of classification using pixel-based techniques can be achieved by either supervised or unsupervised classifiers. In unsupervised classification image pixels with similar spectral values are initially grouped into unique clusters according to some statistically predefined criteria, and then the classifier combines and reassigns the spectral clusters into information classes (Jensen, 1996). On the other, in the case of supervised classification are used samples of known identity to classify pixels of unknown identity, commonly known as training sites, and are representat ive of the land cover classes planned to be used in the classification scheme. Many methods have been devised to implement the supervised classification, all of which use the information included in the training sites data as a means of classifying all the image pixels. Well-developed and sophisticated variations of pixel-based classification techniques have been developed including software classifiers, sub-pixel classifiers and spectral unmixing techniques. Generally, widely used pixel-based classifiers such as the Maximum Likelihood (ML) or Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are able to produce rapidly and effortlessly often very good classification results even in complex feature spaces using often a small and inexpensive set of training samples. Nevertheless, some of these techniques, require to make assumptions regarding the probability distribution of the training datasets (e.g. ML), which might not always coincide to reality, whereas some other may require significant amount of effort before obtaining a satisfactory level of classification accuracy (e.g. ANN). What is more, it is generally argued by many that pixel-based classifier do not make use of the spatial concept of the imagery analyzed each time, such as textural or contextual information (Yan et al., 2006). This despite that many studies have indicated that use of multiple features of remote sensing data such as textural or topographic information have shown promise in increasing the overall accuracy of remote sensing based thematic maps. On the other, object based image analysis (OBIA) introduced in the 1970s (de Kok et al., 1999). The method depends on knowledge-based membership functions that clearly define rules to classify a feature (i.e. a group of pixel), rather than methods that apply a single decision-rule on a pixel by pixel basis (Walsh et al., 2008). It is based on the concept that information necessary to interpret an image is not represented in single pixels, but in meaningful image objects. The first step in object-based classification is image segmentation, based on which remote sensing imagery is divided into regions where each is homogeneous and no two adjustment regions are homogeneous (Pal and Pal, 1993). Segmentation directly affects the quality of the results (Conhedda et al., 2008). By segmenting an image into objects, geometrical features such as shape and length, and topological entities, such as adjacency and found within, can also be called upon in the classification process [7]. In the next step, the segmented image is used along with textural and contextual information as well as the spectral information, to produce a thematic map of land use/cover using not only spectral information, but also spatial information of image objects, which consists one of the main advantages of the method in comparison to pixel-based approaches. As reported by Blaschke and Strobl (2001), the principle of this technique to classify objects instead of pixels, which steams out from the fact that most image data exhibit characteristic texture, is one of the key advantages of this technique in comparison to conventional pixel-based classifications. Furthermore, consideration of object attributes (e.g., shape, heterogeneity) which is also included in the object-based classification, as well as the averaging of pixels associated within an object, results to reduced salt and pepper effect and edge effects commonly observed in pixel-based classification [8]. Last but not least, using the OBIA method, sensor limitations can be overcome by building objects that incorporate neighborhood properties, and thus the production of a more accurate representation of the surface patterns compared with pixel-based methods can be created [9]. As the advancements in satellite technology have resulted to an increase of the spatial resolution of commercially available data, and thus of the level of detail by which objects can be discriminated in a satellite imagery, use of OBIA classification has been also increased (West and Zhang, 2009).

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Yet, accurate production of land use/cover thematic maps from remote sensing observations and remains an important challenge (Lizarazo and Elsner, 2009). What is more, the development of sophisticated pixel-based machine learning-based classifiers, such as of Support Vector Machines (SVMs) has also strengthen the requirement for performing validatory and comparative studies assessing the performances of different approaches applied with different types of remote sensing data. SVM in particular has several advantages in comparison to other parametric or non-parametric pixel-based classifiers, namely: 1). They are not based on any assumption regarding the probability distribution of the training datasets as it is done by parametric classifiers (e.g.ML), but they obtain their decision directly from the training data in a suitable space that is described by a kernel function. 2). They are able to deal more efficiently with data of high dimensionality, as they are able to simultaneously minimise the empirical classification error and maximise the class separation using various transformations of hyperplane. 3). They are effective in addressing ill-posted problems providing high classification accuracy results in comparison to other classifiers, even in cases when small training sets are used, and 4). They are easy to implement, requiring limited effort in their architectural design development and in their training, as only a few parameters need to be adjusted by the user, subject to the kernel type used each time. Also, generally, SVM classifier implemented so far in many classification problems using different types of remote sensing data acquired at different spatial scales (e.g. SPOT, MODIS, Landsat TM/ETM+) has general produced reliable and promising results (see table 1 for a review of classification studies using SVM classifier). Nevertheless, to our knowledge, the question remains today, on how the SVM pixel-based classification accuracy is compared to that from the object-based classification using widely commercially available multispectral imagery. Such an investigation would also be undoubtedly of great interest if implemented in Mediterranean conditions, due to also to the relevance of the land use/cover thematic maps to desertification and land degradation (Castillejo-Gonzale et al., 2009). Furthermore, it would also be a very challenging task to evaluate the different methods performances, in real conditions including landscapes characterized by a high degree of land cover fragmentation and topographic variability, as well a variety of applied man-made land use practices, as are those often found in the Mediterranean basin. The present study addresses the above questions and has a main objective to explore for the first time the combined use of SVM pixel-based and object-based classification techniques with the spectral quality and high spatial accuracy of SPOT4 imagery for providing and accurate and cost-effective land use/cover mapping for two regions in northern Greece representative of a typical Mediterranean setting. In this framework, the present study develops an SVM and objectbased classification scheme, where the accuracy of which is tested in the two test sites using data collected in the field, as well with data derived from photo-interpretation of very high resolution imagery. The evaluation of the accuracy of the object-based image classification to the second study site allows examining also the transferability of the developed rules-set by applying the same scheme on a second SPOT-4 image of a different area, after necessary fine-tuning. A final objective of the present work has been to examine the potentially added value of the inclusion of topography as an additional information layer in the SVM performance. It is noted, that very few studies performed in the past in this direction have indicated that inclusion of such information can potentially assist in improving the overall accuracy of the thematic maps produced by the SVM implementation to satellite imagery (Keuchel et al., 2003). 2. Study area and datasets Implementation of the present study was conducted for two selected regions located in northern Greece, representative of typical Mediterranean conditions in terms of landscape structure and land surface cover variation (figure 1). The first study area is located in northern Greece and it is part of the Chalkidiki prefecture. Its surface area is 1634 km2, and it is extending from 2322 to 2411 East, and from 3958 to 4035 North. The altitude of the area ranges from
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sea level to 1165m (mount Cholomontas). The average monthly temperatures range from -1,72,2C during February to 25,8-26,2C in July, and the annual precipitation is approximately 581.3mm. The vegetation of the area is consisted mainly by broadleaved forests ( Quercus frainneto), coniferous forests (Pinus halepensis) and Mediterranean maquis (Quercus coccifera, Pistacia sp., Sparteum junceum etc). Some other forest species that can be found are Quercus pubescens, Fagus sp. Castanea sativa and Pinus pinea to name but a few. The second study area is located in Central Greece, it is part of six prefectures, and it mainly covers the southern part of Pindos mount chain. Its surface area is 3952 km2, and it is extending from 2109 to 2201 East, and from 3858 to 3936 North. The elevation of the area ranges from 61m to 2.146m (mount Avgo, Trikala prefecture). The average monthly temperatures range from -3,4-0,4C during February to 23,9-26,4C during July and August, and the annual precipitation is approximately 1024.6mm. The vegetation due to the vast altitude difference varies respectively. It is mainly consisted by coniferous forests (Abies borisii regis) and evergreen broadleaved forests (Daphne oleoides, Quercus coccifera, Alnus glutinosa, Arbutus unedo etc.). Some other species that can be found are Pinus sylvestris, Pinus leucodermis, Quercus frainneto, Quercus pubescens, Castanea sativa, Acer platanoides, Juniperus oxycedrus, Juniperus communis and Pteridium aquilinumm to name but a few. In terms of the spatial data used, these included the following: (a) Two SPOT-4 HRVIR satellite images (level 1A) images, both acquired on August of 2006. (b) Two SPOT-5 HRVIR (level 3A) images, both captured on August of 2006. (c) Digital elevation models (DEMs) of the two study areas with a 30m grid size. (d) The CORINE 2000 land cover map, and (c) data collected from the field and from photo-interpretation of very high resolution imagery which was available from Google Earth. The field data were collected by volunteers who had participated in an extensive field work that was part of a collaboration project between WWF Hellas and the Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The photo interpretation was conducted independently by an unbiased specialist. 3. Methodology Land use/cover classification was conducted in the selected study regions using both the SVM and the object-based technique combined with the SPOT 4 imagery acquired on each of the study sites. An overview of the overall methodology which was followed in the implementation of the present study is illustrated in Figure 2. Briefly, following the acquisition of all data described ipreiviously (section 2), image pre-processing was applied to each SPOT4 satellite imagery which mainly included clouds masking, atmospheric correction and orthorectification of the acquired images. Subsequently, the SVM and object-based classification were implemented to each SPOT4 imagery at the two different processing scales, the pixel-based and the object-based. Then, accuracy of the thematic maps of the land use/cover which were produced was evaluated based on the available ground truth previously collected for the studied region assisted by the photointerpretation of very high resolution imagery which was available for the sites. In the following sections, are detailed the main steps taken in the data pre-processing as well as the procedures for the implementation of the considered here classification techniques for the production of the land sue/cover thematic maps from the SPOT4 imagery. 3.1 Preprocessing Orthorectification was applied to each SPOT imagery using the orthorectification model developed by [11]. The 30m grid size DEM and the two SPOT-5 images were used in the process. The later were used as reference data. Orthorectification proceeded by indentifying ground central points (GCPs) in the SPOT-4, and in the reference images respectively. The two SPOT-4 were subsequently reprojected to the EGSA87 projection system. The total root square mean error (RMSerror) was 0,27 and 0,38 pixels for the two images, respectively.
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Atmospheric correction was also performed to the two satellite images. The haze removal procedure was selected, due to the lack of ancillary data that were mandatory for several atmospheric models to work. The haze removal procedure assumes that each band of the image for a given scene should contain some pixels at or close to zero brightness value, that atmospheric effects and especially path radiance has added a constant value to each pixel in a band, thus shifting band histograms to the right [12]. Bands in the visible region are more influenced. By evaluating the histograms for each band and subtracting the shift from the histograms, the dynamic range of image intensity is greatly improved. Then, the DEM layer which was available for each site was normalized based on minimum and maximum values, and was layer stack to the SPOT image spectral bands, creating a single file to facilitate further processing. The classification scheme to be used was subsequently defined, into which seven classes was decided to be used, namely: konofora, thamnolibada, platiffila, poolibada, agrotikes ektaseis, gimnes ketaseis/texnites epifaneies and ydatines epifaneies. Following that, a random sampling of approximately 500 representative training points for each class were collected from each acquired SPOT4 image, for the implementation of the pixel-based SVM classification. Selection of the training sites was based primarily on Google earth very high resolution imagery which was available for each site, assisted also by the field visits which had been performed in the studied regions previously. Appropriateness of the selected training pixels, was checked by computing their spectral separability, using both the both the Jeffries-Matusita and the Transformed Divergence separability statistical measures (ENVI Users Guide, 2008). Generally, spectral separability values ranges from 0 to 2.0 and indicates how well selected spectral pairs are statistically separate given the number of spectral channels of the satellite imagery bands number considered each time. Values greater than 1.9 generally are generally interpreted as a very good separability between the compared spectra, whereas very low separability values (less than 1) indicate that the compared spectra might be appropriate to be combined into a single one. In the present study, spectral separability was performed by comparing the mean pixel spectral values of the selected training sites (essentially the mean digital numbers of at-surface reflectances). Their spectral separability was examined using all the reflective channels of the sensor. For Pindos, separability index for the training sites was reported for all classes higher than 1.54 when the DEM was not included as an additional layer in the separability indices computation and higher than 1.82 when the scaled DEM layer had been included, whereas for Xalkidiki site, it was 1.19 and 1.31 for each case respectively. It is worthwhile here to note that for both test sites inclusion of the scaled DEM as an additional spectral layer, resulted to increasing the overall spectral separability of the individual classes. 3.2 Support Vector Machines classification SVM is a supervised machine learning method that performs supervised classification based on statistical learning theory (Vapnik, 1995). Briefly, SVM in its simplest form is a binary classification method that provides a separation of classes by fitting an optimal separating hyperplane to a set of training data that maximises the separation between the classes. Given a training data, the SVM algorithm obtains the optimal separation hyperplane in terms of generalization error. Essentially, the hyperplane is the decision surface on which the optimal class separation takes place. A good separation is achieved by the hyperplane that has the largest distance to the neighboring data points of both classes. In order to represent more complex shapes than linear hyperplanes, the classifier may use kernel functions. In this case, the problem transforms into an equivalent linear hyperplane problem of higher (sometimes infinite) dimensionality. A detailed description of SVM classifiers operation is made available for example by Burges (1998) and Foody and Mather (2004); what follows here are the pertinent details of this study.

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In the present study a multiclass SVM pair-wise classification strategy was applied in ENVI image processing environment based on creating a binary classifier for each possible pair of classes, choosing the class that achieved the highest probability of identification across the series pair-wise comparisons. SVM implementation was performed at the original SPOT4 sensor spatial resolution (i.e. 20 m) using all the sensor reflective bands in defining the SVM feature space. SVM was implemented using the Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel function for performing the pair-wise classification, as this kernel requires the definition of only a small amount of parameters to run and has also shown to produce generally good results in most classification cases (Huang et al., 2008). For the implementation of the SVM using the RBF kernel, parameters that needed to be set included the gamma and penalty parameter, the pyramid levels and the classification probability threshold value. Generally very little guidance exists in the literature concerning the criteria to be used in selecting the kernel-specific parameters (e.g. Carrao et al., 2008; Li and Liu, 2010). Parameterisation of the RBF kernel herein was based on performing a number of trials of parameters combinations, using classification accuracy as a measure of quality, following approach previously implemented in analogous studies of SVM implementation (e.g. Pal and Mather, 2005; Kuemmerle et al., 2008). In addition, suggestions provided for the parameterization of these values for the different kernels given in the ENVI software Users Guide were also taken into account in parameterising each kernel function. As a result, the parameter a value was equal to the inverse of the number of the spectral bands of the SPOT imagery (i.e. 0.250 for the case when the DEM was not used, and 0.200 when the DEM was used as an additional input layer), whereas the penalty parameter was set in all cases to its maximum value (i.e. 100), forcing all pixels in the training data to converge to a class. The pyramid parameter was set to a value of zero, meaning that the SPOT4 imagery should be processed at full resolution, whereas a classification probability threshold of zero was also applied forcing all all image pixels to be classified into one class label and have no unclassified pixels in the imagery. 3.2 Object based land cover/use classification scheme development The development of the object based classification scheme started with a segmentation procedure to create the image objects. The segmentation algorithm in eCognition Developer software termed as multiresolution segmentation, partitions an image into homogeneous multipixel regions based on user-defined parameters. Parameters such as scale and the heterogeneity criterion had to be determined in order to generate as meaningful objects as possible. The scale parameter affects the size of the resulting objects, whereas the heterogeneity criterion which is comprised of two parts affects the shape of the resulting objects. The first part is the spectral heterogeneity which is determined by the change of a weighted standard deviation of the spectral values. The second is the spatial heterogeneity (the shape heterogeneity in the spatial domain) which is determined by smoothness and compactness [13,14]. The underlying proprietary segmentation algorithm is described as a region-merging technique in which individual pixels are merged into small objects, followed by successive iterations in which small objects are incrementally merged into larger ones in such a way that heterogeneity of the resulting image objects is minimized. The merging process continues until a threshold derived from the userdefined parameters is reached [15]. The process sequence involves interactions between subsequent modifications (i.e. segmentations, object merging) and classifications at different levels. This is possible through individual operations called processes which give solutions to specific image analysis problems. The main functional parts of a single process are the algorithm, and the image object domain. A single process allows the application of a specific algorithm to a specific region of interest in the image. The image object domain describes the region of interest where the algorithm of the process will be executed in the image object hierarchy and is defined by a structural description of the corresponding subset. Examples of image object domains are the entire image, an image object level or all image objects of a given class [16].
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Image object levels are image layers related to the various (coarse, medium, fine) resolutions of the image objects. This multi-scale analysis is possible since the software allows the representation of image information in different scales simultaneously by different object layers. This layer approach creates a hierarchical network of image objects where, each object knows its neighbors, its sub-objects and super-objects in a strict hierarchical structure. This relation improves the value of the final classification and cannot be fulfilled by common, pixel-based approaches. [17]. Two image object levels were created (big and small sized objects) (Figure 3) and the total number of classes that were created was seven: agricultural areas, coniferous forests, broadleaved forests, shrublands, grasslands, bare land & artificial surfaces, and water surfaces. These classes were chosen in order to cover the major land cover/use types of the study areas, without having to compromise the classification results by including detailed classes. It would be hard to distinguish the latter due to sensor limitations (both spatial and spectral), and to the complexity of the landscape of the two regions. Also in order to classify the agricultural areas and the classes beneath the clouds and shadows (which were masked out) of the images, the information of CORINE 2000 land cover map was used. The final classifications of the generated image objects at each level were realized using the appropriate feature values to best separate the different classes. Level 1. The purpose of this level was to act as the basis for the separation between the agricultural areas, and all the other land cover/use classes. The thematic information derived from the CORINE 2000 land cover map was used for segmentation of the image. This procedure resulted in the generation and the classification of the two main object classes namely agricultural areas, and other land cover/use classes. Level 2. With the creation of the first level a second segmentation took place in the domain that did not include agricultural areas, for the creation of the final objects that will be classified in the remaining classes. A small scale was selected, and weighting took into consideration all the image layers equally. The heterogeneity criterion was composed with the value 0.1 for shape, and 0.9 for compactness. Segmentation aims at creating objects that represent adequately the corresponded classes in order for the classification algorithm to be applied successfully. In order to achieve optimum separation between the classes, different features were compared and analyzed. The main method that was followed in this step was the trial & error procedure. After several tests, the appropriate features along with their thresholds were found for the corresponding classes (Table 1). The mean layer value cL feature is calculated from the layer values cLi of all n pixels forming an image object:
cL 1 n cLi n i 1

(1)

The ratio value rL feature can be defined as:

rL cLo cLso

(2)

where cLO is the layer L mean value of an image object, and c LSO is the mean value of the sum of all layer mean values of an image object. Finally, the customized SUM feature was defined by the equation:
SUM Mean( SWIR) Mean( NIR ) Mean(Re d ) Mean(Green) 1000000

(3)
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The final step of the object based classification scheme was the extraction of the classification results in shape file format. Finally, the classification result was imported in GIS environment in order to restore the information that was masked out in the areas that were covered by clouds and shadows. 1.1. Transfer of the object based land cover/use scheme in the second study area The second study area varies both in vegetation and in climatic conditions. It is mainly represented by mountainous relief, so different spectral behavior of the respective vegetation types is expected. The object based scheme was implemented, and the exact steps that led to the previous successful result were followed. Level 1. As in the first application, the purpose of this level was to act as the basis for the separation between the agricultural areas, and all the rest. Segmentation of the image followed the same principals as in the first application, so no parameter was altered. This procedure once more resulted in the generation and the classification of the two main object classes; agricultural areas, and all the others. Level 2. The main objective for the creation of the second level remains the same as in the first application. A second segmentation followed the first without any change of the algorithm parameters. The result was satisfying, and the classification of the objects to the respective classes was the next step. No change of the class features was required as they could separate the classes efficiently. However, a change to the threshold values was required, as the different spectral properties of the depicted scenery varied compared to the first study area. Finally the classification result was imported again in GIS environment, in order to restore the information that was masked out in the areas that were covered by clouds and shadows. Implementation of the OBA was done initially for the Xalkidiki site and then, the same rule-set was applied to the Pindos site, after the necessary adjustments done to the threshold values of the class features. This allowed also evaluating the transferability of the OBIA scheme developed to another site and SPOT4 image. 3.3. Classification accuracy assessment Accuracy assessment followed up the classification procedure. Accuracy of the different classification results was performed based on the classification error matrix (Congalton and Green, 1999). The latter determines the accuracy of the thematic map produced from the classification by comparing the percentage of the classified pixels of each class with the verified ground truth class. As a result, the error matrix is producing a confusion matrix which summarises itself key descriptive classification accuracy measures, namely the overall accuracy (OA), users accuracy (UA) and producers accuracy (PA) and the kappa coefficient (Kc) [18-21]. The OA represents the probability that a randomly selected point is classified correctly on the map. The PA indicates the probability that the classifier has correctly labeled an image pixel whereas the UA expresses the probability that a pixel belongs to a given class and the classifier has labeled the pixel correctly into the same given class. Kc is a measure of agreement based on the difference between the actual agreement in the error matrix and the chance agreement that is represented by row and column totals. This parameter takes values between 0 and 1, where values greater than 0.80 represent high agreement between classification and reference data, values between 0.40 and 0.80 represent moderate agreement, and values less than 0.40 represent poor agreement. Compared to the OA, Kc coefficient has the advantage that it is computed using the non-diagonal values of the image classification, which means that it accounts for omission and commission in the classified data (Congalton and Green 1999). In performing the accuracy assessment in the present study, the same approach was followed for both test regions to ensure consistency. For the first study area 291 points were used for the assessment where 102 of which were collected in the field with a global positioning system
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(G.P.S) handheld device. Accordingly, for the second study area 318 reference points were used, and 31 of them were collected from the field with a handheld G.P.S device. Selection of the points used was based on a random distribution, assisted by the high resolution imagery which was available for each test site. 4. Results and discussion The land use/cover thematic maps produced from the implementation of the SVM and OBIA classification techniques to the SPOT4 multispectral imagery acquired for each test site are depicted in Figures 3 and 4, whereas the detailed accuracy assessment results for each of these thematic are summarized in Tables 2 and 3. A visual comparison of the different classifications maps showed generally a wider range of agreement between the thematic maps produced. Noticeable was in the SVM classification maps the presence of the typical salt and pepper appearance, a typical characteristic of all pixelbased classifications, in comparison to the more defined land use/cover thematic content evident in the object-based image classifications. Other investigators have also noticed this effect in analogous comparative studies they have performed examining the thematic content bewteen pixel-based and OBIA classifications (e.g. Welsh et al., 2008). As regards the OBIA thematic maps results, for the Xalkidiki site, an OA and a Kc of 79,11% and 0,752 respectively were obtained, whereas for Pindos classification results were even higher for both OA and Kc, with values of 81,50% and 0,782 respectively. SVM classifier applied to the set of SPOT4 iamges acquired at the same test regions, also generally returned very high classification accuracy results in terms of OA and Kc, for both sites and for all scenarios for which SVM was implemented. For the Xalkidiki site, OA and Kc were higher than 74.66% and 0.700 respectively, whereas for Pindos site OA and Kc were always higher than 78.37% and 0.744 respectively, following the same patterns in terms of accuracy as the OBIA results. In terms of individual classes accuracies, results showed hat for both techniques the classes with the highest UA and PA were more often class 5 (agrotikes) and class 3 (platifilla), followed by class 1 (konofora), although there were notable exceptions to this. As the confusion matrices illustrate (Tables 2, 3), object-based classification generally outperformed the SVM classification by ~4% and 0.050 for OA and Kc respectively for Xalkidiki and by 3% and 0.040 for Pindos test site. However, differences in the two classification approaches do not appear ti follow a clear pattern, apart perhaps from that both techniques returned higher classification results for Pindos site in comparison to Xalkidiki. Results from the OBIA technique in particular also further confirmed the transferability of the classification scheme developed herein from one site to another for the same satellite sensor (i.e. SPOT-4), which is very important in terms of future method implementation and transferability potential to other similar ecosystems. On the other, on the basis of the results obtained herein, no clear conclusion can be drawn in terms of the potential added value of topographic information inclusion to the overall classification accuracy of the land use/cover thematic maps produced from SVM, as results differed for the two case studies. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to underline here that topography variation in Pindos site is much higher in comparison to Xalkidiki and that for Pindos at least, a negligible improvement in overall classification was observed when the topographic information was included in the classification. What is more, as seen from the relevant confusion matrices (table 3), for both test sites used, the DEM inclusion as an extra layer in SVM implementation improves specifically the classification accuracy of classes 1 (konofora), cass 2 (thamnolibada) and class 3 (Platiffila), which are commonly found land cover types in higher elevations. This last finding may suggest that topographic information inclusion in SVM implementation can indeed assist in improving the detection of land cover/use types found often in higher altitudes, although further work is still required before deriving conclusive results. Keuchel et al. (2003) in a study they performed comparing the classification accuracy of SVM versus the Ml classifier for land use/cover thematic mapping, based on Landsat TM data acquired for the region in Tenerife, Spain,
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reported an improvement in the overall SVM classification results when altitude information was included as an additional input band in SVM classification. Authors attributed this to the ability of the technique to efficiently restrict some classes to the correct altitude range at the expense, however, of potential prevention to correctly classify label data points for which no training data from the corresponding altitude were available. In the same study, authors also concluded that the additional information also enforces the requirement of more appropriate training data. In explaining the differences in the results of the thematic maps shown herein, the classification approaches and complexities of the implemented algorithms should be generally accounted. However, the detailed contribution of each individual parameter can be hardly determined and is also outside the scope of the present communication. As already mentioned, pixel-based methods are based on grouping image pixels based on spectral information alone based on some statistical technique (-here SVM-), whereas OBIA is based on the use of objects utilizing also the spectral information content present in a remote sensing imagery. Classifier complexity on the other is also often linked to its capability to model highly on-linear decision boundaries (Dalponte et al., 2009). Such can be the case of the studied regions here of Mediterranean landscapes, that are highly vegetation fragmented ecosystems and with high degree of topographic variation, which in turn affects the ground spectral properties and their separability, thus potentially leading to misclassifications. At this point, it should be noted that both SPOT images were acquired during the dry season (i.e. August), in which differences between the vegetation at different moisture content conditions and bare soil are discriminated but differences between certain vegetation types such as scrubland and non-irrigated agricultural types are minimum. With regards to SVM classifier in particular, a number of studies have indicated that there is neither a clearly-derived technique for its parameterization including the kernel selection (Carrao et al., 2008; Li and Liu, 2010). Several studies have indicated for example that kernel selection is one of the most important steps affecting in the SVM classification accuracy (e.g. Kavzoglu and Colkesen, 2009). Generally, results obtained confirmed the ability of both examined classification approaches in producing land use/cover thematic maps of satisfactory accuracy, when combined with SPOT4 imagery, even in fragmented vegetation landscapes, as that often found in the Mediterranean. Previous analogous studies performing comparisons between OBIA and different pixel-based classifications applied with different types or remote sensing imagery have also generally evidenced that OBIA is able to deliver higher classification accuracy in comparison to pixel-based methods (Yan et al., 2006; Castillejo-Gonzalez et al., 2009). In comparison to other studies, Yan et al. (2006) for an area in Mongolia, China, compared the performances of the ML pixel-based and OBIA for mapping land use/cover using ASTER imagery and they reported a classification accuracy of the OBIA technique which was by nearly 37% higher than that of the ML method. Castillejo-Gonzalez et al. (2009) recently undertook a study comparing the accuracy of different pixel-based versus OBIA methods for land use/cover mapping from QuickBird imagery for a region in southern Spain and reported that OBIA and hybrid methods (i.e. OBIA combined with pixel-based), were clearly outperforming the pixel-based classifications. Interestingly, apart from Zammit et al. (2006), who applied SVM with SPOT5 imagery in a binary classification scheme (burnt/un-burnt) for mapping burnt areas in southern France and reported overall classification accuracy of 98%, no other study has examined the potential value of the combined use of SVM with SPOT4 imagery for land use/cover mapping. Thus the results from the present stud cannot be directly compared to any other analogous study performed previously. However, results reported herein support the findings of previous studies examining the SVM classification accuracy using a variety of other remote sensing imagery types and classification schemes and at dissimilar settings (see table 1 for a review of the most recent studies on SVM implementation in classification problems using remote sensing imagery), evidencing the potential of the method for future use in producing accurate information on the spatial context of land use/cover, at least for the present study sites.
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5. Conclusions The aim of the present work has been to explore the combined use of Support Vector Machines (SVM) pixel-based classification and of the object-based classification in delineating accurately and rapidly in a Mediterranean environment thematic map of land use/land cover from SPOT4 multispectral satellite imagery. A further objective of this study was to examine the potential added value of topographic information inclusion to the classification accuracy of the thematic maps produced from the SVM classifier implementation to the SPOT multispectral imagery. Two regions located in northern Greece, representative of typical Mediterranean ecosystem conditions were selected as a test bed in implementing the present study. Accuracy assessment of the thematic maps produced from the implementation of the two classification techniques with the SPOT4 imagery was based on the confusion matrix computation, using validation points selected from field visits previously carried out in the studied regions. On the basis of the accuracy assessment results, both classification techniques examine combined with the multispectral SPOT4 imagery proved to be successful for mapping the spatial content of the land cover/use of the studied here regions. Object-based method somehow outperformed the SVM pixel-based technique, with a mean difference on O and Kappa coefficient of approximately 4% and 0.050 respectively. These differences in accuracies reported also suggested of SVM classifier can represent a viable alternative to the more sophisticated objectbased image classification approach. In addition, both classification techniques documented their potential for transferability to varying different ecosystem conditions which might be deferent for which initially parameterized. Examination of the inclusion of the altitude information as an additional layer of information to the SVM implementation returned inconclusive results, in terms of the overall classification accuracy improvement of the land use/cover thematic maps produced by the classifier implementation to the SPOT4 images. However, a noticeable improvement in the accuracy of individual classes, namely of class 1 (konofora), class 2 (thamnolibada) and class 3 (platifilla) was observed, possibly related to the presence of some classes to certain altitude ranges. Nevertheless, results should be interpreted cautiously, and further validation is required before deriving conclusive results. Although object-based classification technique produced more satisfactory results, it should be noted that a potentially key perhaps limitation of this technique prohibiting it from operational use is the time required for the calibration of the rules-set scheme developed by adjusting the threshold values of the class features, as a result of the effect of different atmospheric conditions, vegetation types and spectral behavior of the depicted objects from scene to scene for different regions. On the other, SVM, although it produced generally very close results when combined with the SPOT4 imagery, this classifier despite its key advantages over other pixelbased techniques (e.g small training set, which is important in terms of cost when operational use is planned), requires further research in terms of its correct parameterization procedures and of the effect of the inclusion of additional spectral information content (e.g topographic information, radiometric indices, textural information, PCA) to its overall classification performance. Further work should be directed in evaluating the transferability of both techniques to other ecosystems using also different types of remotely sensed data available, including hyperspectral imagery available today from spaceborne sensors such as Hyperion. 6. Acknowledgements This work was conducted in the framework of the Land Cover & Land use (EUROLAND) Core Mapping Service (CMS) task of Geoland 2 project - Towards an Operational GMES Land Monitoring Core Service, which is funded under FP7. The CMS aims at producing basic land cover, land cover change, and land state products, from local to global scale, that can be directly

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used for deriving more elaborated products. Dr. Petropoulos wishes to thank INFOCOSMOS E.E. (http://www.infocosmos.eu) for supporting financially his participation to the present work.

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