Identifying plant species in kettle holes using UAV images and deep learning techniques
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
The use of uncrewed aerial vehicle to map the environment increased significantly in the last decade enabling a finer assessment of the land cover. However, creating accurate maps of the environment is still a complex and costly task. Deep learning (DL) is a new generation of artificial neural network research that, combined with remote sensing techniques, allows a refined understanding of our environment and can help to solve challenging land cover mapping issues. This research focuses on the vegetation segmentation of kettle holes. Kettle holes are small, pond-like, depressional wetlands. Quantifying the vegetation present in this environment is essential to assess the biodiversity and the health of the ecosystem. A machine learning workflow has been developed, integrating a superpixel segmentation algorithm to build a robust dataset, which is followed by a set of DL architectures to classify 10 plant classes present in kettle holes. The best architecture for this task was Xception, which achieved an average F1-score of 85% in the segmentation of the species. The application of solely 318 samples per class enabled a successful mapping in the complex wetland environment, indicating an important direction for future health assessments in such landscapes.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2023 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| Scopus | 85135857394 |
|---|---|
| WOS | 000839367100001 |
| Mendeley | 88a78049-8c51-3171-9bf4-0e90174c0a3a |
| unpaywall | 10.1002/rse2.291 |
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Deep learning, image segmentation, plant species segmentation, superpixels, uncrewed aerial vehicle, wetland, Image segmentation, Uncrewed aerial vehicle, Plant species segmentation, Superpixels, Wetland