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Mapping of freshwater lake wetlands using object-relations and rule-based inference

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Abstract

Inland freshwater lake wetlands play an important role in regional ecological balance. Hongze Lake is the fourth biggest freshwater lake in China. In the past three decades, there has been significant loss of freshwater wetlands within the lake and at the mouths of neighboring rivers, due to disturbance, primarily from human activities. The main purpose of this paper was to explore a practical technology for differentiating wetlands effectively from upland types in close proximity to them. In the paper, an integrated method, which combined per-pixel and per-field classification, was used for mapping wetlands of Hongze Lake and their neighboring upland types. Firstly, Landsat ETM+ imagery was segmented and classified by using spectral and textural features. Secondly, ETM+ spectral bands, textural features derived from ETM+ Pan imagery, relative relations between neighboring classes, shape features, and elevation were used in a decision tree classification. Thirdly, per-pixel classification results from the decision tree classifier were improved by using classification results from object-oriented classification as a context. The results show that the technology has not only overcome the salt-and-pepper effect commonly observed in the past studies, but also has improved the accuracy of identification by nearly 5%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Renzong Ruan

  2. Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Susan Ustin

Authors
  1. Renzong Ruan
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  2. Susan Ustin
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Correspondence to Renzong Ruan.

Additional information

Foundation item: Under the auspices of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK2008360), Foundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2009B12714, 2009B11714)

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Ruan, R., Ustin, S. Mapping of freshwater lake wetlands using object-relations and rule-based inference. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 22, 462–471 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-012-0521-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-012-0521-5

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