Comparative Assessment of Supervised Classifiers for Land Use–Land Cover Classification in a Tropical Region Using Time-Series PALSAR Mosaic Data

Numerous classification algorithms have been proposed to create accurate classification maps using optical remote sensing data. However, few comparative studies evaluate the performance of classification algorithms with focus on tropical forests due to cloud effects. Advances in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques and spatial resolution, mapping, and comparison of classification algorithms are possible. This research investigated the accuracy and processing speeds of five supervised classifiers, including Naïve Bayes, AdaBoost, multi-layer perceptron, random forest (RF), and support vector machine, for land use–land cover (LULC) classification in a tropical region using time-series Advanced Land Observing Satellite-phased array type L-band SAR (ALOS-PALSAR) 25-m mosaic data. The study area is located in central Sumatra, Indonesia, where abundant forest-related carbon stocks exist. This investigation was intended to aid the implementation of a classification algorithm for the automatic creation of LULC classification maps. We perform object-based and pixel-based analyses to investigate the ability of the classifiers and their accuracies, respectively. RF had the best classification accuracy and processing speed in which the accuracies for 10 classes and 2 classes were 64.07% and 90.22% for pixel-based and 82.94% and 86.23% for object-based evaluations, respectively. These results indicate that RF is a useful classifier for the analysis of PALSAR mosaic data and that the automatic creation of highly accurate classification maps is possible by using time-series data. The outcome of this research will be valuable resources for biodiversity and global-warming mitigation efforts in the region.