The Classification Method Study of Crops Remote Sensing with Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and Google Earth Engine

The extraction and classification of crops is the core issue of agricultural remote sensing. The precise classification of crop types is of great significance to the monitoring and evaluation of crops planting area, growth, and yield. Based on the Google Earth Engine and Google Colab cloud platform, this study takes the typical agricultural oasis area of Xiangride Town, Qinghai Province, as an example. It compares traditional machine learning (random forest, RF), object-oriented classification (object-oriented, OO), and deep neural networks (DNN), which proposes a random forest combined with deep neural network (RF+DNN) classification framework. In this study, the spatial characteristics of band information, vegetation index, and polarization of main crops in the study area were constructed using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. The temporal characteristics of crops phenology and growth state were analyzed using the curve curvature method, and the data were screened in time and space. By comparing and analyzing the accuracy of the four classification methods, the advantages of RF+DNN model and its application value in crops classification were illustrated. The results showed that for the crops in the study area during the period of good growth and development, a better crop classification result could be obtained using RF+DNN classification method, whose model accuracy, training, and predict time spent were better than that of using DNN alone. The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of classification were 0.98 and 0.97, respectively. It is also higher than the classification accuracy of random forest (OA = 0.87, Kappa = 0.82), object oriented (OA = 0.78, Kappa = 0.70) and deep neural network (OA = 0.93, Kappa = 0.90). The scalable and simple classification method proposed in this paper gives full play to the advantages of cloud platform in data and operation, and the traditional machine learning combined with deep learning can effectively improve the classification accuracy. Timely and accurate extraction of crop types at different spatial and temporal scales is of great significance for crops pattern change, crops yield estimation, and crops safety warning.

Automated summary

Crop extraction and classification are essential in agricultural remote sensing. This study compared traditional machine learning, object-oriented classification, and deep neural networks, proposing a classification framework combining random forest and deep neural network. The spatial and temporal characteristics of crops were analyzed and the RF+DNN method showed better accuracy in crop classification.