A comparative analysis of approaches for successional vegetation classification in the Brazilian Amazon

Research on separation of successional stages has been an active topic for the past two decades because successional vegetation plays an important role in the carbon budget and restoration of soil fertility in the Brazilian Amazon. This article examines classification of successional stages by conducting a comparative analysis of classification algorithms (maximum likelihood classifier - MLC, artificial neural network - ANN, K-nearest neighbour - KNN, support vector machine - SVM, classification tree analysis - CTA, and object-based classification - OBC) on varying remote-sensing data-sets (Landsat and ALOS PALSAR). Through this research we obtained the following four major conclusions: (1) Landsat data provide higher classification accuracy than ALOS PALSAR data, and individual PALSAR data cannot effectively separate successional stages; (2) Fusion of Landsat and PALSAR data provides better classification than individual sensor data; (3) Depending on the data-set, the best classification algorithm varies, MLC and CTA are recommended for Landsat or fusion images; and KNN is recommended for the combination of Landsat and PALSAR data as extra bands; (4) the MLC based on fusion images is recommended for vegetation classification in the moist tropical region when sufficiently representative training samples are available.