An Automatic Iterative Random Forest approach to derive gully activity maps in large areas with training data scarcity [Data and Source Code]

DOI

Gullies are landforms with specific patterns of shape, topography, hydrology, vegetation, and soil characteristics. Remote sensing products (TanDEM-X, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2) serve as inputs into an iterative algorithm, initialized using a micro-mapping simulation as training data, to map gullies in the northwestern of Namibia. A Random Forest Classifier examines pixels with similar characteristics in a pool of unlabeled data, and gully objects are detected where high densities of gully pixels are enclosed by an alpha shape. Gully objects are used in subsequent iterations following a mechanism where the algorithm uses the most reliable pixels as gully training samples. The gully class continuously grows until an optimal scenario in terms of accuracy is achieved. Results are benchmarked with manually tagged gullies (initial gully labeled area 98%, with 60% in the gully class, Cohen Kappa >0.5, Matthews Correlation Coefficient >0.5, and receiver operating characteristic Area Under the Curve >0.89. Hence, our method outlines gullies keeping low false-positive rates while the classification quality has a good balance for the two classes (gully/no gully). Results show the most significant gully descriptors as the high temporal radar signal coherence (22.4%) and the low temporal variability in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (21.8%). This research builds on previous studies to face the challenge of identifying and outlining gully-affected areas with a shortage of training data using global datasets, which are then transferable to other large (semi-) arid regions.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.11588/data/WGAU4Q
Related Identifier IsCitedBy https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2020.3040284
Metadata Access https://heidata.uni-heidelberg.de/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=doi:10.11588/data/WGAU4Q
Provenance
Creator Vallejo-Orti, Miguel (ORCID: 0000-0002-8464-772X); Winiwarter, Lukas ORCID logo; Corral, Eva; Williams, Jack; Bubenzer, Olaf ORCID logo; Höfle, Bernhard ORCID logo
Publisher heiDATA
Contributor Vallejo-Orti, Miguel
Publication Year 2024
Funding Reference Heidelberg University (Kurt-Hiehle-Foundation)) ; German Aerospace center (TanDEM-X Science Team) DEM_HYDR2024
Rights CC BY 4.0; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
OpenAccess true
Contact Vallejo-Orti, Miguel (3D Geospatial Data Processing Group, Institute of Geography, Heidelberg University, Germany)
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format application/zip; application/zipped-shapefile; text/plain
Size 13231; 7276; 6055; 897522
Version 1.0
Discipline Earth and Environmental Science; Environmental Research; Geosciences; Natural Sciences
Spatial Coverage Namibia