Incorporating landscape ecological approach in machine learning classification for agricultural land-use mapping based on a single date imagery

Land-use maps containing crop rotational information are very important in land management and physical planning. Such maps are usually generated using multitemporal data. Although recent technology allows analysts to process multitemporal information effectively, the use of single date imagery for such purpose is more efficient. This study aimed to map detailed agricultural land-use with crop rotational information based on a single date Landsat 8 imagery and SRTM-derived terrain attributes. A landscape ecological approach assuming the influence of terrain characteristics on the existence of crop and land-use types was implemented in multisource classification using random decision forest (RDF) machine learning algorithm. The use of seven optical bands and five terrain attributes could provide a land-use map at 88.03 accuracy, compared to seven optical bands only that generate 82.45 accuracy. These results are also better than those of maximum likelihood. The most influential variables in the achieved accuracy are elevation and thermal band. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.