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State-of-the-art deep learning technology has been successfully applied to relatively small selected areas of very high spatial resolution (0.15 and 0.25 m) optical aerial imagery acquired by a fixed-wing aircraft to automatically characterize ice-wedge polygons (IWPs) in the Arctic tundra. However, any mapping of IWPs at regional to continental scales requires images acquired on different sensor platforms (particularly satellite) and a refined understanding of the performance stability of the method across sensor platforms through reliable evaluation assessments. In this study, we examined the transferability of a deep learning Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN) model for mapping IWPs in satellite remote sensing imagery (~0.5 m) covering 272 km2 and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (0.02 m) imagery covering 0.32 km2. Multi-spectral images were obtained from the WorldView-2 satellite sensor and pan-sharpened to ~0.5 m, and a 20 mp CMOS sensor camera onboard a UAV, respectively. The training dataset included 25,489 and 6022 manually delineated IWPs from satellite and fixed-wing aircraft aerial imagery near the Arctic Coastal Plain, northern Alaska. Quantitative assessments showed that individual IWPs were correctly detected at up to 72% and 70%, and delineated at up to 73% and 68% F1 score accuracy levels for satellite and UAV images, respectively. Expert-based qualitative assessments showed that IWPs were correctly detected at good (40–60%) and excellent (80–100%) accuracy levels for satellite and UAV images, respectively, and delineated at excellent (80–100%) level for both images. We found that (1) regardless of spatial resolution and spectral bands, the deep learning Mask R-CNN model effectively mapped IWPs in both remote sensing satellite and UAV images; (2) the model achieved a better accuracy in detection with finer image resolution, such as UAV imagery, yet a better accuracy in delineation with coarser image resolution, such as satellite imagery; (3) increasing the number of training data with different resolutions between the training and actual application imagery does not necessarily result in better performance of the Mask R-CNN in IWPs mapping; (4) and overall, the model underestimates the total number of IWPs particularly in terms of disjoint/incomplete IWPs.
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This content will become publicly available on April 25, 2026
Mapping paddy rice in northeast China with a knowledge-based algorithm and time series optical, microwave, and thermal imagery
Accurate and timely large-scale paddy rice maps with remote sensing are essential for crop monitoring and management and are used for assessing its impacts on food security, water resource management, and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases. Optical image-based paddy rice mapping studies employed the unique spectral feature during the flooding/transplanting period of paddy rice. However, the lack of high-quality observations during the flooding/transplanting stage caused by rain and clouds and spectral similarity between paddy rice and natural wetlands often introduce errors in paddy rice identification, especially in paddy rice and wetland coexistent areas. In this study, we used a knowledge-based algorithm and time series observation from optical images (Sentinel-2 and Landsat 7/8) and microwave images (Sentinel-1) to address these issues. The final 10-m paddy rice map had user’s accuracy, producer’s accuracy, F1-score, and overall accuracy of 0.91 ± 0.004, 0.74 ± 0.010, 0.82, and 0.98 ± 0.001 (± value is the standard error), respectively. Over half (62.0%) of the paddy rice pixels had a confidence level of 1 (detected by both optical images and microwave images), while 38.0% had a confidence level of 0.5 (detected by either optical images or microwave images). The estimated paddy rice area in northeast China for 2020 was 60.83 ± 0.86 × 103 km2. Provincial and municipal rice areas in our data set agreed well with other existing paddy rice data sets and the Agricultural Statistical Yearbooks. These findings indicate that knowledge-based paddy rice mapping algorithms and a combination of optical and microwave images hold great potential for timely and frequently accurate paddy rice mapping in large-scale complex landscapes.
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- PAR ID:
- 10621033
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers of Earth Science
- ISSN:
- 2095-0195
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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