Individual tree crown (ITC) techniques


Individual tree crown multispectral classification in high spatial resolution images

Various types of multispectral crown-based signatures were analysed for their species recognition capabilities using manually delineated tree crowns (i.e., to be independent of the automatic delineation process) (Gougeon, 1995b). Each classification was repeated ten times to produce a more stable and accurate comparison.

Classification comparison of multispectral signatures for tree crowns individually delineated on high resolution (36 cm) MEIS images (with 50 trees/species, 5 species, 10 classification runs/signature type)

Table showing mean species acurarcies and mean overall accuracy by signature type and tree species.
  Mean species accuracies (MSA) Mean overall
accuracy (range)
Signature types BS* JP* RP* WP* WS*  
ave_sign 90.6 74.4 54.9 69.3 68.1 71.9(66.7 - 75.4)
lit_sign 89.8 68.2 66.9 83.7 62.6 74.3(70.7 - 78.0)
tt_sign 89.5 74.5 59.1 61.7 55.1 67.7(56.9 - 74.8)
si_sign 85.8 71.3 65.7 80.0 63.4 73.3(68.3 - 79.1)
mpc1_s 93.8 71.5 57.9 83.5 72.0 76.4(72.1  - 80.5)
mpc1ev_s 95.7 70.0 64.3 80.0v 70.3 76.2(71.2 - 79.2)
mcov_s 89.4 74.1 45.9 71.5 70.3 70.2(65.1 - 78.1)
Av. MSA 90.7 72.0 59.2 75.7 66.0 72.8

*BS = Black spruce
*WS = White spruce
*JP = Jack pine
*RP = Red pine
*WP = White pine

See (Gougeon, 1995b) for a description of the signature types.


Project status

  • On-going