Developing detailed age-specific thematic maps for coffee (Coffea arabica L.) in heterogeneous agricultural landscapes using random forests applied on Landsat 8 multispectral sensor |
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| Authors: | Abel Chemura Onisimo Mutanga |
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| Institution: | 1. Geography Department, School of Agricultural, Earth &2. Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa |
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| Abstract: | Coffee is a commodity of international trade significance, and its value chain can benefit from age-specific thematic maps. This study aimed to assess the potential of Landsat 8 OLI to develop these maps. Using field-collected samples with the random forest classifier, splitting coffee into three age classes (Scheme A) was compared with running the classification with one compound coffee class (Scheme B). Higher overall classification accuracy was obtained in Scheme B (90.3% for OLI and 86.8% for ETM+) than in Scheme A (86.2% for OLI and 81.0% for ETM+). The NIR band of OLI was the most important band in intra-class discrimination of coffee. Landsat 8 OLI mapped area closely matched farm records (R2?=?0.88) compared to that of Landsat 7 ETM+ (R2?=?0.78). It was concluded that Landsat 8 OLI data can be used to produce age-specific thematic maps in coffee production areas although disaggregating coffee classes reduces overall accuracy. |
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| Keywords: | Intra-class discrimination age-specific mapping classification Landsat ETM+ inter-class discrimination |
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