Large Scale Land Cover Mapping in Ontario, Canada, Using a Deep Learning Framework
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study addresses the challenge of large-scale land cover mapping using advanced deep learning models. While state-of-the-art deep learning methods have demonstrated promising results in various remote sensing applications, their efficiency for large-scale semantic segmentation tasks remains underexplored. A key limitation is their reliance on extensive training datasets. To address this issue, we propose a two-stage classification approach that integrates Random Forest (RF) for initial land cover mapping and MobileUNetR, a lightweight hybrid convolution-transformer model, for a refined classification. Leveraging Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data, the land cover map of Ontario at spatial resolution of 10 meter, aligned with the North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) Level I legend, encompassing 11 classes, is generated. The findings of this study reveal that MobileUNeTR surpasses widely used models like UNet and PSPNet in terms of both accuracy and efficiency, underscoring its suitability for large-scale land cover mapping. In particular, an overall accuracy of 85% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.83 are achieved with MobileUNetR, which has only about one-fourth to one-fifth the number of parameters compared to other deep learning models examined in this study. As the only deep learning model examined in this study combining convolutional and transformer blocks, MobileUNetR demonstrates the superiority of hybrid architectures for large-scale semantic segmentation. This is due to its capability in capturing both local and global features, which are essential for semantic segmentation of heterogeneous land cover classes with varying sizes and spectral signatures.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".