Chapter 19: Classification of a Landsat Image (supervised)

Remote Sensing in an
ArcMap Environment
Remote Sensing Analysis
in an
ArcMap Environment

Tammy E. Parece

Image source: landsat.usgs.gov

Tammy Parece
James Campbell
John McGee

NSF DUE 0903270; 1205110

This workbook is available online as text (.pdf’s) and short video tutorials via:
http://www.virginiaview.net/education.html
The project described in this publication was supported by Grant Number G14AP00002 from the
Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey to AmericaView. Its contents are
solely the responsibility of the authors; the views and conclusions contained in this document
are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies
of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute
their endorsement by the U.S. Government.
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

The instructional materials contained within these documents are copyrighted property of
VirginiaView, its partners and other participating AmericaView consortium members. These
materials may be reproduced and used by educators for instructional purposes. No permission
is granted to use the materials for paid consulting or instruction where a fee is collected.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this document beyond that permitted in Section 107
or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright
owner(s) is unlawful.

Introduction

In comparison to computer-controlled unsupervised classification, you have much closer control

over the supervised classification process. In this process, you select pixels that represent
patterns you recognize or can identify with help from other sources. Knowledge of the data, the
classes desired, and the algorithm to be used is required before you begin selecting training
samples. By identifying patterns in the imagery, you can "train" the computer system to identify
pixels with similar characteristics. By setting priorities for these classes, you supervise the
classification of pixels as they are assigned to class values. If the classification is accurate, then
each resulting class corresponds to a pattern that you originally identified.

Supervised training requires a priori (already known) information about the data, such as:
• What information needs to be extracted? Soil type? Land use? Vegetation?
• What classes are most likely to be present in the data? That is, which types of land cover,
soil, or vegetation (or whatever) are represented by the data?

In supervised classification, the user relies on her/his own pattern recognition skills and a priori
knowledge of the data to help the system determine the statistical criteria (signatures) for data
classification. To select reliable samples, the user should apply information (either spatial or
spectral) about the pixels that they want to classify. The location of a specific characteristic,
such as a land cover type, may be known through field observations that acquire knowledge
about the study area from first-hand observation, analysis of aerial photography, personal
experience, etc. Field data are considered to be the most accurate (correct) data available about
the area of study. They should be collected at the same time as the remotely sensed data, so that
the data correspond as much as possible. However, all field data may not be completely accurate
because of observation errors, instrument inaccuracies, and human shortcomings. Global
positioning system receivers are useful tools to conduct ground truth studies and collect training
sets. Training samples are sets of pixels that represent what is recognized as a discernible
pattern, or potential class. The system will calculate statistics from the sample pixels to create a
parametric signature for the class.

You cannot assign every pixel value to a class. With your training data, you will identify many
of the values and assign them to a specific class. But what happens with the unassigned pixels?
In addition, some pixel values may fall into two classes – you’ve already encountered this
situation in the unsupervised classification tutorial with respect to classification of water and the
mountain shadows. In supervised classification, you will choose the method/algorithm that

225 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

decides how to assign these pixels. Different algorithms include (but are not limited to)
minimum distance, maximum likelihood, Mahalanobis’ Distance. Please see Campbell and
Wynne (2011) for more information about supervised classification strategies.

Objectives:

• To perform a supervised classification on a Landsat image.

• To generate supervised signatures using training samples.
• To use histograms, scatterplots and statistics to evaluate normality, separability, and
partitioning of training data

You have been working with a specific Landsat scene over several tutorials so should already be
somewhat familiar with the area. If you feel you need more knowledge, take some time in
Google Earth and explore the area covered by the Blacksburg, Roanoke and Smith Mountain
Lake area. We will, again, be using that sub-set image in this Tutorial.

We will be using the same informational classes that we used in Tutorial 19, so as a reminder,
the classes are:

Open water = 4, blue

Mixed agriculture = 2, yellow
Urban/built up/transportation = 1, red
Forest & Wetland = 3, green

Conducting Supervised Classification

Open a new map document, enable the Spatial Analyst extension, the toolbars for Spatial

Analyst and Image Classification, and set your Workspaces. Add the sub-set Landsat Image

(created in the tutorial on Sub-setting Landsat Imagery) that includes Blacksburg, Roanoke, and

Smith Mountain Lake.

Because you only have one raster dataset in your Table of Contents, that is the dataset

that shows in the Image Classification toolbar.

226 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

ArcGIS provides four supervised classification options:

Interactive

Maximum Likelihood

Class Probability

Principal Components

(Remember – ISO is unsupervised and was used

in the prior tutorial).

Many other different methods are available for classifying Landsat Images in other

programs. We are going to us Maximum Likelihood in this tutorial.

Let’s explore some of the tools on the Image Classification toolbar that you will use:

Training sample manager

Clear Training Samples

Draw Polygon

Select Training Sample

Training sample manager allows you to see and change the properties of your training

samples. We will go into more detail below.

Clear training samples deletes all training samples – be careful with this one, it does

delete all of them if they have not been saved!

Draw Polygon – you use this tool to draw your areas of interest

Select Training Sample – allows you to select one or more completed training samples

227 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Some of these tools are not yet enabled but as soon as you create your first training

sample, they will be.

Creating Training Samples

We are going to start with identifying areas for the water class. (Remember, change your

display with band combinations, contrast, Gamma, etc. as needed to help identify features in the

scene.)

Zoom to Smith Mountain Lake region. Left-click on the down arrow next to Draw

Polygon. As you can see, this down arrow actually gives you

three options to select regions on the image– Draw Polygon,

Draw Rectangle, and Draw Circle. Which one you choose is

up to you, but experiment to find the one best-suited to your

data. Left-click on Draw Circle --it gives you a + , which

represents the center of a circle. Hold the left mouse button down

and expand out creating a circle of the size you want. Be careful

to stay away from shores of the lake. You can zoom in further, if

necessary. This is your first training sample. All the buttons on the Image Classification tool

bar are now enabled. Click on Training Sample Manager.

228 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

As you can see, you have one

training sample, Class Name – Class

1, color blue and 539 pixels.

Change the Class Name to water 1

(just click in the box and it

highlights, type the word - Water).

On your Training Sample Manager

is a save button (red circle). You have to save your training samples separately from the map

document. We recommend that each time you create a training sample, you save it. Saving

your training samples allows you to stop at any time and finish your classification later. It also

preserves your samples in case ArcMap closes.

Water is not characterized by just one spectral value. So use Smith Mountain Lake, your

other water bodies – streams and ponds – to create multiple water training samples across the

scene. Each time you create a sample, click on one of the Draw symbols, and rename it in your

Training Sample Manager, make sure all water is blue, and save it. (Note – you do not need to

do every single water body, but select a good sample of the different water spectral values.)

Your Training Sample Manager may look something like this when you have finished

with water.

229 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Now, do this for each one of the other three classes – agriculture, urban (developed) and

forest. You do not need to do them one at a time, if you see pixels representative of all classes

in one area, go ahead and do a training area for each one. Make sure you don’t select all of your

training data from one area, distribute them across the scene. If you don’t like one of the

training samples that you selected, just highlight it within the training sample manager, and click

the delete button.

Don’t worry if you have gathered classes with pixel values that may overlap spectrally.

We will evaluate that situation before we do the actual classification.

When you think you are finished, zoom to the full extent of the scene and take a look.

Do you have training areas in different areas of the scene? Have you taken into account, the

different forested areas – conifers, shadows, leaf-off, and deciduous? What about the different

levels of plant growth in agriculture? As you can see from the Training Sample Manager, we

have a range of pixel counts in our different training areas. Again, don’t worry about these yet.

230 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Once you are satisfied with your training areas, proceed to the next section.

Evaluating Normality, Separability and Partitioning

We are going to use three buttons at the top of the training Sample Manager window.

Show Histograms

Show Scatterplots

Show Statistics

As you recall from other Tutorials, a histogram is the distribution of the number of pixels

with respect to pixel values. You can look at one training sample at a time, or highlight many at

one time, for instance -- all of water. Once you have highlighted the training sample row, click

on the Histogram button. Give ArcMap a moment to build the histograms.

231 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

ArcMap opens the histogram window to the left of the Table of Contents. You can use

the scroll bar to the right of the histogram window to look at the different bands.

For this illustration, each of

our water training samples is a

different color. When examining each

band (here, only Band 1 is illustrated),

we do not see any overlap in the

colors and the distributions appear to

be normal.

Examine each of your classes

for normality. Do you need to add any training data to any of your classes? Your training data

for each class may not cover the entire range of brightness values, so you don’t need to be

concerned that our water class appears only to range from about 50 – 70.

232 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

For illustration purposes only, we

added all training samples to this

histogram (again, each has a different

color). What else might this histogram

tell us? Some of our colors are

overlapping, so we may have some

training data that can be merged or

deleted. We will evaluate those using

the scatterplots.

Scatterplots plot the pixel values of your training data in one band against those of

another. Viewed as scatterplots, the points should not overlap if the training samples represent

different spectral classes. First, you should look at each individual class to see if there is any

overlap and any opportunities to merge or delete training samples. (Note – when you merge

training samples, you are changing the statistics, the mean, etc. If you merge training samples

that are not overlapping or overlap just a little, you greatly alter the training sample and may lose

some of the values within that class. As such, when you finish your evaluation, you very likely

will have multiple rows of training data for each class.)

Highlight rows of water and the click on Scatterplots. Again, ArcMap opens a window

on the left side of the Table of

Contents, this time for

Scatterplots. There are many

plots because is it comparing

each band to another band. You

233 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

may need to change the colors within the Training Sample Manager to see the different

samples.

As you can see, it appears we may have some overlap in some of the training samples.

(Note – here, we are only showing two of the scatterplots, but within others, we noticed the same

effect.) This result indicates that we can possibly merge some of our training data. Let’s start

with the yellow and light green. Once we merge them, we will redo the scatterplots to see how

they changed. Before you merge, save your training file – that way, if the merge was not

positive, we can reload the training data as it was before the merge.

To merge, highlight the two rows. Notice as you did this, the scatterplots change and

only show those two sets of data. Left-click on Merge training

samples button. It merged the two waters into one, you know

this because the scatterplot display changed and you have one less water training sample. Now

redisplay all the waters. Just highlight them all and the scatterplots will automatically change.

234 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

We are going to do at least one more. Let’s try the yellow and the salmon together. Separately,

do the cyan with the dark green. If you are merging multiples, do them one at a time. (Note –

your scatterplots may look different and may not need additional merging.)

Water is looking pretty good, with very little to no overlap. We started with seven

training areas for water -- after merging we have only

4. Change all the colors for water to blue. Save!

235 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Now do this for your other three classes. Once you have finished evaluating all four

classes, we will need to compare the classes to each other.

When we started, we had 29 training samples. Once we completed merging and deleting,

we had 12 left (Note - yours will likely differ). Highlight all of your training samples so they all

display on the scatterplots. Click on the Scatterplot button

In the following screenshots, we are only showing you a sample of ours. But, again, you

are looking for overlaps or training data for one class that is within another.

236 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

You may see results such as in Bands 2 and 5 (above right) or 2 and 7 (below left), or

even 3 and 5 (left) -- areas that look suspiciously

like possible overlaps. You can effectively

evaluate these by adding your rows of training

data one at a time and watch the display as it

changes. (Note - water should be separate from

the other classes, except for instances of flooding

and high turbidity).

You should also look for areas of missing data (white circles). We do have a couple of

areas with missing training data that could cause us some problems when doing classification,

but this is a small area (comparatively). If you fill in too much, you may create areas with

significant overlap.

We have one more item to check before we perform our classification – Statistics.

Statistics shows measures that characterize your training data (such as mean, mode, etc.) and

covariance. Covariance evaluates the correlation of values in the different bands. Low values

indicate that the values in a pair of bands tend to increase and decrease independently. High
237 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

values indicate that the values in the two bands tend to increase and decrease together— a high

covariance. For effective classification, we prefer to see low covariances, indicating that the

training data are providing independent information (i e., the data from the training fields are not

replicating each other).

Close your scatterplot window, leave all rows in the Training Sample Manager

highlighted and click on the Statistics’ button. ArcMap opens a window to the left of the Table

of Contents. You get a statistics matrix for each of your training data rows. Check the

covariance for each one. If you have evaluated your histograms and scatterplots effectively, you

should not see any high numbers within these matrices. Numbers close to 2,000 mean that the

bands are highly correlated to each other. If you see any high numbers, you should proceed

back and re-evaluate your training data.

If you are satisfied with your results, save your training data one last time.

238 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Preparing the Signature File

We have one last step before performing the classification. We need a signature file

created from our training data. Highlight all the rows in your Training Sample Manager and

left-click on the Create a signature file button.

239 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

This will take you to a window to save and name your file. (Note - even though you set

your workspaces earlier, you may still need to navigate to your workspace to save and name

your file.) Once saved, go ahead and close the Training Sample Manager window. Click on

the Clear Training Samples button and this will clear the training samples displayed in the map

document.

Performing a Supervised Classification

Left-click on the down arrow next to classification and click on Maximum Likelihood

Classification.

You will get the dialog box at the top of the next page. Since your image is the only one

in your map document, it defaults into the dialog box. Navigate to where you saved your

signature file and add it to the dialog box, name your new output file, and leave the rest of the

information as the default settings. (Note - if you wish to change any of these, remember when

you click on the line, the help window on the right explains the field.) Click OK.

240 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

Your new file is automatically added to the Table of Contents and map document

window. Because we had 12 training data sets, we have 12 categories. The colors are

automatically set by ArcMap, so they don’t correspond to our color set.

Reminder:

Open water = 4, blue

Mixed agriculture = 2, yellow
Urban/built up/transportation = 1, red
Forest & Wetland = 3, green

So, we will need to set the colors and do a Reclassify (as we did in the tutorial on

Classification of a Landsat Image (Unsupervised). So, first set the colors to correspond to above

241 | P a g e
 Remote Sensing in an ArcMap Environment
19. Classification of a Landsat Image (Supervised)

and then use the Spatial Analyst Tools/Reclass/Reclassify to classify into the 4 informational

classes.

Calculating the Percent of Total Area for Each Informational Class

Now calculate the

percent of total landcover for

each informational class (just

as you did in the last tutorial).

How accurate was your classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classification method?

We will assess that in the tutorial on Accuracy Assessment. You are now ready to proceed to

that tutorial.

242 | P a g e