Coupling relationship among scale parameter, segmentation accuracy, and classification accuracy in GeOBIA

Abstract

The quality of multi-scale segmentation mainly consists of intrasegment homogeneity and intersegment heterogeneity; however, it is difficult to synchronously get both high. It is crucial to make it clear which one of these two measures is more important and what is the coupling relationship among segmentation scale parameter, image segmentation and classification accuracy. This paper employs series of segmentation and classification to show that (1) intrasegment homogeneity is more important than intersegment heterogeneity in GeOBIA; there is always highly positive correlation between intrasegment homogeneity and classification accuracy; (2) with the increase of spectral heterogeneity parameter, both image object amount and the intrasegment homogeneity decrease; however the intersegment heterogeneity increases or increases first then decrease after the appropriate scale; and (3) the appropriate scale means there is a compromise between intrasegment homogeneity and intersegment heterogeneity. The research findings are helpful to raise awareness among practitioners who suffer from scale issues in GeOBIA.