Spectral analysis and classification accuracy of coffee crops using Landsat and a topographic-environmental model

  • Authors:
  • S. Cordero-Sancho;S. A. Sader

  • Affiliations:
  • 260 Nutting Hall, School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-5755 USA;260 Nutting Hall, School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-5755 USA

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Remote Sensing
  • Year:
  • 2007

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Coffee is an extremely important cash crop, yet previous work indicates that satellite mapping of coffee has produced low classification accuracy. This research examines spectral band combinations and ancillary data for evaluating the classification accuracy and the nature of spectral confusion between coffee and other cover types in a Costa Rican study area. Supervised classification using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) with only red, near-infrared, and mid-infrared bands had significantly lower classification accuracy compared to datasets that included more spectral bands and ancillary data. The highest overall accuracy achieved was 65%, including a coffee environmental stratification model (CESM). Producer's and user's accuracy was highest for shade coffee plantations (91.8 and 61.1%) and sun coffee (86.2 and 68.4%) with band combination ETM+ 34567, NDVI, cos (i), and including the use of the CESM. Post-classification stratification of the optimal coffee growing zone based on elevation and precipitation data did not show significant improvement in land cover classification accuracy when band combinations included both the thermal band and NDVI. A forward stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that ETM+ 5 (mid-infrared band) had the highest discriminatory power. The best discriminatory subset for all woody cover types including coffee excluded ETM+ 3 and 7; however, the land cover accuracy assessment indicated that overall accuracy, as well as producer's and user's accuracy of shade and sun coffee, were slightly improved with the inclusion of these bands. Although spectral separation between coffee crops and woodland areas was only moderately successful in the Costa Rica study, the overall accuracy, as well as the sun and shade coffee producer's and user's accuracy, were higher than reported in previous research.