Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are important for gaining a perspective on environmental dynamics and the impact on climate, urbanization, and resources. To ensure that it is safe to monitor the changes over time and to adopt the right forceful changes in our area, remote sensing is one of th...

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Main Authors: Farnaz, Nuthammachot Narissara, Shabbir Rabia, Iqbal Benazeer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2025-01-01
Series:Open Geosciences
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2022-0745
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author Farnaz
Nuthammachot Narissara
Shabbir Rabia
Iqbal Benazeer
author_facet Farnaz
Nuthammachot Narissara
Shabbir Rabia
Iqbal Benazeer
author_sort Farnaz
collection DOAJ
description Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are important for gaining a perspective on environmental dynamics and the impact on climate, urbanization, and resources. To ensure that it is safe to monitor the changes over time and to adopt the right forceful changes in our area, remote sensing is one of the ways to monitor the local and regional level land use, land cover patterns, and landscape changes. This study investigates the temporal LULC changes in the Nowshera region of Pakistan for the years 2016–2023 using pixel and region-oriented classification methods. As a first step, freely available high-resolution multispectral data of Sentinel-2 satellite are acquired, which serves as input dataset for both pixel and region-oriented classifiers. The accuracy assessment scores confirm that for the classified data of the year 2016, the region-oriented technique demonstrated higher overall classification accuracy (89.6%) over pixel-based classification (80.77%). Moreover, for the dataset of the year, the region-oriented method achieved a higher overall Kappa hat score (0.88) as compared to the pixel-based method (0.71). Similarly, for the classified data of the year 2023, the region-oriented method achieved higher scores for both the overall accuracy and Kappa hat (93.6 and 0.92%) over the pixel-based method (77.18 and 0.66%). The study states that for the assessment of LULC changes in Nowshera, the region-oriented image analysis provides a higher level of classification accuracy than the pixel-based approach. These results illustrate that this tool is particularly effective in monitoring detailed land cover transformations, thereby enhancing the quality of environmental management. Furthermore, the regression analysis reveals a substantial correlation between LULC changes and alterations in temperature and precipitation, and this result suggests the necessity of the development of specific climate adaptation programs.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2391-5447
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-7780a568c1504cdb8c85b3e56fd800d12025-02-02T15:45:33ZengDe GruyterOpen Geosciences2391-54472025-01-0117111106890210.1515/geo-2022-0745Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, PakistanFarnaz0Nuthammachot Narissara1Shabbir Rabia2Iqbal Benazeer3Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, ThailandFaculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, ThailandDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, PakistanNational Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, 25130Peshawar, PakistanLand use and land cover (LULC) changes are important for gaining a perspective on environmental dynamics and the impact on climate, urbanization, and resources. To ensure that it is safe to monitor the changes over time and to adopt the right forceful changes in our area, remote sensing is one of the ways to monitor the local and regional level land use, land cover patterns, and landscape changes. This study investigates the temporal LULC changes in the Nowshera region of Pakistan for the years 2016–2023 using pixel and region-oriented classification methods. As a first step, freely available high-resolution multispectral data of Sentinel-2 satellite are acquired, which serves as input dataset for both pixel and region-oriented classifiers. The accuracy assessment scores confirm that for the classified data of the year 2016, the region-oriented technique demonstrated higher overall classification accuracy (89.6%) over pixel-based classification (80.77%). Moreover, for the dataset of the year, the region-oriented method achieved a higher overall Kappa hat score (0.88) as compared to the pixel-based method (0.71). Similarly, for the classified data of the year 2023, the region-oriented method achieved higher scores for both the overall accuracy and Kappa hat (93.6 and 0.92%) over the pixel-based method (77.18 and 0.66%). The study states that for the assessment of LULC changes in Nowshera, the region-oriented image analysis provides a higher level of classification accuracy than the pixel-based approach. These results illustrate that this tool is particularly effective in monitoring detailed land cover transformations, thereby enhancing the quality of environmental management. Furthermore, the regression analysis reveals a substantial correlation between LULC changes and alterations in temperature and precipitation, and this result suggests the necessity of the development of specific climate adaptation programs.https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2022-0745image classificationclimate variability impactrandom forest algorithm and support vector machineenvironmental monitoringgeographic information systemurbanizationagriculture land use changeland cover transformationsremote sensing analysisregression analysis
spellingShingle Farnaz
Nuthammachot Narissara
Shabbir Rabia
Iqbal Benazeer
Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
Open Geosciences
image classification
climate variability impact
random forest algorithm and support vector machine
environmental monitoring
geographic information system
urbanization
agriculture land use change
land cover transformations
remote sensing analysis
regression analysis
title Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
title_full Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
title_fullStr Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
title_short Pixel and region-oriented classification of Sentinel-2 imagery to assess LULC dynamics and their climate impact in Nowshera, Pakistan
title_sort pixel and region oriented classification of sentinel 2 imagery to assess lulc dynamics and their climate impact in nowshera pakistan
topic image classification
climate variability impact
random forest algorithm and support vector machine
environmental monitoring
geographic information system
urbanization
agriculture land use change
land cover transformations
remote sensing analysis
regression analysis
url https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2022-0745
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AT shabbirrabia pixelandregionorientedclassificationofsentinel2imagerytoassesslulcdynamicsandtheirclimateimpactinnowsherapakistan
AT iqbalbenazeer pixelandregionorientedclassificationofsentinel2imagerytoassesslulcdynamicsandtheirclimateimpactinnowsherapakistan