A novel unsupervised change detection method from remotely sensed imagery based on an improved thresholding algorithm

• Published in: Applied geomatics 2021-03, Vol.13 (1), p.89-105
• Main Authors: Khanbani, Sara, Mohammadzadeh, Ali, Janalipour, Milad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Algorithms; Analysis; Detection; Earth and Environmental Science; Geographical Information Systems/Cartography; Geography; Geophysics/Geodesy; Imagery; Lakes; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Methods; Original Paper; Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry; Surveying; Uremia
• ISSN: 1866-9298; 1866-928X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12518-020-00323-6

Change Detection (CD) problem from remotely sensed images is a popular topic among researchers. Because of the diversity in the problem of change detection and the complexity of the study areas it cannot be claimed that there is an appropriate and prevalent algorithm which is more effective for different types of the case study. As a fundamental investigation, it is critical to recognize the weaknesses of the state of artworks in change detection. Also, those examined weaknesses have to be improved aptly to develop a new strong method. This paper presents a thresholding algorithm improved by the Genetic Algorithm (GA) in CD problems, which focuses on minimizing a novel cost function. The suggested cost function can be adopted for local and global change variations in difference images without any prior assumptions. The presented algorithm was tested on two data sets (i.e., Alaska region and Uremia Lake) to validate its effectiveness. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm in this work has improved the accuracy of change detection (changed pixel accuracy term) in the Alaska region about 8%–12% and also in Uremia Lake approximately between 8%–13% in comparison with other conventional methods including Fuzzy C- Means (FCM), Otsu thresholding, K-Means, and K-Medoid.