Unsupervised Land Cover Classification of SAR
Images by Contour Tracing
V.V.Chamundeeswari, D.Singh, K.Singh
Department of Electronics & Computer Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Roorkee, India
e-mail: vjcsedec@iitr.ernet.in, dharmfec@iitr.ernet.in, ksconfcn@iitr.ernet.in
Abstract— The potentiality of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
Images for land cover mapping is an important area of research.
For Single band, single polarized SAR Image, information is
available in the form of Intensity and texture only. Land cover
classification of SAR Images requires exploitation of spatial
relationship of pixels also, in addition to pixel level segmentation.
SAR image can be segmented successfully if the regions with
homogeneous intensity and texture areas can be identified and
grouped together. So far, contour tracing has been used only in
demarcating sea and land. Identifying contours in a domesticated
area with a mixture of water, urban and vegetation areas require
complex analysis of spatial distribution of pixels. In this paper,
we have presented an unsupervised classification algorithm using
Maximum a posteriori (MAP) segmentation for SAR images in
which SAR image is classified into monotone, texture and edge
regions. Monotone and textured regions are labeled as land cover
types like water, urban and vegetation areas using K-means
classification. SAR Image of the region with latitude varying
from 77.86º to 77.91º and longitude varying between 29.89 º and
29.85 º of Haridwar region, India is considered for segmentation.
We have compared the segmented image obtained by this
methodology with the topographic map of the corresponding
region. The water, urban and vegetation areas are clearly
recognized with proposed classification approach which
represents a very good agreement with the original topographic
sheet .
Keywords- Unsupervised, SAR segmentation, Contour tracing,
MAPestimation, texture segmentation, block based SAR
segmentation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Land cover mapping using SAR images is an important
area of research. Since SAR sensors provide all-time and all-
weather surveying, potentiality of using SAR images in various
applications like land cover classification, object detection is to
be explored. Classification of land cover into classes like water,
urban and vegetation helps in planning and management of
urban regions, such as sustainable development and smart
growth. Segmentation is a basic technique of digital image
processing with an ultimate goal of improving an image for
subsequent analysis and scene description. An image can be
segmented in to classes based on gray levels, textures, edges
etc. A single band and single polarized SAR image contain
information only in the form of intensity and texture.
Segmentation of single band, single polarized SAR image is
approached by two classical techniques: Supervised and
Unsupervised. Supervised classification of SAR Images
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requires training samples and a priori information about the
region like digital elevation map etc. Unsupervised
classification of SAR images requires no a priori information
about the image. For segmentation and labeling of classes, the
algorithm extracts information from the image itself. In this
paper, we present an algorithm for unsupervised classification
of SAR images by block based segmentation and contour
tracing. We segment the SAR image into monotone, texture
areas and edges. The monotone and textural regions are also
differentiated according to intensity and textural patterns.
MRFs (Markov Random Field) have been used to model image
textural features [1]. But the main drawback of MRF
algorithms is that the fine structures like 1-3 pixel wide line
segments may disappear partially or entirely and region borders
are not precisely located. Statistical Image model may not be
accurate enough and classes are overlapped in the feature
space. This results in some confusion in data classification in
homogenous areas as well as at region borders or close to fine
structures. Other popular methods for the analysis of image
texture are Gray level cooccurence matrix (GLCM) [2], Gabor
wavelets [3], tree structured wavelets [4], wavelet packets [5]
etc. Randen et al [6] compares performance of general texture
analysis schemes. GLCM features were found to be more
sensitive to texture boundaries compared to MRF. GLCM
provided better classification accuracy for optical images [7].
Niedermeier [8] has used wavelet decomposition and contour
tracing algorithm for coastline extraction. Active contour
tracing algorithm with filling/removing loops was employed to
identify coastlines. Niedermeier has developed contour tracing
only to separate sea from land area. Identifying contours in a
mixed area with urban, water and vegetation require complex
analysis of spatial data.
In this paper, we approach SAR image segmentation
problem as block based segmentation. SAR image is divided
into blocks. Then, each block is analyzed for its homogeneity
of gray levels, textural patterns and edges. Blocks are grouped
and labeled according to their characteristics. Edge blocks are
checked for its continuity and contour is traced. Edge
connectivity helps in removal of noise and improves
classification accuracy. Region labeling is done to connect
adjacent homogenous blocks. In this process, any isolated
homogenous or edge blocks with small regions are labeled as
undecided. These undecided blocks are assigned to the
neighbouring homogenous regions in the final step. K-means
classification is performed on the block based segmented
image and water, urban and vegetation areas are identified.
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 The proposed method is described in Section II, including x* = argmax P( X = x Y = y)
Block based MAP(Maximum a posteriori) and texture
differentiation by wavelets, Section III presents the = argmax[ln P(Y = y X = x) + ln P(X = x)]
experimental results on a SAR image. Finally, Section IV
provides conclusion of the paper.  G Rg  
= argmax ∑ ∑− lnσ~tg2  + ∑Vc ( x) + constant 
 t∈ΩA g=1 2  c∈C 
II. THE PROPOSED METHOD   
---(1)
A. Block based Segmentation
The overall classification methodology is depicted in Fig. 1. Rg
where denotes the total number of pixels in the gth
For the analysis of block based image segmentation, the input
σ~tg2
image of size N1 × N 2 is divided into non-overlapping small area of the block separated by an edge and is the closed
square blocks with a s × s dimension. Then, there are σ
form expressed ML estimate of tg . G represents the total
n1 × n2 blocks in the image, where n1 = N1 / s number of distinctive areas in the block. constant represents
constant value which is not affecting maximization. For all
and n2 = N 2 / s . Each of the blocks has to be identified as edge blocks, there will be two distinct areas within the blocks
monotone, texture and edge blocks. As the first step, mean and separated by the edges. Vc(x) is the clique potential for a clique
variance are computed for every block for identifying
monotone blocks. If variance is less than 2% of its mean c, and C is the set of all cliques in Ω A associated with the
intensity, then the image is classified as monotone blocks. In neighborhood system [11]. Concepts of clique potentials and
the second step, blocks with horizontal, vertical and diagonal computing clique potential using Gibbs distribution is
edges are recognized and grouped as edge blocks. Let X denote explained in [11].
2-D random field representing an image configuration
composing of all image characteristics (ie. Monotone, texture
or one of various edge blocks). Input Image

X = {X t = xt t ∈ Ω A , xt ∈ {0,1,2,..K }}
Then , where Division of image to

Ω A = {(i, j ) i = 1,2..n1, j = 1,2...n2 }

equal sized image
blocks
denotes the set of all
block indices. When the random variable Xt has a value xt =k, Calculation of mean

then it implies that the block at t ∈ Ω A has the block

Intensity and Variance
for each image block
characteristics defined by the block label k. The block labels k
corresponds to the various edges as follows: For vertical edge, Check for Var<2% of Blocks labelled as
k=0, horizontal edge, k=1, diagonal edges in +45 and -45 mean intensity Monotone
degrees correspond to k=2 and k=3 respectively. Y is defined
as the random field for the set of all observed gray-levels in horizontal, vertical
Edge block labeling
Ω . Then, the observed image data can be written as Y=y and by MAP
and diagonal edge

{ } where
blocks are labelled
y = yij (i, j ) ∈ Ω A y ijB
is the set of all gray levels Extraction of Textural

in the image block located at (i, j ) ∈ Ω A .

feature vectors

For identifying and labeling edge blocks, maximum a Comparing textural Blocks labelled as
feature vectors Texture
posteriori distribution is used. Aim is to find the block label
configuration x* that maximizes the a posteriori probability Region labeling
P(X/Y). Then, according to Bayesian formulation, the optimal
block label configuration is obtained by equivalently K-means
maximizing the following criterion for all possible x [9-10]. Classification
For any edge block, two distinctive areas represented as g=1
and g=2 is present. For any edge block, the mean intensity
level in g=1 is different from that of g=2. G is taken as the total Classified Image
distinctive areas in the region. For G=1, those blocks are
grouped as monotone blocks. Figure 1.
Classification Methodology

Once monotone and edge blocks are identified, all the

remaining blocks can be considered as texture blocks. For all
these texture blocks, feature vectors are extracted to
differentiate various texture patterns. Wavelet transform is used

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to represent the textural features. Daubechies (dB4) wavelet
transform is applied on every image block. dB4 wavelet
decomposition results in four components, high pass, low pass,
a horizontal and a vertical component. For every image block,
textural feature vector is represented as
{Tijl i = 1,2..n1 , j = 1,2..n2 , l = 1,2,3,4}
where (i,j)
represents the block index and l represents the wavelet
component of the image block.
B. Region Labeling
Once the image blocks are identified as monotone, texture
and edge blocks, and the blocks adjacent to each other and
have the same intensity and texture are connected and a
common region label is provided. For each block, eight
neighborhood connectivity is checked for its adjacency with
neighboring blocks. For connecting monotone blocks, mean
and variance form the feature vector and textural blocks,
textural feature vector comprising of its db4 wavelet
components is used for comparing the adjacent texture blocks.
Only similar block types are compared for adjacency and
merged together to form the same region. Let the feature vector
be represented as Fij where i,j are block indices. The two
neighboring blocks (i,j) and (i+1,j) belong to the same region if
the following condition is satisfied.
The geo-referenced and speckle suppressed SAR image is
of size 302 x 302. Then, this image is divided into image
blocks of dimension 2 x 2 leading to 151 x 151 blocks. Then,
mean intensity and variance are computed for individual
blocks. The threshold for variance with mean intensity is
checked and monotone blocks are identified. Then, using MAP
based segmentation, edge blocks of labels horizontal, vertical
and diagonal edges are identified. Daubechies wavelet
transform is applied on the image and textural features are
captured. Wavelet coefficients are compared to identify
different texture patterns. All the image blocks are thus labeled
as one of monotone, texture and edge blocks where every
monotone and texture pattern is labeled. Region labeling is
performed to connect adjacent blocks with similar intensity and
texture patterns. Eight neighborhood connectivity is used for
checking the adjacency. All neighboring regions with similar
intensity and texture properties are merged and thus provide an
unsupervised segmented image with three types of regions,
namely monotone, texture and edge regions. Now, K-means
classification is used to classify the segmented image into
water, urban and vegetation areas. For computing
classification accuracy, ground truth points representing water,
urban and vegetation areas are taken for reference from
topographic sheet. The table 1 below shows the confusion
matrix generated for the classified image by our methodology.

2
Overall Accuracy= 95.3971%
Fij − Fi +1, j <T ---(2)
TABLE I. CONFUSION MATRIX
For every region thus connected, label or region number is
given so that each region by the end of this process represents Sl.No Class Ground Truth (Percent)
Water Urban Vegetation
the distinct monotone and texture regions. Edge blocks are not
considered in this process. 1 Water 95.94 0.00 1.65
2 Urban 0.00 92.23 0.00
C. K-means classification
3 Vegetation 4.06 7.77 98.35
All image blocks present in the entire image are identified
either as monotone, texture or edge blocks and blocks with Total 100.00 100.00 100.00
similar characteristics adjacent to each other are merged and
regions are labeled. K-means classification is applied on the
segmented image to identify water, urban, vegetation and other
unclassified areas. TABLE II. COMMISSION &OMISSION ERROR

Sl.No Class Commission Omission

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Error (percent) Error
(percent)
The ERS-2 SAR-C band image acquired on July, 2001 was
taken as input image. Since, SAR images are acquired in the 1 Water 1.78 4.06
microwave region of electromagnetic spectrum, visual 2 Urban 0.00 7.77
identification of ground control points is very difficult. Thus,
ERS-2 SAR image is geo-referenced to geographical 3 Vegetation 11.17 1.65
coordinates using eight ground control points (four at the
corners, one at center of the image and three from TABLE III. PRODUCER AND USER ACCURACY
topographical map). A first order polynomial transformation
function and the nearest neighbor re-sampling technique have Sl.No Class Producer’s User’s
been used to perform geo referencing. Subset of SAR image Accuracy Accuracy
(percent) (percent)
with latitudes and longitudes ranging from (77.86,29.89) to
(77.91,29.85) is chosen for implementation of methodology. 1 Water 95.94 98.22
Adaptive Lee filter is used for speckle suppression. Lee filter is 2 Urban 92.23 100.00
able to smooth away noise in flat regions, but leave fine details
unchanged [12]. 3 Vegetation 98.35 88.83

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Figure 2.
Raw SAR Image of the study area
Water
Urban
Vegetation
Figure 3.
Topographic sheet of the study area
Fig. 2 shows the raw SAR image of the study area taken as
input. Fig. 3 shows the topographic sheet of the same area from
which ground truth points representing water, urban and
vegetation areas are taken for reference. Raw SAR image is
georeferenced and speckle suppressed. Then, classification
methodology explained in section II is applied and the Fig. 4
shows the segmented image with water, urban and vegetation
areas.
Water
Vegetation
Urban
Figure 4.
Segmented SAR Image with Water, urban and Vegetation
areas.
Table I shows the confusion matrix generated for the
classified image by comparing with ground truth points from
topographic sheet. It gives an overall accuracy of 95.3971%.
Table II lists the commission and omission error. An error of
commission is a measure of the ability to discriminate within a
class and occurs when the classifier incorrectly commits pixels
of the class being sought to other classes. In this example, the
commission error for water stems from improperly calling
other classes water, so that three pixels labeled as water are
really a composite of other classes. An error of omission
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measures between class discrimination and results when one
class on the ground is misidentified as other class by the
observing classifier. Hence, 1.78% of water pixels are
improperly labeled as water pixels and 4.06 % of water pixels
are misidentified as other land type. The total number of
correct pixels in a category is divided by the total number of
pixels of that category as derived from the reference data (i.e.
Column total) is termed as “Producer’s accuracy” because the
producer of the classification is interested in how well a certain
area is classified. On the other hand, if the total number of
correct pixels in a category is divided by the total number of
pixels that were classified in that category, this measure is
called “User’s accuracy”. The producer of the map can claim
that 95.94% of the time an area is identified as water was
identified as such, a user of this map will find that 98.22% of
the time will an area he visits that the map says is water will
actually be water. Thus, classification of single band, single
polarized SAR image is performed by block based
segmentation and contour tracing. The results are compared
with topographic sheet.
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