Philippine Journal of Science
153 (1): 233-242, February 2024
ISSN 0031 – 7683
Date Received: 16 May 2023

Comparison of Machine Learning for Multispectral Signature Classification of Invasive Spathodea campanulata in Remote Sensing Imagery

Nomar A. Ramoncito* and Rovana M. Jawani

School of Agriculture, Forestry and Environmental Studies, Josefina H. Cerilles State College, San Miguel, Zamboanga del Sur 7029 Philippines

*Corresponding author: nomarramoncito45@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Invasive plant species pose a significant threat to native ecosystems, and mapping their distribution is essential for effective management and conservation efforts. This study compared the performance of different machine learning techniques in the classification of multispectral signature of the invasive plant species Spathodea campanulata using remote sensing imagery. The ground-based locality data of vegetation was collected using a random sampling technique, and satellite imagery was acquired from Sentinel-2. The results showed that the blue, green, red, rededge, and near-infrared bands were effective in distinguishing between invasive S. campanulata, non-vegetation, and other vegetation using machine learning techniques. The support vector machine (SVM) technique achieved the highest overall accuracy of 80%, followed by random forest (RF) with 73% and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) with 66%. The Gaussian mixture model (GMM) technique had the lowest overall accuracy of 53%. SVM and RF showed substantial agreement between predicted and observed classes, whereas KNN showed moderate agreement and GMM showed poor agreement. The maps generated by SVM depict a distribution of the invasive plant species that is characterized by isolated patches in the northern region of the study area. In contrast, the southern region – including the protected area of Mount Timolan – shows a dense presence of S. campanulata, indicating an ongoing invasion by the species. This highlights the need for effective management and conservation efforts to mitigate the negative impact of invasive plant species on native ecosystems