Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia
In Somalia’s drylands, charcoal production is a major driver of forest degradation enabled by civil conflict and institutional weakness. Up to now, the extent and exact location of charcoal production has usually been estimated by visually detecting charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution (VHR) image...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223003485 |
| _version_ | 1797389560690245632 |
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| author | Astrid Verhegghen Laura Martinez-Sanchez Michele Bolognesi Michele Meroni Felix Rembold Petar Vojnović Marijn van der Velde |
| author_facet | Astrid Verhegghen Laura Martinez-Sanchez Michele Bolognesi Michele Meroni Felix Rembold Petar Vojnović Marijn van der Velde |
| author_sort | Astrid Verhegghen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Somalia’s drylands, charcoal production is a major driver of forest degradation enabled by civil conflict and institutional weakness. Up to now, the extent and exact location of charcoal production has usually been estimated by visually detecting charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution (VHR) images. Taking advantage of the availability of a dataset of charcoal kilns delineated on VHR images by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) experts, we designed a computer vision (CV) approach to automatically identify charcoal kilns on VHR images. The methodology relies on a curated subset of the expert-labeled dataset and a collection of panchromatic and pan-sharpened multispectral Natural Color (RGB) VHR for the years 2018 and 2019. Kiln delineations paired with the VHR images are visually reviewed and used with a Faster R-CNN model, an object detection deep learning method. A two-stage methodology is used to train the best models for panchromatic and RGB images, respectively. The first stage uses a small number of high quality pairs to define the best parameters of the models while the second stage uses a larger set of pairs to fine tune the previous models. The results indicates that charcoal kilns are detected with a precision of 90% in panchromatic images and of 80% in RGB images. The models are then used to predict the presence of kilns over the available VHR images. Omission errors are prioritized over commission errors to mitigate the difficulty in detecting kilns in some specific situations. Comparison between the FAO expert kiln dataset and objects predicted by the CNN model is giving encouraging results. With a visual screening complementing the proposed workflow, CV can aid charcoal kiln monitoring in Somalia while alleviating manual work. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T22:57:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-91f8f4f275bf4099801183b8d12916af |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1569-8432 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T22:57:41Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation |
| spelling | doaj.art-91f8f4f275bf4099801183b8d12916af2023-12-16T06:06:23ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation1569-84322023-12-01125103524Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in SomaliaAstrid Verhegghen0Laura Martinez-Sanchez1Michele Bolognesi2Michele Meroni3Felix Rembold4Petar Vojnović5Marijn van der Velde6European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy; Corresponding author.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Somalia Water and Land Information Management (FAO-SWALIM) Project, P.O. Box 30470-00100, Nairobi, KenyaEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyFincons s.p.a, Corso Magenta 56, 20123 Milano, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyIn Somalia’s drylands, charcoal production is a major driver of forest degradation enabled by civil conflict and institutional weakness. Up to now, the extent and exact location of charcoal production has usually been estimated by visually detecting charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution (VHR) images. Taking advantage of the availability of a dataset of charcoal kilns delineated on VHR images by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) experts, we designed a computer vision (CV) approach to automatically identify charcoal kilns on VHR images. The methodology relies on a curated subset of the expert-labeled dataset and a collection of panchromatic and pan-sharpened multispectral Natural Color (RGB) VHR for the years 2018 and 2019. Kiln delineations paired with the VHR images are visually reviewed and used with a Faster R-CNN model, an object detection deep learning method. A two-stage methodology is used to train the best models for panchromatic and RGB images, respectively. The first stage uses a small number of high quality pairs to define the best parameters of the models while the second stage uses a larger set of pairs to fine tune the previous models. The results indicates that charcoal kilns are detected with a precision of 90% in panchromatic images and of 80% in RGB images. The models are then used to predict the presence of kilns over the available VHR images. Omission errors are prioritized over commission errors to mitigate the difficulty in detecting kilns in some specific situations. Comparison between the FAO expert kiln dataset and objects predicted by the CNN model is giving encouraging results. With a visual screening complementing the proposed workflow, CV can aid charcoal kiln monitoring in Somalia while alleviating manual work.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223003485Faster R-CNNVery high resolution imagesCharcoal productionSomalia’s drylands |
| spellingShingle | Astrid Verhegghen Laura Martinez-Sanchez Michele Bolognesi Michele Meroni Felix Rembold Petar Vojnović Marijn van der Velde Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation Faster R-CNN Very high resolution images Charcoal production Somalia’s drylands |
| title | Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia |
| title_full | Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia |
| title_fullStr | Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia |
| title_short | Automatic detection of charcoal kilns on Very High Resolution images with a computer vision approach in Somalia |
| title_sort | automatic detection of charcoal kilns on very high resolution images with a computer vision approach in somalia |
| topic | Faster R-CNN Very high resolution images Charcoal production Somalia’s drylands |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223003485 |
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