A method for remote sensing image classification by combining Pixel Neighbourhood Similarity and optimal feature combination

In the study of remote sensing image classification, feature extraction and selection is an effective method to distinguish different classification targets. Constructing a high-quality spectral-spatial feature and feature combination has been a worthwhile topic for improving classification accuracy. In this context, this study constructed a spectral-spatial feature, namely the Pixel Neighbourhood Similarity (PNS) index. Meanwhile, the PNS index and 19 spectral, textural and terrain features were involved in the Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS) algorithm for feature selection to generate a feature combination (PNS-CFS). To explore how PNS and PNS-CFS improve the classification accuracy of land types. The results show that: (1) The PNS index exhibited clear boundaries between different land types. The performance quality of PNS was relatively highest compared to other spectral-spatial features, namely the Vector Similarity (VS) index, the Change Vector Intensity (CVI) index and the Correlation (COR) index. (2) The Overall Accuracy (OA) of the PNS-CFS was 94.66% and 93.59% in study areas 1 and 2, respectively. These were 7.48% and 6.02% higher than the original image data (ORI) and 7.27% and 2.39% higher than the single-dimensional feature combination (SIN-CFS). Compared to the feature combinations of VS, CVI, and COR indices (VS-CFS, CVI-COM, COR-COM), PNS-CFS had the relatively highest performance and classification accuracy. The study demonstrated that the PNS index and PNS-CFS have a high potential for image classification.