Sentinel-2 Data for Land Use Mapping: Comparing Different Supervised Classifications in Semi-Arid Areas

Mapping and monitoring land use (LU) changes is one of the most effective ways to understand and manage land transformation. The main objectives of this study were to classify LU using supervised classification methods and to assess the effectiveness of various machine learning methods. The current investigation was conducted in the Nord-Est area of Tunisia, and an optical satellite image covering the study area was acquired from Sentinel-2. For LU mapping, we tested three machine learning models algorithms: Random Forest (RF), K-Dimensional Trees K-Nearest Neighbors (KDTree-KNN) and Minimum Distance Classification (MDC). According to our research, the RF classification provided a better result than other classification models. RF classification exhibited the best values of overall accuracy, kappa, recall, precision and RMSE, with 99.54%, 0.98%, 0.98%, 0.98% and 0.23%, respectively. However, low precision was observed for the MDC method (RMSE = 1.15). The results were more intriguing since they highlighted the value of the bare soil index as a covariate for LU mapping. Our results suggest that Sentinel-2 combined with RF classification is efficient for creating a LU map.