Land Use and Land Cover Mapping from Kompsat-5 X-band Co-polarized Data Using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network

Land use and land cover (LULC) mapping is an important factor in geospatial analysis. Although highly precise ground-based LULC monitoring is possible, it is time consuming and costly. Conversely, because the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor is an all-weather sensor with high resolution, it could replace field-based LULC monitoring systems with low cost and less time requirement. Thus, LULC is one of the major areas in SAR applications. We developed a LULC model using only KOMPSAT-5 single co-polarized data and digital elevation model (DEM) data. Twelve HH-polarized images and 18 VV-polarized images were collected, and two HH-polarized images and four VV-polarized images were selected for the model testing. To train the LULC model, we applied the conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) method. We used U-Net combined with the residual unit (ResUNet) model to generate the cGAN method. When analyzing the training history at 1732 epochs, the ResUNet model showed a maximum overall accuracy (OA) of 93.89 and a Kappa coefficient of 0.91. The model exhibited high performance in the test datasets with an OA greater than 90. The model accurately distinguished water body areas and showed lower accuracy in wetlands than in the other LULC types. The effect of the DEM on the accuracy of LULC was analyzed. When assessing the accuracy with respect to the incidence angle, owing to the radar shadow caused by the side-looking system of the SAR sensor, the OA tended to decrease as the incidence angle increased. This study is the first to use only KOMPSAT-5 single co-polarized data and deep learning methods to demonstrate the possibility of high-performance LULC monitoring. This study contributes to Earth surface monitoring and the development of deep learning approaches using the KOMPSAT-5 data.