Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-4-2017
Department
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Center for Data Sciences
Abstract
Automated classification of earthquake damage in remotely-sensed imagery using machine learning techniques depends on training data, or data examples that are labeled correctly by a human expert as containing damage or not. Mislabeled training data are a major source of classifier error due to the use of imprecise digital labeling tools and crowdsourced volunteers who are not adequately trained on or invested in the task. The spatial nature of remote sensing classification leads to the consistent mislabeling of classes that occur in close proximity to rubble, which is a major byproduct of earthquake damage in urban areas. In this study, we look at how mislabeled training data, or label noise, impact the quality of rubble classifiers operating on high-resolution remotely-sensed images. We first study how label noise dependent on geospatial proximity, or geospatial label noise, compares to standard random noise. Our study shows that classifiers that are robust to random noise are more susceptible to geospatial label noise. We then compare the effects of label noise on both pixel- and object-based remote sensing classification paradigms. While object-based classifiers are known to outperform their pixel-based counterparts, this study demonstrates that they are more susceptible to geospatial label noise. We also introduce a new labeling tool to enhance precision and image coverage. This work has important implications for the Sendai framework as autonomous damage classification will ensure rapid disaster assessment and contribute to the minimization of disaster risk.
Publication Title
Remote Sensing
Recommended Citation
Frank, J.,
Rebbapragada, U.,
Bialas, J.,
Oommen, T.,
&
Havens, T. C.
(2017).
Effect of label noise on the machine-learned classification of earthquake damage.
Remote Sensing,
9(8).
http://doi.org/10.3390/rs9080803
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/924
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
Copyright 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Article deposited here in compliance with publisher policies. Publisher's version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9080803