Comparative Study of Random Forest and Support Vector Machine for Land Cover Classification and Post-Wildfire Change Detection

The land use land cover (LULC) map is extensively employed for different purposes. Machine learning (ML) algorithms applied in remote sensing (RS) data have been proven effective in image classification, object detection, and semantic segmentation. Previous studies have shown that random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) consistently achieve high accuracy for land classification. Considering the important role of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela Natural Park (PNSE) in biodiversity and nature conversation at an international scale, the availability of timely data on the PNSE for emergency evaluation and periodic assessment is crucial. In this study, the application of RF and SVM classifiers, and object-based (OBIA) and pixel-based (PBIA) approaches, with Sentinel-2A imagery was evaluated using Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for the land cover classification of a burnt area in the PNSE. This aimed to detect the land cover change and closely observe the burnt area and vegetation recovery after the 2022 wildfire. The combination of RF and OBIA achieved the highest accuracy in all evaluation metrics. At the same time, a comparison with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) map and Conjunctural Land Occupation Map (COSc) of 2023 year indicated that the SVM and PBIA map resembled the maps better.