Accurate Paddy Rice Mapping Based on Phenology-Based Features and Object-Based Classification

Highly accurate rice cultivation distribution and area extraction are essential to food security. Moreover, Inner Mongolia, whose slogan is “from scientific rice to world rice”, is an essential national rice production base. However, high-quality rice mapping products at high resolutions are still scarce around the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This condition is not conducive to rational planning of farmland resources, maintaining food security, and promoting sustainable growth of the local agricultural economy. In this study, the rice backscattering intensity difference index from the vertically polarized backscatter intensity of Sentinel-1 and the phenology differential index from the spectral indices of two critical rice phenological phases of Sentinel-2 images were constructed. Other spectral features, including spectral indices, tasseled cap, and texture features, were computed using simple non-iterative clustering (SNIC) to achieve image segmentation. These variables served as input features for the random forest (RF) algorithm. Results reveal that employing the RF with the SNIC segmentation algorithm and combining it with optical and synthetic aperture radar data is an effective way to extract data on rice in mid-latitude regions. The overall accuracy and kappa coefficient are 0.98 and 0.967, correspondingly. The accuracy for rice is 0.99, as proven by empirical data. These results meet the requirements of regional rice cultivation assessment and area monitoring. Furthermore, owing to its resilience against longitude-associated influences, the model discerns rice across diverse regions and multiple years, achieving an R2 of 0.99. This capability significantly bolsters efforts to improve regional food security and the pursuit of sustainable development.