Enhancing DeepLabv3+ Convolutional Neural Network Model for Precise Apple Orchard Identification Using GF-6 Remote Sensing Images and PIE-Engine Cloud Platform

Utilizing remote sensing models to monitor apple orchards facilitates the industrialization of agriculture and the sustainable development of rural land resources. This study enhanced the DeepLabv3+ model to achieve superior performance in apple orchard identification by incorporating ResNet, optimizing the algorithm, and adjusting hyperparameter configuration using the PIE-Engine cloud platform. GF-6 PMS images were used as the data source, and Qixia City was selected as the case study area for demonstration. The results indicate that the accuracies of apple orchard identification using the proposed DeepLabv3+_34, DeepLabv3+_50, and DeepLabv3+_101 reached 91.17%, 92.55%, and 94.37%, respectively. DeepLabv3+_101 demonstrated superior identification performance for apple orchards compared with ResU-Net and LinkNet, with an average accuracy improvement of over 3%. The identified area of apple orchards using the DeepLabv3+_101 model was 629.32 km2, accounting for 31.20% of Qixia City’s total area; apple orchards were mainly located in the western part of the study area. The innovation of this research lies in combining image annotation and object-oriented methods during training, improving annotation efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, an enhanced DeepLabv3+ model was constructed based on GF-6 satellite images and the PIE-Engine cloud platform, exhibiting superior performance in feature expression compared with conventional machine learning classification and recognition algorithms.