A method for scale parameter selection and segments refinement for multi-resolution image segmentation

Image segmentation is the basis of object-based information extraction from remote sensing imagery. Image segmentation based on multiple features, multi-scale, and spatial context is one current research focus. The scale parameters selected in the segmentation severely impact on the average size of segments obtained by multi-scale segmentation method, such as the Fractal Network Evolution Approach (FNEA) employed in the eCognition software. It is important for the FNEA method to select an appropriate scale parameter that causes no neither over- nor undersegmentation. A method for scale parameter selection and segments refinement is proposed in this paper by modifying a method proposed by Johnson. In a test on two images, the segmentation maps obtained using the proposed method contain less under-segmentation and over-segmentation than that generated by the Johnson’s method. It was demonstrated that the proposed method is effective in scale parameter selection and segment refinement for multi-scale segmentation algorithms, such as the FNEA method.