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Fisheries in the Southern Border Zone of Takamanda - Impact ...

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176 Slayback<br />

(ridge or lowland). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, a PSF area just<br />

south <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Obonyi enclave’s sou<strong>the</strong>rnmost po<strong>in</strong>t is<br />

known to be “elephant bush” – an area where extensive<br />

elephant activity has significantly affected <strong>the</strong> forest<br />

strFucture (and <strong>the</strong>reby its reflectance). It is important to<br />

note that <strong>in</strong>clusion <strong>of</strong> this additional class did not<br />

significantly impact <strong>the</strong> change class <strong>of</strong> primary <strong>in</strong>terest<br />

here (forest → secondary forest); <strong>the</strong> PSF is a static class<br />

and only significantly affected <strong>the</strong> areas <strong>of</strong> lowland,<br />

secondary, and ridge forests.<br />

The classification output was <strong>the</strong>n sieve-filtered to<br />

remove isolated <strong>in</strong>dividual or small groups <strong>of</strong> pixels. This<br />

filter<strong>in</strong>g improves <strong>the</strong> appearance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> results by<br />

remov<strong>in</strong>g what <strong>of</strong>ten appears to be speckle and noise, and<br />

<strong>in</strong>creases <strong>the</strong> accuracy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> results (see “Accuracy<br />

assessment” below), s<strong>in</strong>ce most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> landcover types <strong>in</strong><br />

this region naturally occur as fairly homogenous<br />

landscape features. The siev<strong>in</strong>g was applied to isolated<br />

groups <strong>of</strong> pixels with 6 or fewer members<br />

(approximately 0.5 ha); <strong>the</strong>se groups were changed to <strong>the</strong><br />

most common surround<strong>in</strong>g class. The f<strong>in</strong>al landcover<br />

change classification can be found <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> photo gallery.<br />

3.2 Accuracy assessment<br />

In this area, <strong>the</strong>re is a fairly cont<strong>in</strong>uous gradation between<br />

farms, secondary forest, and undisturbed forest. Teas<strong>in</strong>g<br />

out <strong>the</strong>se at-times subtle differences can <strong>of</strong>ten push <strong>the</strong><br />

limits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>formation available <strong>in</strong> this imagery. For<br />

this classification, <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>in</strong>cipal difficulty was <strong>in</strong> f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g<br />

a balance between a good classification <strong>of</strong> secondary<br />

forest around villages and a good classification <strong>of</strong><br />

undisturbed forest between villages. This f<strong>in</strong>al result is<br />

felt to be <strong>the</strong> best compromise, although a conservative<br />

one; it may be underestimat<strong>in</strong>g to a small extent<br />

secondary forest around villages, <strong>in</strong> favor <strong>of</strong> lowland<br />

forest. However, <strong>the</strong> areas <strong>of</strong> change (forest conversion<br />

between 1986 and 2000) were quite stable <strong>in</strong> all versions<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> classification due to <strong>the</strong> clear signature produced<br />

by a change, over time, from undisturbed to secondary<br />

forest. The accuracy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> classification was assessed<br />

both quantitatively, us<strong>in</strong>g test<strong>in</strong>g sites, and qualitatively,<br />

rely<strong>in</strong>g upon personal familiarity with <strong>the</strong> region.<br />

<strong>Takamanda</strong>: <strong>the</strong> Biodiversity <strong>of</strong> an African Ra<strong>in</strong>forest<br />

Along with <strong>the</strong> tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g sites, a separate set <strong>of</strong> test<strong>in</strong>g<br />

sites was also selected for each class. As with <strong>the</strong> tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />

sites, <strong>the</strong>ir selection was based largely on visible imagery<br />

characteristics and knowledge <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> different landcover<br />

types, and not on ground-truth data. S<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong>se test<strong>in</strong>g<br />

sites are not <strong>in</strong>put to <strong>the</strong> classification procedure, <strong>the</strong>y can<br />

be used to <strong>in</strong>dependently evaluate <strong>the</strong> classification<br />

output via a confusion matrix; confusion matrices<br />

<strong>in</strong>dicates how <strong>the</strong> pixels <strong>in</strong> each test<strong>in</strong>g site were actually<br />

classified. Given <strong>the</strong> confusion matrix, <strong>the</strong> accuracy <strong>of</strong><br />

each class’ classification can be computed as a<br />

percentage.<br />

For <strong>the</strong> f<strong>in</strong>al output classification (after siev<strong>in</strong>g), <strong>the</strong><br />

average accuracy (for example, <strong>the</strong> average <strong>of</strong> all<br />

accuracies) for <strong>the</strong> landcover classes, exclud<strong>in</strong>g water<br />

and shadow, was 87%, and <strong>the</strong> overall accuracy<br />

(weighted by <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> pixels <strong>in</strong> each test<strong>in</strong>g site)<br />

was 94%. (The overall accuracy is higher because <strong>the</strong><br />

undisturbed forest sites were relatively large and well<br />

classified). The confusion matrix shows that <strong>the</strong> ma<strong>in</strong><br />

error is a tendency towards classification as lowland<br />

forest; 18% <strong>of</strong> ridge forest, 9% <strong>of</strong> forest conversion, and<br />

6% <strong>of</strong> secondary forest test sites were classified as<br />

lowland forest. Also, 35% <strong>of</strong> PSF test sites were<br />

classified as lowland, but this is less surpris<strong>in</strong>g, s<strong>in</strong>ce we<br />

expect <strong>the</strong> PSF to really be ei<strong>the</strong>r lowland or secondary<br />

forest. Table 1 shows <strong>the</strong> classification accuracies for<br />

each class (for example, <strong>the</strong> percent <strong>of</strong> each test<strong>in</strong>g site<br />

that was classified correctly).<br />

Table 1. Accuracy (percent classified correctly) based on<br />

test<strong>in</strong>g sites<br />

Class Accuracy<br />

Lowland forest 100<br />

Secondary forest 92<br />

Possible secondary<br />

forest (PSF)<br />

65<br />

Forest conversion 91<br />

Ridge forest 70<br />

Mid-elevation forest 99<br />

Montane forest 86<br />

Grassland / bare 100

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