A comparison of neural networks and maximum likelihood classifier for the classification of land-cover

On this study, Among the classification methods of land cover using satellite imagery, we compared the classification accuracy of Neural Network Classifier and that of Maximum Likelihood Classifier which has the characteristics of parametric and non-parametric classification method. In the assessment of classification accuracy, we analyzed the classification accuracy about testing area as well as training area that many analysts use generally when assess the classification accuracy. As a result, Neural Network Classifier is superior to Maximum Likelihood Classifier as much as 3% in the classification of training data. When ground reference data is used, we could get poor result from both of classification methods, but we could reach conclusion that the classification result of Neural Network Classifier is superior to the classification result of Maximum Likelihood Classifier as much as 10%.