RSOBIA: A new OBIA Toolbar and Toolbox in ArcMap 10.x for Segmentation and Classification

A new toolbox for ArcMap 10.x will be presented that segments the data layers into a set of polygons. The software is available at htttp://www.codemap.eu/Outputs . Each polygon is defined by a K-means clustering and region growing algorithm, thus finding areas, their edges and boundaries in the imagery. Attached to each polygon are the characteristics of the imagery such as mean and standard deviation of the pixel values, within the polygon. The segmentation of imagery into a jigsaw of polygons also has the
advantage that the human interpreter does not need to spend hours digitising the boundaries. The actual segmentation process has been taken from the RSGIS library of analysis and classification routines (Bunting et al., 2014). These routines are freeware but have been modified to be made available in the ESRI ArcGIS software under the Windows operating system. Input to the segmentation process is a multi-layered raster image, for example; satellite imagery, or any set of raster datasets made up from derivatives of
topography. The size and number of clusters are set by the user and are dependent on the imagery used.

The advantage of having OBIA within the ArcGIS environment is that it can become part of the workflow, either separately or in models. Such integration speeds analysis and allows easier manipulation of data. Meaningful classification of the polygons using their numerical characteristics can be very dependent on the data subject. Many classification systems are available and tailored to the data available. A simple classification tool is provided as a paint function, but it is expected that functionality within ArcMAP is already being used to undertake complex classification rules.