A Method to Determine Appropriate Spatial Resolution for Hard Image Classification

This study analyzed the relationship between the spatial resolution and the hard classification effect based on pixel-based image classification, and then discussed how to determine appropriate spatial resolution. Thematic maps of winter wheat derived from 250 m MODIS image, 19.5 m China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) image, and 2.44 m QuickBird image were used to examine the classification effect as a case study. It indicated that the “Pareto Boundaries” and the “within-class variability” could be used to determine the coarsest and the highest resolution for hard classification, respectively. The methods proposed in this study should be useful to guide how to select appropriate spatial resolution for land cover mapping.