Automatic deforestation detectors based on frequentist statistics and their extensions for other spatial objects

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the problem of detection of forest and non-forest areas on Earth images. We propose two statistical methods to tackle this problem: one based on multiple hypothesis testing with parametric distribution families, another one -- on non-parametric tests. The parametric approach is novel in the literature and relevant to a larger class of problems -- detection of natural objects, as well as anomaly detection. We develop mathematical background for each of the two methods, build self-sufficient detection algorithms using them and discuss practical aspects of their implementation. We also compare our algorithms with those from standard machine learning using satellite data.