Numeric and symbolic data fusion: A soft computing approach to remote sensing images analysis

An expert system approach for image classification according to expert knowledge about best sites for vegetation classes is described. Uncertainty management is solved by a certainty factor approach. The numerical and symbolic data fusion is viewed as an updating process. The fusion approach is then described. A neural classifier applied to image data is the first source. A set of fuzzy neural networks representing expert knowledge constitutes the second source. A conjunctive combination based on evidence theory is applied. Finally, a possibility theory-based pooling aggregation rule is presented. These three approaches are applied to a vegetation classification problem.