Multiple linear regression analysis of factors affecting the consumption

Econometrics provides the researchers with methods, theoretical basements, and procedures that allow the formulation and estimation of economic models that explain the study variable during a reference time period, as well as making predictions about the behavior of the studied reality based on the explanatory variables. The entire process, analyzed from econometrics after having formulated and estimated the model, leads to a very important phase: the statistical validation, which helps the researcher to ensure that the model satisfactorily passes a series of tests. These tests will allow the use of the model not just to explain the behavior of the independent variable under study, but to make predictions based on scenarios of occurrence based on those explanatory variables included in the model, offering a theoretical-practical support to formulate policies related to the studied phenomenon. This research aims to generate the first elements to know the private consumption behavior in India in the period from 2012 to 201

Landslide susceptibility mapping at VAZ watershed (Iran) using an artificial neural network model: a comparison between multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basic function (RBF) algorithms

Landslide susceptibility and hazard assessments are the most important steps in landslide risk mapping. The main objective of this study was to investigate and compare the results of two artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms, i.e., multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basic function (RBF) for spatial prediction of landslide susceptibility in Vaz Watershed, Iran. At first, landslide locations were identified by aerial photographs and field surveys, and a total of 136 landside locations were constructed from various sources. Then the landslide inventory map was randomly split into a training dataset 70 % (95 landslide locations) for training the ANN model and the remaining 30 % (41 landslides locations) was used for validation purpose. Nine landslide conditioning factors such as slope, slope aspect, altitude, land use, lithology, distance from rivers, distance from roads, distance from faults, and rainfall were constructed in geographical information system. In this study, both MLP and RBF algorithms were used in artificial neural network model. The results showed that MLP with Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno learning algorithm is more efficient than RBF in landslide susceptibility mapping for the study area. Finally the landslide susceptibility maps were validated using the validation data (i.e., 30 % landslide location data that was not used during the model construction) using area under the curve (AUC) method. The success rate curve showed that the area under the curve for RBF and MLP was 0.9085 (90.85 %) and 0.9193 (91.93 %) accuracy, respectively. Similarly, the validation result showed that the area under the curve for MLP and RBF models were 0.881 (88.1 %) and 0.8724 (87.24 %), respectively. The results of this study showed that landslide susceptibility mapping in the Vaz Watershed of Iran using the ANN approach is viable and can be used for land use planning

An investigation of the design and use of feed forward artificial neural networks in the classification of remotely sensed images

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN046297 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Classification of poplar trees with object-based ensemble learning algorithms using Sentinel-2A imagery

The poplar species in the forest ecosystems are one of the most valuable and beneficial species for the society and environment. Conventional methods require high cost, time and labor need, and the results obtained vary and are insu˚cient in terms of achieved accuracy level. Determination of poplar cultivated fields and mapping of their spatial sites play a vital role for decision-makers and planners to enhance the economic and ecological value of poplar trees. The study aims to map Poplar (P. deltoides) cultivated areas in Akyazi district of Sakarya, Turkey province using various combinations of the Sentinel-2A image bands. For this purpose, object-based classification based on multi-resolution segmentation algorithm was utilized to produce image objects and ensemble learning algorithms, namely, Adaboost (AdaB), Random Forest (RF), Rotation Forest (RotFor) and Canonical correlation forest (CCF) were applied to produce thematic maps. In order to analyze the effects of the spectral bands of the Sentinel-2A image on the object-based classification performance, three datasets consisting of different spectral band combinations (i.e. four 10 m bands, six 20 m bands and ten 10m pan-sharpened bands) were used. The results showed that the RotFor and CCF classifiers produced superior classification performances compared to the AdaB and RF classifiers for the band combinations regarded in this study. Moreover, it was found that determination of poplar tree class level accuracy reached to ~94% in terms of F-score. It was also observed that the inclusion of the six spectral bands at 20 m resolution resulted in a noteworthy increase in classification accuracy (up to 6%) compared to single 10m band combination

ASSESSMENT OF FIRE SEVERITY AND POST-FIRE REGENERATION BASED ON TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES USING MULTITEMPORAL LANDSAT IMAGERY: A CASE STUDY in MERSIN, TURKEY

Satellite based remote sensing technologies and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) present operable and cost-effective solutions for mapping fires and observing post-fire regeneration. Mersin-Gülnar wildfire, which occurred in August 2008 in Turkey, selected as study site. The fire was devastating and continued 55 days. According to Turkish General Directorate of Forestry reports, it caused two deaths and left hundreds of people homeless. The aim of this study is to determine the fire severity and monitor vegetation recovery with using multitemporal spectral indices together with topographical factors. Pre-fire and post-fire Landsat ETM+ images were obtained to assess the related fire severity with using the widely-used differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) algorithm. Also, the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) were used to determine vegetation regeneration dynamics for a period of six consecutive years. In addition, aspect image derived from Aster Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) were used to determine vegetation regeneration regime of the study area. Results showed that 5388 ha of area burned with moderate to high severity damage. As expected, NDVI and SAVI values distinctly declined post-fire and then began to increase in the coming years. Mean NDVI value of burned area changed from 0.48 to 0.17 due to wildfire, whilst mean SAVI value changed from 0.61 to 0.26. Re-growth rates calculated for NDVI and SAVI 57% and 63% respectively, six years after the fire. Moreover, NDVI and SAVI were estimated six consecutive year period by taking into consideration east, south, north and west facing slopes. Analysis showed that north-facing and east-facing slopes have higher regeneration rates in compared to other aspects. This study serves as a window to an understanding of the process of fire severity and vegetation regeneration that is vital in wildfire management systems

A REGION-BASED MULTI-SCALE APPROACH FOR OBJECT-BASED IMAGE ANALYSIS

Within the last two decades, object-based image analysis (OBIA) considering objects (i.e. groups of pixels) instead of pixels has gained popularity and attracted increasing interest. The most important stage of the OBIA is image segmentation that groups spectrally similar adjacent pixels considering not only the spectral features but also spatial and textural features. Although there are several parameters (scale, shape, compactness and band weights) to be set by the analyst, scale parameter stands out the most important parameter in segmentation process. Estimating optimal scale parameter is crucially important to increase the classification accuracy that depends on image resolution, image object size and characteristics of the study area. In this study, two scale-selection strategies were implemented in the image segmentation process using pan-sharped Qickbird-2 image. The first strategy estimates optimal scale parameters for the eight sub-regions. For this purpose, the local variance/rate of change (LV-RoC) graphs produced by the ESP-2 tool were analysed to determine fine, moderate and coarse scales for each region. In the second strategy, the image was segmented using the three candidate scale values (fine, moderate, coarse) determined from the LV-RoC graph calculated for whole image. The nearest neighbour classifier was applied in all segmentation experiments and equal number of pixels was randomly selected to calculate accuracy metrics (overall accuracy and kappa coefficient). Comparison of region-based and image-based segmentation was carried out on the classified images and found that region-based multi-scale OBIA produced significantly more accurate results than image-based single-scale OBIA. The difference in classification accuracy reached to 10% in terms of overall accuracy