sits_segment: Segment an image

In sits: Satellite Image Time Series Analysis for Earth Observation Data Cubes

Segment an image

Description

Apply a spatial-temporal segmentation on a data cube based on a user defined segmentation function. The function applies the segmentation algorithm "seg_fn" to each tile. The output is a vector data cube, which is a data cube with an additional vector file in "geopackage" format.

Usage

sits_segment(
  cube,
  seg_fn = sits_snic(),
  roi = NULL,
  impute_fn = impute_linear(),
  start_date = NULL,
  end_date = NULL,
  memsize = 4L,
  multicores = 2L,
  output_dir,
  version = "v1",
  progress = TRUE
)

Arguments

cube	Regular data cube
seg_fn	Function to apply the segmentation
roi	Region of interest (see below)
impute_fn	Imputation function to remove NA values.
start_date	Start date for the segmentation
end_date	End date for the segmentation.
memsize	Memory available for classification (in GB).
multicores	Number of cores to be used for classification.
output_dir	Directory for output file.
version	Version of the output (for multiple segmentations).
progress	Show progress bar?

Value

A tibble of class 'segs_cube' representing the segmentation.

Note

Segmentation requires the following steps:

1. Create a regular data cube with sits_cube and sits_regularize;

2. Run sits_segment to obtain a vector data cube with polygons that define the boundary of the segments;

3. Classify the time series associated to the segments with sits_classify, to get obtain a vector probability cube;

4. Use sits_label_classification to label the vector probability cube;

5. Display the results with plot or sits_view.

The "roi" parameter defines a region of interest. It can be an sf_object, a shapefile, or a bounding box vector with named XY values ("xmin", "xmax", "ymin", "ymax") or named lat/long values ("lon_min", "lat_min", "lon_max", "lat_max").

As of version 1.5.4, two segmentation functions are available. The preferred option is sits_snic, which implements the Simple Non-Iterative Clustering (SNIC) algorithm to generate compact and homogeneous superpixels directly from uniformly distributed seeds. SNIC avoids the iterative refinement step used in SLIC and is generally faster and more memory-efficient, making it suitable for large multispectral or multitemporal data cubes.

The previous function sits_slic, based on the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) algorithm as adapted by Nowosad and Stepinski for multispectral and multitemporal imagery, remains available but is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. SLIC clusters pixels using spectral similarity and spatial–temporal proximity to produce nearly uniform superpixels, but its iterative nature makes it less efficient for large-scale Earth observation workflows.

The result of sits_segment is a data cube tibble with an additional vector file in the geopackage format. The location of the vector file is included in the data cube tibble in a new column, called vector_info.

Author(s)

Gilberto Camara, [e-mail]

Rolf Simoes, [e-mail]

Felipe Carvalho, [e-mail]

Felipe Carlos, [e-mail]

References

Achanta, Radhakrishna, and Sabine Susstrunk. 2017. “Superpixels and Polygons Using Simple Non-Iterative Clustering.” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 4651–60.

Achanta, Radhakrishna, Appu Shaji, Kevin Smith, Aurelien Lucchi, Pascal Fua, and Sabine Süsstrunk. 2012. “SLIC Superpixels Compared to State-of-the-Art Superpixel Methods.” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 34 (11): 2274–82.

Nowosad, Jakub, and Tomasz F. Stepinski. 2022. “Extended SLIC Superpixels Algorithm for Applications to Non-Imagery Geospatial Rasters.” International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 112 (August): 102935.

Examples

if (sits_run_examples()) {
    data_dir <- system.file("extdata/raster/mod13q1", package = "sits")
    # create a data cube
    cube <- sits_cube(
        source = "BDC",
        collection = "MOD13Q1-6.1",
        data_dir = data_dir
    )
    # segment the vector cube
    segments <- sits_segment(
        cube = cube,
        seg_fn = sits_snic(
            grid_seeding = "diamond",
            spacing = 15,
            compactness = 0.5,
            padding = 2
        ),
        output_dir = tempdir()
    )
    # create a classification model
    rfor_model <- sits_train(samples_modis_ndvi, sits_rfor())
    # classify the segments
    seg_probs <- sits_classify(
        data = segments,
        ml_model = rfor_model,
        output_dir = tempdir()
    )
    # label the probability segments
    seg_label <- sits_label_classification(
        cube = seg_probs,
        output_dir = tempdir()
    )
}

sits documentation built on Jan. 14, 2026, 5:06 p.m.