Jalisco's multiclass land cover analysis and classification using a novel lightweight convnet with real-world multispectral and relief data

Terrestrial vegetation is a critical component of global biogeochemical cycles and provides important ecosystem services to support human life [1]. Given its importance, it is essential to know the spatial-temporal variations of vegetation [2]. These variations are due to several determining factors such as global climate variability, climate gradients, and anthropogenic factors such as Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC). The diversity in climatic conditions and vegetation types pose different obstacles to monitoring and classifying land cover using remote sensing. Mexico is considered one of the mega-diverse countries on the planet due to its location in a transition zone between Nearctic and Neotropic regions making it more difficult for land use classification and monitoring. The anthropogenic factors, could be a trigger for deforestation and forest degradation [3] and have a severe impact on the global carbon cycle, soil erosion, hydrological cycles, and in general, affect on the ecosystem services that sustain society [4]. As a result, timely land cover monitoring and classification are of crucial importance for assessing gradual degradation-ecosystem processes. Furthermore, it is important to be in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically SDG 15 concerning "Life on Land" [5].