Artificial intelligence speeds land-use classification

An EPFL Master's student has shown that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to further automate the process of land-use classification in Switzerland, especially for rare and complicated land categories that until now have been classified manually. A stretch of land in Valais Canton served as the sample for her research. Switzerland regularly maps land use in the country in order to better track urbanization, monitor soil permeability and combat urban sprawl. Surveyors take aerial photos of the land every three years, but the survey itself is published only every six years because classifying the images into over 70 different categories is still done mostly by hand. To help speed up the process, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) is evaluating the potential of AI with the Arealstatistik Deep Learning (ADELE) project.