{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:24:06Z","timestamp":1760243046683,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,16]],"date-time":"2015-06-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1434412800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Validation of land cover products is a fundamental task prior to data applications. Current validation schemes and methods are, however, suited only for assessing classification accuracy and disregard the reliability of land cover products. The reliability evaluation of land cover products should be undertaken to provide reliable land cover information. In addition, the lack of high-quality reference data often constrains validation and affects the reliability results of land cover products. This study proposes a validation schema to evaluate the reliability of land cover products, including two methods, namely, result reliability evaluation and process reliability evaluation. Result reliability evaluation computes the reliability of land cover products using seven reliability indicators. Process reliability evaluation analyzes the reliability propagation in the data production process to obtain the reliability of land cover products. Fuzzy fault tree analysis is introduced and improved in the reliability analysis of a data production process. Research results show that the proposed reliability evaluation scheme is reasonable and can be applied to validate land cover products. Through the analysis of the seven indicators of result reliability evaluation, more information on land cover can be obtained for strategic decision-making and planning, compared with traditional accuracy assessment methods. Process reliability evaluation without the need for reference data can facilitate the validation and reflect the change trends of reliabilities to some extent.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70607846","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,16]],"date-time":"2015-06-16T10:28:09Z","timestamp":1434450489000},"page":"7846-7864","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Validation of Land Cover Products Using Reliability  Evaluation Methods"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Wenzhong","family":"Shi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Joint Research Laboratory on Spatial Information, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Wuhan University, Hong Kong and Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiaokang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ming","family":"Hao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pan","family":"Shao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3346-906X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Liping","family":"Cai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xuzhe","family":"Lyu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"502","DOI":"10.1126\/science.275.5299.502","article-title":"Modeling the exchanges of energy, water, and carbon between continents and the atmosphere","volume":"275","author":"Sellers","year":"1997","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"331","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(98)00010-8","article-title":"Design and analysis for thematic map accuracy assessment: Fundamental principles","volume":"64","author":"Stehman","year":"1998","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5243","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160903131000","article-title":"Sampling designs for accuracy assessment of land cover","volume":"30","author":"Stehman","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1728","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2006.864370","article-title":"Validation of the global land cover 2000 map","volume":"44","author":"Mayaux","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6975","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2012.695092","article-title":"A global land-cover validation data set, II: Augmenting a stratified sampling design to estimate accuracy by region and land-cover class","volume":"33","author":"Stehman","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"707","article-title":"An assessment of reference data variability using a virtual field reference database","volume":"67","author":"Lunetta","year":"2001","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1305","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2013.2250257","article-title":"Using volunteered data in land cover map validation: Mapping west african forests","volume":"6","author":"Foody","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3275","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160902755346","article-title":"The impact of imperfect ground reference data on the accuracy of land cover change estimation","volume":"30","author":"Foody","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"480","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2006.09.012","article-title":"Validation of a large area land cover product using purpose-acquired airborne video","volume":"106","author":"Wulder","year":"2007","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"185","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(01)00295-4","article-title":"Status of land cover classification accuracy assessment","volume":"80","author":"Foody","year":"2002","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1286","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2010.01.018","article-title":"Thematic accuracy of the NLCD 2001 land cover for the conterminous united states","volume":"114","author":"Wickham","year":"2010","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"294","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.12.001","article-title":"Accuracy assessment of NLCD 2006 land cover and impervious surface","volume":"130","author":"Wickham","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Elsayed, E.A. (2012). Reliability Engineering, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpvp.2005.11.004","article-title":"Reliability assessment of underground pipelines under the combined effect of active corrosion and residual stress","volume":"83","author":"Amirat","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int. J. Press. Vessel. Pip."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1016\/S0166-5316(01)00034-7","article-title":"Architecture-based approach to reliability assessment of software systems","volume":"45","author":"Trivedi","year":"2001","journal-title":"Perform. Eval."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpvp.2010.01.002","article-title":"Reliability and risk evaluation of a port oil pipeline transportation system in variable operation conditions","volume":"87","author":"Soszynska","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Press. Vessel. Pip."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"822","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apenergy.2012.12.010","article-title":"Reliability assessment of photovoltaic power systems: Review of current status and future perspectives","volume":"104","author":"Zhang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Appl. Energy"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1134","DOI":"10.3390\/rs5031134","article-title":"A reliability-based multi-algorithm fusion technique in detecting changes in land cover","volume":"5","author":"Zhang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shi, W. (2009). Principles of Modeling Uncertainties in Spatial Data and Spatial Analyses, CRC Press.","DOI":"10.1201\/9781420059281"},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"883","article-title":"Reliable spatial analysis","volume":"37","author":"Shi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Geomat. Inf. Sci. Wuhan Univ."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1093","DOI":"10.1080\/014311600210092","article-title":"Land cover mapping of large areas from satellites: Status and research priorities","volume":"21","author":"Cihlar","year":"2000","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1461","DOI":"10.1080\/014311699212560","article-title":"Quality assessment of image classification algorithms for land-cover mapping: A review and a proposal for a cost-based approach","volume":"20","author":"Smits","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"531","DOI":"10.1007\/s00500-005-0483-y","article-title":"The reliability of general vague fault-tree analysis on weapon systems fault diagnosis","volume":"10","author":"Chang","year":"2006","journal-title":"Soft Comput."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"83","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jlp.2004.12.003","article-title":"Estimation of failure probability of oil and gas transmission pipelines by fuzzy fault tree analysis","volume":"18","author":"Yuhua","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Loss Prev. Process Ind."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.1016\/0165-0114(95)00386-X","article-title":"Uncertainty in fault tree analysis: A fuzzy approach","volume":"83","author":"Suresh","year":"1996","journal-title":"Fuzzy Sets Syst."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1016\/0165-0114(90)90154-X","article-title":"A fuzzy set approach to fault tree and reliability analysis","volume":"34","author":"Singer","year":"1990","journal-title":"Fuzzy Sets Syst."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"142","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2014.04.004","article-title":"A 2010 update of national land use\/cover database of China at 1:100000 scale using medium spatial resolution satellite images","volume":"149","author":"Zhang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"277","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ress.2006.10.025","article-title":"A method for analysing the reliability of a transmission grid","volume":"93","author":"Haarla","year":"2008","journal-title":"Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"249","DOI":"10.1016\/S0951-8320(00)00077-6","article-title":"Improving the analysis of dependable systems by mapping fault trees into bayesian networks","volume":"71","author":"Bobbio","year":"2001","journal-title":"Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/7\/6\/7846\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T20:47:57Z","timestamp":1760215677000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/7\/6\/7846"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,16]]},"references-count":29,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,6]]}},"alternative-id":["rs70607846"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs70607846","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,16]]}}}