Deep-learning-based grassland mapping with Sentinel-2: prioritizing key spectral bands and time periods
Journal
SPIE
Date Issued
September 19, 2025
Abstract
Accurate grassland mapping is essential for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management, yet
remains challenging due to the spectral and temporal variability of grassland ecosystems. This study presents
a Deep Learning approach for grassland classification using multi-temporal Sentinel-2 imagery, incorporating
a dynamic feature selection mechanism to prioritize informative spectral bands and time periods. In order to
allow the model to adaptively focus on discriminative temporal spectral patterns, we compare a baseline neural
network with a modified design that learns to weight input features dynamically. Our findings demonstrate
that the feature selection model achieves superior performance (Accuracy: 0.954 ± 0.004, MCC: 0.726 ± 0.027)
compared to both the baseline network and single-date models, highlighting the importance of temporal diversity in grassland classification.
remains challenging due to the spectral and temporal variability of grassland ecosystems. This study presents
a Deep Learning approach for grassland classification using multi-temporal Sentinel-2 imagery, incorporating
a dynamic feature selection mechanism to prioritize informative spectral bands and time periods. In order to
allow the model to adaptively focus on discriminative temporal spectral patterns, we compare a baseline neural
network with a modified design that learns to weight input features dynamically. Our findings demonstrate
that the feature selection model achieves superior performance (Accuracy: 0.954 ± 0.004, MCC: 0.726 ± 0.027)
compared to both the baseline network and single-date models, highlighting the importance of temporal diversity in grassland classification.
Funding
This work was supported by the European Union’s HORIZON Research and Innovation Programme by the ‘EX-CELSIOR’: ERATOSTHENES: Excellence Research Centre for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment H2020 Widespread Teaming project (www.excelsior2020.eu). The ‘EXCELSIOR’ project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 857510, from the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for the European Programmes, Coordination and Development and the Cyprus University of Technology.
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