A new method for surface water extraction using multi-temporal Landsat 8 images based on maximum entropy model

The spectral matching algorithm based on the discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm (SMDPSO) sometimes overestimates extracted surface water areas. Here we constructed a new method (MEDPSO) by coupling discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm with maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) to extract water bodies using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. To compare the accuracy of the modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), SMDPSO, and MEDPSO, we selected six areas , i.e. thermokarst lakes, Coongie Lakes National Park, the Amazon River, urban water bodies mixed with buildings, Erhai Lake that is surrounded by mountains, and high-altitude lakes. Our results show that the average overall accuracy of the MEDPSO for the six areas is 97.4%, which is higher than those of MNDWI and SMDPSO. The average commission errors and omission errors of MEDPSO (6.4% and 0.8%) are lower than those of MNDWI and SMDPSO. The MEDPSO has a higher accuracy because the maximum entropy model is a machine learning method that uses all the bands of Landsat imagery and four surface water indices in the calculation of the probability of surface water. Our study established a novel, high-precision water extraction method.