Version 1
: Received: 20 May 2020 / Approved: 21 May 2020 / Online: 21 May 2020 (11:41:37 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 21 July 2021 / Approved: 21 July 2021 / Online: 21 July 2021 (14:53:14 CEST)
How to cite:
Evans, M.; Minich, T.; Soobitsky, R.; Mainali, K. A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery. Preprints2020, 2020050345. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0345.v2
Evans, M.; Minich, T.; Soobitsky, R.; Mainali, K. A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery. Preprints 2020, 2020050345. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0345.v2
Evans, M.; Minich, T.; Soobitsky, R.; Mainali, K. A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery. Preprints2020, 2020050345. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0345.v2
APA Style
Evans, M., Minich, T., Soobitsky, R., & Mainali, K. (2021). A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0345.v2
Chicago/Turabian Style
Evans, M., Rachel Soobitsky and Kumar Mainali. 2021 "A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0345.v2
Abstract
We have an unprecedented ability to map the Earth’s surface as deep learning technologies are applied to an abundance of high-frequency Earth observation data. Simple, free, and effective methods are needed to enable a variety of stakeholders to use these tools to improve scientific knowledge and decision making. Here we present a trained U-Net model that can map and delineate ground mounted solar arrays using publicly available Sentinel-2 imagery, and that requires minimal data pre-processing and no feature engineering. By using label overloading and image augmentation during training, the model is robust to temporal and spatial variation in imagery. The trained model achieved a precision and recall of 91.5% each and an intersection over union of 84.3% on independent validation data from two distinct geographies. This generalizability in space and time makes the model useful for repeatedly mapping solar arrays. We use this model to delineate all ground mounted solar arrays in North Carolina and the Chesapeake Bay watershed to illustrate how these methods can be used to quickly and easily produce accurate maps of solar infrastructure.
Supplementary and Associated Material
https://osf.io/dau8w/: Open Science Framework repository containing training data, output data, and model weights files
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
21 July 2021
Commenter:
Michael Evans
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
In this updated version we provide readers with access to the trained U-Net model that delineates ground mounted solar arrays from Sentinel-2 data, as well as outputs from this model across North Carolina and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In conjunction on this focus around providing the model and it's outputs to practicioners we provide additional details about the model structure, its training, and how readers can implement it themselves, as well as a more thorough analysis of its performance on validation data.
Commenter: Michael Evans
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author