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@INPROCEEDINGS{Emam:1021075,
author = {Emam, Ahmed and Farag, Mohamed and Roscher, Ribana},
title = {{C}onfident {N}aturalness {E}xplanation ({CNE}): {A}
{F}ramework to {E}xplain and {A}ssess {P}atterns {F}orming
{N}aturalness in {F}ennoscandia with {C}onfidence},
reportid = {FZJ-2024-00529},
year = {2023},
abstract = {Unaffected by extensive human interference, protected
natural areas represent regions of the Earth that maintain
their original condition, largely untouched by urbanization,
agriculture, logging, and other human activities. These
regions host rich biodiversity and offer numerous ecological
advantages. They provide unique opportunities to study
natural ecosystem processes, such as water and pollination
cycles.Consequently, careful mapping and monitoring of these
areas are crucial for uncovering intricate geo-ecological
patterns essential for preserving their authenticity. This
explains the increasing focus on monitoring and
comprehending natural areas in both remote sensing and
environmental research. Satellite imagery enables consistent
observation of remote protected areas, surpassing human
accessibility challenges. It offers efficient,
cost-effective data collection while minimizing disturbances
to delicate ecosystems. Utilizing Machine Learning (ML)
models, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs),
enables precise classification of natural regions by
analyzing satellite imagery datasets. To illustrate, Ekim et
al. construct a dataset and a foundational CNN model that
precisely classifies and categorizes these protected natural
regions. In their research analyzing naturalness, Stomberg
et al. designed an inherently explanatory classification
network that generates attribution maps. These maps
effectively highlight patterns indicative of protected
natural areas in satellite imagery. [] also introduce an
approach that generates images with highlighted naturalness
patterns utilizing Activation Maximization and Generative
Adversarial Networks (GANs). This approach provides
comprehensive and valid explanations for the authenticity of
naturalness. Nevertheless, while these methods effectively
identify designating patterns that characterize the
authenticity of natural regions, they face challenges in
offering a quantitative metric that precisely represents the
contribution of these discerning patterns. Additionally,
these methods do not tackle the issue of uncertainty
associated with the assigned importance of each individual
pattern.To overcome these limitations, we introduce an
innovative approach that integrates explainability and
uncertainty quantification. Our aim is to establish a novel
metric that captures both the significance and confidence
associated with each pattern. Notably, our contributions
extend to developing certainty-aware segmentation masks.
These masks not only yield precise segmentation outcomes but
also pinpoint pixels where the model showcases high
uncertainty. The cornerstone of our work is the development
of the Confident Naturalness Explanation (CNE) metric. This
metric is utilized to prioritize and arrange the
contributing patterns based on their inherent quality,
thereby deepening our grasp of the concept of naturalness in
satellite imagery. Through these breakthroughs, we
collectively amplify the interpretability and confidence
levels of the model's insights. As a result, we facilitate a
more comprehensive understanding of the intricate
naturalness patterns inherent in satellite imagery. The CNE
framework consists of two main parts, the explainability and
the uncertainty quantification part. In the first part, we
use a grey box approach to assign an importance value to
each pattern contributing to the concept of naturalness. The
grey box approach consists of a black box semantic
segmentation model that lacks interpretability and a
transparent model that is responsible for explaining the
decision-making mechanism of the black box model. In the
second part, we utilize the MC-Dropout technique to quantify
the uncertainty in predicting the classes contributing to
naturalness. We integrate the gained knowledge to create the
CNE metric, which assigns confident importance to the
patterns forming naturalness in Fennoscandia. Our
investigation unveiled that various wetland patterns possess
notably high CNE metric values, ranging from 0.8 to 1. These
scores signify the existence of high-quality patterns that
significantly contribute to the concept of naturalness with
high certainty. Wetlands are pivotal ecosystems renowned for
their roles in carbon storage, safeguarding biodiversity,
regulating water resources, and providing niches for unique
plant and animal species finely adapted to their specific
surroundings.In contrast, Glaciers, Grasslands, and water
bodies exhibit relatively low-quality patterns, with an
approximate metric value of 0.2. These values indicate
patterns with a diminished contribution to the naturalness
concept, accompanied by heightened uncertainty.},
month = {Jan},
date = {2024-01-09},
organization = {Northern Lights Deep Learning
Conference, Tromso (Norway), 9 Jan 2024
- 12 Jan 2024},
cin = {IBG-2},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-2-20101118},
pnm = {2171 - Biological and environmental resources for
sustainable use (POF4-217) / DFG project 458156377 -
MapInWild: Kartierung und Interpretation von Wildnis aus dem
Weltraum (458156377)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-2171 / G:(GEPRIS)458156377},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)1},
doi = {10.34734/FZJ-2024-00529},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1021075},
}