# Samba: Semantic Segmentation of Remotely Sensed Images with State Space Model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01705 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01705/

## Key facts

- Cited by 37 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Point clouds, detection and remote sensing, one of 10 directions in State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba).
- Builds on 30 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Apr 2024.

## Placed in

- State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba) / [Point clouds, detection and remote sensing](https://mlsanity.com/ssm/point-clouds-detection-and-remote-sensing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 30)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14030/) (2021)
- [Fully Convolutional Networks for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.4038/) (2014)
- [Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00752/) (2023)
- [A ConvNet for the 2020s](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03545/) (2022)
- [DeepLab: Semantic Image Segmentation with Deep Convolutional Nets, Atrous Convolution, and Fully Connected CRFs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.00915/) (2016)
- [SegFormer: Simple and Efficient Design for Semantic Segmentation with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.15203/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [Pyramid Scene Parsing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01105/) (2016)
- [Learning Deep Features for Discriminative Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.04150/) (2015)
- [SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.00561/) (2015)
- [Model soups: averaging weights of multiple fine-tuned models improves accuracy without increasing inference time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.05482/) (2022)
- [Unified Perceptual Parsing for Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10221/) (2018)
- [Multi-Scale Context Aggregation by Dilated Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.07122/) (2015)
- [Vision Mamba: Efficient Visual Representation Learning with Bidirectional State Space Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09417/) (2024)
- [Scaling Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04560/) (2021)
- [VMamba: Visual State Space Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10166/) (2024)
- [A Survey on Visual Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.12556/) (2020)
- [Understanding the Effective Receptive Field in Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.04128/) (2017)
- [Hungry Hungry Hippos: Towards Language Modeling with State Space Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14052/) (2022)
- [RefineNet: Multi-Path Refinement Networks for High-Resolution Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.06612/) (2016)
- [U-Mamba: Enhancing Long-range Dependency for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.04722/) (2024)
- [LoveDA: A Remote Sensing Land-Cover Dataset for Domain Adaptive Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08733/) (2021)
- [EfficientVMamba: Atrous Selective Scan for Light Weight Visual Mamba](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09977/) (2024)
- [SiMBA: Simplified Mamba-Based Architecture for Vision and Multivariate Time series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15360/) (2024)
- [Advancements in Point Cloud Data Augmentation for Deep Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12113/) (2023)
- [Effective Use of Dilated Convolutions for Segmenting Small Object Instances in Remote Sensing Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.00179/) (2017)
- [SBSS: Stacking-Based Semantic Segmentation Framework for Very High Resolution Remote Sensing Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07623/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [State Space Model for New-Generation Network Alternative to Transformers: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09516/) (2024)
- [Vision Mamba: A Comprehensive Survey and Taxonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.04404/) (2024)
- [A Survey on Visual Mamba](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15956/) (2024)
- [RSCaMa: Remote Sensing Image Change Captioning with State Space Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18895/) (2024)
- [Rethinking Scanning Strategies with Vision Mamba in Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery: An Experimental Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.08493/) (2024)
- [DMM: Disparity-guided Multispectral Mamba for Oriented Object Detection in Remote Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08132/) (2024)
- [TinyViM: Frequency Decoupling for Tiny Hybrid Vision Mamba](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17473/) (2024)
- [PyramidMamba: Rethinking Pyramid Feature Fusion with Selective Space State Model for Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10828/) (2024)
- [MambaDS: Near-Surface Meteorological Field Downscaling with Topography Constrained Selective State Space Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10854/) (2024)
- [IGroupSS-Mamba: Interval Group Spatial-Spectral Mamba for Hyperspectral Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05100/) (2024)
- [RS-vHeat: Heat Conduction Guided Efficient Remote Sensing Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17984/) (2024)
- [RoMA: Scaling up Mamba-based Foundation Models for Remote Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10392/) (2025)
- [Prototype-Driven Structure Synergy Network for Remote Sensing Images Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.04022/) (2025)
- [Deformable Mamba for Wide Field of View Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16481/) (2024)
- [Vision Mamba in Remote Sensing: A Comprehensive Survey of Techniques, Applications and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00630/) (2025)
- [Seg-LSTM: Performance of xLSTM for Semantic Segmentation of Remotely Sensed Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14086/) (2024)
- [GMSR:Gradient-Guided Mamba for Spectral Reconstruction from RGB Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07777/) (2024)
- [SkinMamba: A Precision Skin Lesion Segmentation Architecture with Cross-Scale Global State Modeling and Frequency Boundary Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10890/) (2024)
- [START: A Generalized State Space Model with Saliency-Driven Token-Aware Transformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16020/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Environmental Monitoring through Multispectral Imaging: The WasteMS Dataset for Semantic Segmentation of Lakeside Waste](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17028/) (2024)
- [Mamba-UIE: Enhancing Underwater Images with Physical Model Constraint](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.19248/) (2024)
- [GraspMamba: A Mamba-based Language-driven Grasp Detection Framework with Hierarchical Feature Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14403/) (2024)
- [ACPV-Net: All-Class Polygonal Vectorization for Seamless Vector Map Generation from Aerial Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16616/) (2026)
- [A Controlled Benchmark of Visual State-Space Backbones with Domain-Shift and Boundary Analysis for Remote-Sensing Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18721/) (2026)
- [Evaluating the Impact of Point Cloud Colorization on Semantic Segmentation Accuracy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06725/) (2024)
- [Kolmogorov-Arnold Network for Remote Sensing Image Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.07390/) (2025)
- [ClassWise-CRF: Category-Specific Fusion for Enhanced Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21491/) (2025)
- [FRN: Fractal-Based Recursive Spectral Reconstruction Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15439/) (2025)
- [PCMamba: Physics-Informed Cross-Modal State Space Model for Dual-Camera Compressive Hyperspectral Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16373/) (2025)
- [ChessMamba: Structure-Aware Interleaving of State Spaces for Change Detection in Remote Sensing Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19882/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

High-resolution remotely sensed images pose a challenge for commonly used semantic segmentation methods such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Vision Transformer (ViT). CNN-based methods struggle with handling such high-resolution images due to their limited receptive field, while ViT faces challenges in handling long sequences. Inspired by Mamba, which adopts a State Space Model (SSM) to efficiently capture global semantic information, we propose a semantic segmentation framework for high-resolution remotely sensed images, named Samba. Samba utilizes an encoder-decoder architecture, with Samba blocks serving as the encoder for efficient multi-level semantic information extraction, and UperNet functioning as the decoder. We evaluate Samba on the LoveDA, ISPRS Vaihingen, and ISPRS Potsdam datasets, comparing its performance against top-performing CNN and ViT methods. The results reveal that Samba achieved unparalleled performance on commonly used remote sensing datasets for semantic segmentation. Our proposed Samba demonstrates for the first time the effectiveness of SSM in semantic segmentation of remotely sensed images, setting a new benchmark in performance for Mamba-based techniques in this specific application. The source code and baseline implementations are available at https://github.com/zhuqinfeng1999/Samba.