# Habitat Classification from Ground-Level Imagery Using Deep Neural Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04017 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04017/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 99 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [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)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14030/) (2021)
- [Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02391/) (2016)
- [You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02640/) (2015)
- [Wide Residual Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.07146/) (2016)
- [UMAP: Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection for Dimension Reduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.03426/) (2018)
- [Supervised Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11362/) (2020)
- [Aggregated Residual Transformations for Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.05431/) (2016)
- [Unsupervised Feature Learning via Non-Parametric Instance-level Discrimination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.01978/) (2018)
- [EfficientNetV2: Smaller Models and Faster Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00298/) (2021)
- [InternImage: Exploring Large-Scale Vision Foundation Models with Deformable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05778/) (2022)
- [BiFormer: Vision Transformer with Bi-Level Routing Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08810/) (2023)
- [Remote Sensing Vision-Language Foundation Models without Annotations via Ground Remote Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06960/) (2023)
- [A General Optimization Technique for High Quality Community Detection in Complex Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1308.3508/) (2013)
- [Towards Highly Accurate Coral Texture Images Classification Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.00516/) (2018)
- [Network Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.06346/) (2019)
- [DeepVerge: Classification of Roadside Verge Biodiversity and Conservation Potential](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04271/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Automated classification of natural habitats using ground-level imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19314/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Habitat assessment at local scales -- critical for enhancing biodiversity and guiding conservation priorities -- often relies on expert field surveys that can be costly, motivating the exploration of AI-driven tools to automate and refine this process. While most AI-driven habitat mapping depends on remote sensing, it is often constrained by sensor availability, weather, and coarse resolution. In contrast, ground-level imagery captures essential structural and compositional cues invisible from above and remains underexplored for robust, fine-grained habitat classification. This study addresses this gap by applying state-of-the-art deep neural network architectures to ground-level habitat imagery. Leveraging data from the UK Countryside Survey covering 18 broad habitat types, we evaluate two families of models - convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and vision transformers (ViTs) - under both supervised and supervised contrastive learning paradigms. Our results demonstrate that ViTs consistently outperform state-of-the-art CNN baselines on key classification metrics (Top-3 accuracy = 91%, MCC = 0.66) and offer more interpretable scene understanding tailored to ground-level images. Moreover, supervised contrastive learning significantly reduces misclassification rates among visually similar habitats (e.g., Improved vs. Neutral Grassland), driven by a more discriminative embedding space. Finally, our best model performs on par with experienced ecological experts in habitat classification from images, underscoring the promise of expert-level automated assessment. By integrating advanced AI with ecological expertise, this research establishes a scalable, cost-effective framework for ground-level habitat monitoring to accelerate biodiversity conservation and inform land-use decisions at a national scale.