Comparison of multinomial logistic regression and logistic regression: which is more efficient in allocating land use?

Abstract

Spatially explicit simulation of land use change is the basis for estimating the effects of land use and cover change on energy fluxes, ecology and the environment. At the pixel level, logistic regression is one of the most common approaches used in spatially explicit land use allocation models to determine the relationship between land use and its causal factors in driving land use change, and thereby to evaluate land use suitability. However, these models have a drawback in that they do not determine/allocate land use based on the direct relationship between land use change and its driving factors. Consequently, a multinomial logistic regression method was introduced to address this flaw, and thereby, judge the suitability of a type of land use in any given pixel in a case study area of the Jiangxi Province, China. A comparison of the two regression methods indicated that the proportion of correctly allocated pixels using multinomial logistic regression was 92.98%, which was 8.47% higher than that obtained using logistic regression. Paired t-test results also showed that pixels were more clearly distinguished by multinomial logistic regression than by logistic regression. In conclusion, multinomial logistic regression is a more efficient and accurate method for the spatial allocation of land use changes. The application of this method in future land use change studies may improve the accuracy of predicting the effects of land use and cover change on energy fluxes, ecology, and environment.

Keywords

multinomial logistic regression / land use change / logistic regression / land use suitability / land use allocation

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Basic Research of China (2010CB950900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71225005 and 41071343). Two anonymous reviewers are sincerely acknowledged for their valuable comments which have significantly improved the manuscript.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg