# Uncertainty evaluation of segmentation models for Earth observation

Source: [Uncertainty evaluation of segmentation models for Earth observation](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa7c671e209131cea8de3b>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-28T10:39:22.431Z

Authors: Melanie Rey, Andriy Mnih, Maxim Neumann, Matt Overlan, Drew Purves

Published: 2025-10-22T13:39:28.000Z

## Abstract

This paper investigates methods for estimating uncertainty in semantic segmentation predictions derived from satellite imagery. Estimating uncertainty for segmentation presents unique challenges compared to standard image classification, requiring scalable methods producing per-pixel estimates. While most research on this topic has focused on scene understanding or medical imaging, this work benchmarks existing methods specifically for remote sensing and Earth observation applications. Our evaluation focuses on the practical utility of uncertainty measures, testing their ability to identify prediction errors and noise-corrupted input image regions. Experiments are conducted on two remote sensing datasets, PASTIS and ForTy, selected for their differences in scale, geographic coverage, and label confidence. We perform an extensive evaluation featuring several models, such as Stochastic Segmentation Networks and ensembles, in combination with a number of neural architectures and uncertainty metrics. We make a number of practical recommendations based on our findings.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19586>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.19586.pdf>)