From GIS to Remote Sensing

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin version 9 officially released

2026-02-20T15:37:00.000+01:00

I'm glad to announce the release of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin version 9 (codename "Foundation").

This new version is compatible with QGIS 4 (based on Qt 6 framework).

Until QGIS 4 is officially released, in order to try the new Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin you can install the prerelease (QGIS 3.99 master).

The following is the changelog:

new version for QGIS 4
built on the new Remotior Sensus version 0.6
new simplified interface designed for new users
added automatic download of Remotior Sensus if library is not available or outdated
in the Working toolbar added button to open a Copernicus Browser link at QGIS map coordinates
in the Working toolbar added buttons to show or hide custom layers or groups by name also using keyboard shortcuts Z, X, and C
in Download products added option to create band set
various bug fixing

Remotior Sensus Update: Version 0.6

2026-02-15T11:38:00.000+01:00

I'm glad to announce the update of Remotior Sensus to version 0.6.

This new version add several new features such as clustering, raster editing and raster zonal stats. Following the complete changelog:

Added optional dependency Pandas for performance improvement in tabular data.
In tool “Band classification” added option for using PyTorch pretrained model. In case a pretrained model is selected, and additional algorithm is selected for classification, using the same parameters of the named algorithm (e.g. random forest); after executing the pretrained model, the additional algorithm is executed on the embeddings for classification. Currently, it works with models pretrained by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SatlasPretrain: https://satlas-pretrain.allen.ai) in particular, Sentinel-2 swin-v2-base single-image multispectral and swin-v2-tiny single-image multispectral models, and Landsat 8 Landsat 9 swin-v2-base single-image multispectral model. SatlasPretrain model weights are released under the Open Data Commons ‘Attribution License (ODC-BY). The repository code is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (https://huggingface.co/allenai/satlas-pretrain). This tool downloads the official SatlasPretrain weights (Bastani et al., “SatlasPretrain: A Large-Scale Dataset for Remote Sensing Image Understanding”, ICCV 2023, arXiv:2211.15660, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.15660). All model weights remain the property of their respective authors.
In tool “Band classification” added PyTorch pretreained segmentation models for Sentinel-2 (swin-v2-base single-image multispectral model using 3 bands or 4 bands) pretrained by DPR Team as part of the DPR Zoo Segmentation Hub framework (https://github.com/DPR25/dpr-zoo-segmentation-hub) based on SatlasPretrain models. The model output classes: background, water, developed, tree, shrub, grass, crop, bare, snow, wetland, mangroves, moss. The repository code of DPR Zoo models are licensed under the MIT License (https://huggingface.co/martinkorelic/dpr-zoo-models). This tool downloads the model weights (DPR Team, 2025. Made as part of Arnes Hackathon 2025). All model weights remain the property of their respective authors.
In tool “Download products” included the download of Sentinel-2 L2A SCL band.
In tool “Preprocess products” included the Sentinel-2 L2A SCL band.
Improved progress monitoring for multiprocess.
Code optimization and bug fixing.

Many of these enhancements will also be implemented in the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin for QGIS which will be released on the 20th of February 2026.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Announcing the development of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin version 9

2025-12-26T18:18:00.001+01:00

I'm glad to announce that the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin version 9 (codename "Foundation") is under development.

Information about the USGS Spectral Library Data Download

2025-03-23T13:36:00.000+01:00

This post is about recent updates to the USGS Spectral Library Data Download.

Recently the USGS has removed the previous Spectral Library download service and the new download information is at https://www.usgs.gov/media/files/usgs-spectral-library-data-download-information-docx , which describes the download of the whole archive as a .zip file.

Consequently, the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin tool to Download USGS Spectral Library can't work.

However, it is still possible to import the USGS libraries using the Import tool.

Following the main steps to import a library:

download the main archive ASCIIdata_splib07a.zip from https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/586e8c88e4b0f5ce109fccae
create a directory and move one spectral library (name ending with _AREF.txt) and the wavelengths file (file name splib07a_Wavelengths_ASD_0.35-2.5_microns_2151_ch.txt) in it
create a .zip file of this directory which can be imported in SCP.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Tutorial: Download Sentinel-2 data and calculate the NDVI in Python using Remotior Sensus

2024-11-24T15:21:00.000+01:00

This post is about Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

In this tutorial we'll see how to search and download Sentinel-2 images and calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using Remotior Sensus.

Following the video of this tutorial.

Tutorial: Create a Sentinel-2 high resolution jpg image Using Remotior Sensus

2024-11-17T13:57:00.001+01:00

This is a tutorial about Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

In particular, this tutorial illustrates how to create a high resolution jpg image from a Sentinel-2 image. Of course, this tutorial could be extended to other satellite images such as Landsat.

Following the video of this tutorial.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin major update: version 8.5

2024-11-16T13:20:00.000+01:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.5.0.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin major update: version 8.4.0

2024-11-01T00:52:00.001+01:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.4.0.

Random Forest Classification of Sentinel-2 image in Python using Remotior Sensus

2024-09-24T08:00:00.023+02:00

This video tutorial illustrates how to perform Random Forest classification of a Copernicus Sentinel-2 image using Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

The tutorial is available as Jupyter notebook in Google Colab, a free service by Google that allows for executing a Jupyter notebook in the cloud.

Following the video of this tutorial.

Tutorial: Random Forest Classification Using the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin

2024-09-16T08:00:00.148+02:00

This is a tutorial about the land cover classification using the Random Forest algorithm in the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP).

Please note that the installation of the dependency scikit-learn is required (see Plugin Installation). It is assumed that you have already read the Basic Tutorials.

Following the video tutorial.

Remotior Sensus Video Tutorial: Quickstart

2024-09-09T08:00:00.011+02:00

This video tutorial describes the basics of Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

The tutorial is available as Jupyter notebook in Google Colab, a free service by Google that allows for executing a Jupyter notebook in the cloud.

Following the video of this tutorial.

Partecipate to the Translation of the User Manual and Interface of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin

2024-08-24T09:00:00.001+02:00

The new version 8.3 of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been recently released, which enables the localization of the user interface.

I invite you to partecipate to the translation of the user manual and the SCP interface to your language. Also, I would like to thank the 190 persons who already joined the translation project.

Your contribution is fundamental for every user who doesn't speak English. It also can be a fun way to learn more about the SCP.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin major update: version 8.3.0

2024-08-03T00:04:00.003+02:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.3.0.

This new version requires Remotior Sensus to be updated to at least version 0.4.0.

During the update process of SCP from version 7 to version 8, several tools were excluded in order to give priority to the main plugin functions.

With this 8.3.0 update, several tools are reintroduced, such as Clustering tool for unsupervised classification (K-means method), the Spectral distance tool, the Edit raster tool, and the Raster zonal stats.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin version 8.3 release date

2024-07-21T13:00:00.002+02:00

This post is to announce that the new version 8.3 of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) for QGIS will be released the 3rd of August 2024.

This new version will require the new version 0.4 of the Python processing framework Remotior Sensus, and will include several new features such as such as clustering, raster editing and raster zonal stats.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Remotior Sensus Update: Version 0.4

2024-07-20T15:13:00.007+02:00

I'm glad to announce the update of Remotior Sensus to version 0.4.

This new version add several new features such as clustering, raster editing and raster zonal stats. Following the complete changelog:

Added tool "Band clustering" for unsupervised K-means classification of bandset
Added tool "Raster edit" for direct editing of pixel values based on vector
Added tool "Raster zonal stats" for calculating statistics of a raster intersecting a vector.
Improved the NoData handling for multiprocess calculation
In "Band clip", "Band dilation", "Band erosion", "Band sieve", "Band neighbor", "Band resample" added the option multiple_resolution to keep original resolution of individual rasters, or use the resolution of the first raster for all the bands
In "Cross classification" fixed area based accuracy and added kappa hat metric
In "Band combination" added option no_raster_output to avoid the creation of output raster, producing only the table of combinations
In "Band calc" replaced nanpercentile with optimized calculation function
Improved extraction of ROIs in "Band classification"
Minor bug fixing and removed Requests dependency

Tutorial: Using the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin Interface in the Cloud Through Jupyter and Remotior Sensus

2024-01-07T00:01:00.005+01:00

This tutorial illustrates a proof of concept about using Remotior Sensus in Jupyter through an interface similar to the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Jupyter notebooks are interactive documents that can be edited in a web browser, which allow for coding in Python and interact with widgets. Several cloud services offer Jupyter notebooks to code, and for example Google Colab is a free service by Google that allows for executing a Jupyter notebook in the cloud.

In a recent Remotior Sensus update (v. 0.3), a new module allows for displaying an interface similar to the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin in Jupyter notebooks, allowing for the interactive search and download of remote sensing images, the interactive creation of Band Sets, training input, and ROIs, and the classification of the bands (the interface is still in development and only a few tools are available).

For example the following command displays the interface for downloading products.

rs.jupyter().download_interface()

Remotior Sensus Update: Version 0.3

2023-12-30T13:38:00.003+01:00

I'm glad to announce the update of Remotior Sensus to version 0.3.

The main new feature is a new module for displaying an interface similar to the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (which is based on Remotior Sensus) in Jupyter notebooks.

Jupyter notebooks are interactive documents that can be edited in a web browser, which allow for coding in Python and interact with widgets.

The Jupyter interface is still in development and only a few tools are available. For the moment, the available tools are:

search and download of remote sensing images;
creation and management of Band Sets;
the dock for creating a training input and saving ROIs created interactively through polygons or region growing;
the import of vectors in training input;
the plot of spectral signatures;
the classification of the Band Sets;
a file browser for selecting files or directories.

For example the following command displays the interface for downloading products.

import remotior_sensus
rs = remotior_sensus.Session(n_processes=2, available_ram=1000)
rs.jupyter().download_interface()

Of course this is a proof of concept, considering that this interface doesn't have all the functions of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin, and there are a few differences in the look and feel because of the characteristics of Jupyter notebooks.

A tutorial describing this new feature will be released soon.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin major update: version 8.2.0

2023-12-10T15:12:00.004+01:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.2.0 which is focused on the download of new products.

This function requires Remotior Sensus to be updated at least to version 0.2.01, which also includes several new products from the Microsoft Planetary Computer.

Microsoft Planetary Computer is a platform developed by Microsoft to foster environmental sustainability and Earth science through a Data Catalog, a JupyterHub and several other tools.

In this case, Remotior Sensus connects to the Data Catalog to search and download images available from Microsoft Planetary Computer, such as the Landsat archive, MODIS, and Sentinel-2.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin update: version 8.1.7

2023-12-08T17:42:00.000+01:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.1.7 which solves a few bugs and adds the options to download Sentinel-2 images from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Tutorial: Using Remotior Sensus in Copernicus JupyterLab

2023-12-03T15:50:00.000+01:00

This is a tutorial about Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

In particular, this tutorial describes the use of Remotior Sensus in Copernicus JupyterLab, which is a Jupyter Notebook service in a web-based environment, offering several tools for working with the Copernicus Data Space.

This service can be accessed at this link https://jupyterhub.dataspace.copernicus.eu after a free registration to the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE).

The Jupyter Notebooks are available in 3 flavors: Small (2 CPU cores and 4GB RAM), Medium (2 CPU cores and 8GB RAM) and Large (4 CPU cores and 16GB RAM). As stated in the documentation, to ensure the fair use of resources by the CDSE users, it is recommended to start with the Small flavor and switch to a bigger only in case of issues with kernel crashing due to the lack of available memory.

Therefore, the Copernicus JupyterLab offers a great opportunity to use Copernicus data in a cloud environment. In this tutorial, we are going to see how to:

Download and preprocess Sentinel-2 images.
Create a BandSet and prepare a training input
Run a Random Forest classification

All the above steps are performed in the cloud. The classification output is saved in a persistent storage with 10GB of space and can be downloaded later.

Tutorial: Random Forest Classification Using Remotior Sensus

2023-12-02T15:54:00.004+01:00

This is a tutorial about Remotior Sensus, a Python package that allows for the processing of remote sensing images and GIS data.

In the last few months Remotior Sensus was frequently update to fix and integrate new functions, in particular for the integration with the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin for QGIS.

In this tutorial we are going to use Remotior Sensus to perform the Random Forest classification of a Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, which involves the following main steps:

Create a BandSet using an image
Load a training input
Perform the random forest classification

Downloading free satellite images using the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin: the Download product tab

2023-11-05T16:10:00.000+01:00

This is part of a series of video tutorials focused on the tools of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP).

In this tutorial, the Download products tab is illustrated, which allows for downloading free satellite images such as Landsat and Sentinel-2.

You can find more information in the user manual at this link.

Following the video tutorial.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Call for the Translation of the User Manual and Interface of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin

2023-10-28T15:29:00.002+02:00

The new version 8 of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been recently released, along with the updated user manual.

I kindly invite you to translate the user manual and the program interface to your language. Your contribution is fundamental for every user who doesn't speak English. It also can be a fun way to deeply learn about the SCP.

Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin update: version 8.1

2023-10-26T14:13:00.004+02:00

The Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP) has been updated to version 8.1 which solves a few bugs and in particular ease the installation of required dependencies.

This update automatically tries to install the required library Remotior Sensus in the plugin directory, if it is not already installed in the QGIS environment, which allows for using the main functions of SCP.

However, it is still recommended to follow the installation instructions to download the required dependencies.

Moreover, an alternative Windows installation using the OSGeo4W network installer has been added to the user manual

https://semiautomaticclassificationmanual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation_win64_network.html

Also, the user manual describes the installation in macOS

https://semiautomaticclassificationmanual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation_mac.html

and Linux

https://semiautomaticclassificationmanual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation_debian.html

With this update the installation should work in most cases.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.

Managing input bands using the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin: the Band set tab

2023-10-22T23:46:00.002+02:00

This is the first of a series of video tutorials focused on the tools of the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin (SCP).

In this tutorial, the Band set tab is illustrated, which allows for managing input bands.

You can find more information in the user manual at this link.

Following the video tutorial.

For any comment or question, join the Facebook group or GitHub discussions about the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin.