Fuzzy approaches provide improved spatial detection of coastal dune EU habitats

Emilia Pafumi, Claudia Angiolini, Giovanni Bacaro, Emanuele Fanfarillo, Tiberio Fiaschi, Duccio Rocchini, Simona Sarmati, Michele Torresani, Hannes Feilhauer, Simona Maccherini

Abstract: Highlights•Fuzzy classification approaches to map EU habitats on coastal dunes are tested.•EUNIS is more appropriate than Habitats Directive system for habitat mapping.•Fuzzy maps of EUNIS habitats reach an overall accuracy of 90 %.•Fuzzy maps are more realistic representations of dune vegetation than crisp ones.•Random Forests perform better than the other fuzzy classifiers tested.