Abstract: The present disclosure provides a transmission line defect identification method based on a saliency map and a semantic-embedded feature pyramid, including the following steps: step 1: cleaning and classifying a dataset; step 2: generating a super-resolution image for a small target of a transmission line by using an Electric Line-Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network (EL-ESRGAN) model; step 3: performing image saliency detection on the dataset by constructing a U2-Net; step 4: performing data augmentation on the dataset by using GridMask and random cutout algorithms based on a saliency map, and generating a classified dataset; and step 5: performing image classification on a normal set and a defect set by using a ResNet34 classification algorithm and a deep semantic embedding (DSE)-based feature pyramid classification network.