High-resolution optical and SAR image fusion for building database updating

This paper addresses the issue of cartographic database (DB) creation or updating using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and optical images. In cartographic applications, objects of interest are mainly buildings and roads. This paper proposes a processing chain to create or update building DBs. The approach is composed of two steps. First, if a DB is available, the presence of each DB object is checked in the images. Then, we verify if objects coming from an image segmentation should be included in the DB. To do those two steps, relevant features are extracted from images in the neighborhood of the considered object. The object removal/inclusion in the DB is based on a score obtained by the fusion of features in the framework of Dempster–Shafer evidence theory

Multiple-model based update of belgian reference road data

This paper describes a semi-automatic system for road update based on high resolution orthophotos and 3D surface models. Potential update regions are identified by an object-wise verification of all existing database records, followed by a scene-wide detection of redevelopment regions. The proposed system combines several road detection and road verification approaches from current literature to form a more general solution. Each road detection / verification approach is realized as an independent module representing a unique road model combined with a corresponding processing strategy. The object-wise verification result of each module is formulated as a binary decision between the classes "correct road" and "incorrect road". These individual decisions are combined by Dempster-Shafer fusion, which provides tools for dealing with uncertain and incomplete knowledge about the statistical properties of the data. For each road detection / verification module a confidence function for the result is introduced that reflects the degree of correspondence of an actual test situation with an optimal situation according to the underlying road model of that module. Experimental results achieved with data from the national Belgian road database in a test site of about 134 km(2) demonstrate the potential of the method

Compilation and validation of SAR and optical data products for a complete and global map of inland/ocean water tailored to the climate modeling community

Accurate maps of surface water extent are of paramount importance for water management, satellite data processing and climate modeling. Several maps of water bodies based on remote sensing data have been released during the last decade. Nonetheless, none has a truly (90°N/90°S) global coverage while being thoroughly validated. This paper describes a global, spatially-complete (void-free) and accurate mask of inland/ocean water for the 2000–2012 period, built in the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI). This map results from the synergistic combination of multiple individual SAR and optical water body and auxiliary datasets. A key aspect of this work is the original and rigorous stratified random sampling designed for the quality assessment of binary classifications where one class is marginally distributed. Input and consolidated products were assessed qualitatively and quantitatively against a reference validation database of 2110 samples spread throughout the globe. Using all samples, overall accuracy was always very high among all products, between 98% and 100%. The CCI global map of open water bodies provided the best water class representation (F-score of 89%) compared to its constitutive inputs. When focusing on the challenging areas for water bodies’ mapping, such as shorelines, lakes and river banks, all products yielded substantially lower accuracy figures with overall accuracies ranging between 74% and 89%. The inland water area of the CCI global map of open water bodies was estimated to be 3.17 million km2 ± 0.24 million km2. The dataset is freely available through the ESA CCI Land Cover viewer

Development of inventory datasets through remote sensing and direct observation data for earthquake loss estimation

This report summarizes the lessons learnt in extracting exposure information for the three study sites, Thessaloniki, Vienna and Messina that were addressed in SYNER-G. Fine scale information on exposed elements that for SYNER-G include buildings, civil engineering works and population, is one of the variables used to quantify risk. Collecting data and creating exposure inventories is a very time-demanding job and all possible data-gathering techniques should be used to address the data shortcoming problem. This report focuses on combining direct observation and remote sensing data for the development of exposure models for seismic risk assessment. In this report a summary of the methods for collecting, processing and archiving inventory datasets is provided in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with the integration of different data sources for optimum inventory datasets, whilst Chapters 4, 5 and 6 provide some case studies where combinations between direct observation and remote sensing have been used. The cities of Vienna (Austria), Thessaloniki (Greece) and Messina (Italy) have been chosen to test the proposed approaches.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Alphabet-based Multisensory Data Fusion and Classification using Factor Graphs

The way of multisensory data integration is a crucial step of any data fusion method. Different physical types of sensors (optic, thermal, acoustic, or radar) with different resolutions, and different types of GIS digital data (elevation, vector map) require a proper method for data integration. Incommensurability of the data may not allow to use conventional statistical methods for fusion and processing of the data. A correct and established way of multisensory data integration is required to deal with such incommensurable data as the employment of an inappropriate methodology may lead to errors in the fusion process. To perform a proper multisensory data fusion several strategies were developed (Bayesian, linear (log linear) opinion pool, neural networks, fuzzy logic approaches). Employment of these approaches is motivated by weighted consensus theory, which lead to fusion processes that are correctly performed for the variety of data properties

Multisource and Multitemporal Data Fusion in Remote Sensing

The sharp and recent increase in the availability of data captured by different sensors combined with their considerably heterogeneous natures poses a serious challenge for the effective and efficient processing of remotely sensed data. Such an increase in remote sensing and ancillary datasets, however, opens up the possibility of utilizing multimodal datasets in a joint manner to further improve the performance of the processing approaches with respect to the application at hand. Multisource data fusion has, therefore, received enormous attention from researchers worldwide for a wide variety of applications. Moreover, thanks to the revisit capability of several spaceborne sensors, the integration of the temporal information with the spatial and/or spectral/backscattering information of the remotely sensed data is possible and helps to move from a representation of 2D/3D data to 4D data structures, where the time variable adds new information as well as challenges for the information extraction algorithms. There are a huge number of research works dedicated to multisource and multitemporal data fusion, but the methods for the fusion of different modalities have expanded in different paths according to each research community. This paper brings together the advances of multisource and multitemporal data fusion approaches with respect to different research communities and provides a thorough and discipline-specific starting point for researchers at different levels (i.e., students, researchers, and senior researchers) willing to conduct novel investigations on this challenging topic by supplying sufficient detail and references

Object-based Interpretation Methods for Mapping Built-up Areas

Osajulkaisut: Publication 1: Leena Matikainen, Juha Hyyppä, and Marcus E. Engdahl. 2006. Mapping built-up areas from multitemporal interferometric SAR images - A segment-based approach. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, volume 72, number 6, pages 701-714. Publication 2: Leena Matikainen, Juha Hyyppä, and Hannu Hyyppä. 2003. Automatic detection of buildings from laser scanner data for map updating. In: Hans-Gerd Maas, George Vosselman, and Andre Streilein (editors). Proceedings of the ISPRS Working Group III/3 Workshop on 3-D Reconstruction from Airborne Laserscanner and InSAR Data. Dresden, Germany. 8-10 October 2003. International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, volume 34, part 3/W13, pages 218-224. ISSN 1682-1750. Publication 3: Leena Matikainen, Juha Hyyppä, and Harri Kaartinen. 2009. Comparison between first pulse and last pulse laser scanner data in the automatic detection of buildings. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, volume 75, number 2, pages 133-146. Publication 4: Leena Matikainen. 2006. Improving automation in rule-based interpretation of remotely sensed data by using classification trees. The Photogrammetric Journal of Finland, volume 20, number 1, pages 5-20. Publication 5: Leena Matikainen, Juha Hyyppä, Eero Ahokas, Lauri Markelin, and Harri Kaartinen. 2010. Automatic detection of buildings and changes in buildings for updating of maps. Remote Sensing, volume 2, number 5, pages 1217-1248. Publication 6: Leena Matikainen and Kirsi Karila. 2011. Segment-based land cover mapping of a suburban area - Comparison of high-resolution remotely sensed datasets using classification trees and test field points. Remote Sensing, volume 3, number 8, pages 1777-1804.There is a growing demand for high-quality spatial data and for efficient methods of updating spatial databases. In the present study, automated object-based interpretation methods were developed and tested for coarse land use mapping, detailed land cover and building mapping, and change detection of buildings. Various modern remotely sensed datasets were used in the study. An automatic classification tree method was applied to building detection and land cover classification to automate the development of classification rules. A combination of a permanent land cover classification test field and the classification tree method was suggested and tested to allow rapid analysis and comparison of new datasets. The classification and change detection results were compared with up-to-date map data or reference points to evaluate their quality. The combined use of airborne laser scanner data and digital aerial imagery gave promising results considering topographic mapping. In automated building detection using laser scanner and aerial image data, 96% of all buildings larger than 60 m2 were correctly detected. This accuracy level (96%) is compatible with operational quality requirements. In automated change detection, about 80% of all reference buildings were correctly classified. The overall accuracy of a land cover classification into buildings, trees, vegetated ground and non-vegetated ground using laser scanner and aerial image data was 97% compared with reference points. When aerial image data alone were used, the accuracy was 74%. A comparison between first pulse and last pulse laser scanner data in building detection was also carried out. The comparison showed that the use of last pulse data instead of first pulse data can improve the building detection results. The results yielded by automated interpretation methods could be helpful in the manual updating process of a topographic database. The results could also be used as the basis for further automated processing steps to delineate and reconstruct objects. The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical satellite image data used in the study have their main potential in land cover monitoring applications. The coarse land use classification of a multitemporal interferometric SAR dataset into built-up areas, forests and open areas lead to an overall accuracy of 97% when compared with reference points. This dataset also appeared to be promising for classifying built-up areas into subclasses according to building density. Important topics for further research include more advanced interpretation methods, new and multitemporal datasets, optimal combinations of the datasets, and wider sets of objects and classes. From the practical point of view, work is needed in fitting automated interpretation methods in operational mapping processes and in further testing of the methods.Laadukkaan paikkatiedon tarve kasvaa jatkuvasti, ja paikkatietokantojen ajantasaistukseen tarvitaan tehokkaita menetelmiä. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytettiin useita uudenaikaisia kaukokartoitusaineistoja. Niiden pohjalta kehitettiin ja testattiin automaattisia, objektipohjaisia tulkintamenetelmiä yleispiirteiseen maankäytön luokitteluun, yksityiskohtaiseen maanpeitteen ja rakennusten kartoitukseen sekä rakennusten muutostulkintaan. Rakennusten tulkintaan ja maanpeiteluokitteluun sovellettiin automaattista luokittelupuumenetelmää, jonka avulla voidaan automatisoida luokittelusääntöjen kehittäminen. Uusia aineistoja voidaan analysoida ja vertailla nopeasti, kun luokittelupuumenetelmää käytetään yhdessä pysyvän maanpeiteluokittelutestikentän kanssa. Luokittelu- ja muutostulkintatuloksia verrattiin niiden laadun arvioimiseksi ajantasaiseen kartta-aineistoon tai referenssipisteisiin. Ilmalaserkeilausaineisto ja digitaalinen ilmakuva-aineisto yhdessä antoivat lupaavia tuloksia maastotietojen kartoitusta ajatellen. Automaattisessa rakennusten tulkinnassa 96 % kaikista yli 60 m2:n rakennuksista tunnistettiin oikein. Tämä tarkkuustaso (96 %) vastaa käytännön laatuvaatimuksia. Automaattisessa muutostulkinnassa noin 80 % kaikista referenssirakennuksista luokiteltiin oikein. Maanpeiteluokittelussa neljään luokkaan saavutettiin laserkeilaus- ja ilmakuva-aineistoa käyttäen 97 %:n kokonaistarkkuus referenssipisteisiin verrattuna. Pelkkää ilmakuva-aineistoa käytettäessä tarkkuus oli 74 %. Tutkimuksessa verrattiin myös ensimmäiseen ja viimeiseen paluupulssiin perustuvia laserkeilausaineistoja rakennusten tulkinnassa. Vertailu osoitti, että viimeisen paluupulssin käyttö ensimmäisen sijasta voi parantaa tulkintatuloksia. Automaattisten tulkintamenetelmien tuloksista voisi olla hyötyä maastotietojen manuaalisessa ajantasaistusprosessissa tai lähtötietoina kohteiden automaattisessa rajauksessa ja mallinnuksessa. Tutkimuksessa käytettyjen synteettisen apertuurin tutkan (SAR) tuottamien kuvien ja optisen satelliittikuvan tärkeimmät hyödyntämismahdollisuudet liittyvät maanpeitteen kartoitukseen. Yleispiirteisessä maankäyttöluokittelussa kolmeen luokkaan saavutettiin moniaikaista interferometrista SAR-aineistoa käyttäen 97 %:n kokonaistarkkuus referenssipisteisiin verrattuna. Aineisto osoittautui lupaavaksi myös rakennettujen alueiden jatkoluokitteluun rakennustiheyden perusteella. Jatkotutkimusten kannalta tärkeitä aiheita ovat edistyneemmät tulkintamenetelmät, uudet ja moniaikaiset aineistot, eri aineistojen optimaalinen yhdistäminen sekä useampien kohteiden ja luokkien tarkastelu. Käytännön näkökulmasta työtä tarvitaan automaattisten tulkintamenetelmien sovittamiseksi operatiivisiin kartoitusprosesseihin. Myös menetelmien testausta on jatkettava