Remote Sensing and Deep Learning to Understand Noisy OpenStreetMap

The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project is an open-source, community-based, user-generated street map/data service. It is the most popular project within the state of the art for crowdsourcing. Although geometrical features and tags of annotations in OSM are usually precise (particularly in metropolitan areas), there are instances where volunteer mapping is inaccurate. Despite the appeal of using OSM semantic information with remote sensing images, to train deep learning models, the crowdsourced data quality is inconsistent. High-resolution remote sensing image segmentation is a mature application in many fields, such as urban planning, updated mapping, city sensing, and others. Typically, supervised methods trained with annotated data may learn to anticipate the object location, but misclassification may occur due to noise in training data. This article combines Very High Resolution (VHR) remote sensing data with computer vision methods to deal with noisy OSM. This work deals with OSM misalignment ambiguity (positional inaccuracy) concerning satellite imagery and uses a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) approach to detect missing buildings in OSM. We propose a translating method to align the OSM vector data with the satellite data. This strategy increases the correlation between the imagery and the building vector data to reduce the noise in OSM data. A series of experiments demonstrate that our approach plays a significant role in (1) resolving the misalignment issue, (2) instance-semantic segmentation of buildings with missing building information in OSM (never labeled or constructed in between image acquisitions), and (3) change detection mapping. The good results of precision (0.96) and recall (0.96) demonstrate the viability of high-resolution satellite imagery and OSM for building detection/change detection using a deep learning approach

«La Civiltà Cattolica» e le esposizioni torinesi (1884 e 1898)

L’articolo analizza lo sguardo della «Civiltà Cattolica», rivista dei gesuiti, sulle Esposizioni generali italiane svoltesi a Torino nel 1884 e nel 1898. In entrambe le esposizioni un ruolo centrale fu attribuito ai processi di costruzione della nazione e delle identità nazionali, all’organizzazione del consenso verso le élite dirigenti e la monarchia, attraverso un uso politico della memoria risorgimentale, oltre alla celebrazione del progresso. Nel 1884 la rivista respinse i valori laici e liberali di un’esposizione non solo tecnico-scientifica ma anche politica, rivendicando invece il contributo e la legittimità dei cattolici nelle scienze; nel 1898 la polemica, seppur presente, fu attenuata dall’affiancamento di iniziative cattoliche a quelle laiche e liberali.The paper deals with the point of view of the Jesuits’ magazine «The Catholic Civilization» about the Italian General Expositions, which took place in Turin in 1884 and 1898. In both expositions the process of nation’s construction had a central role, through a political use of the Risorgimento’s memory, in addition to the usual celebration of scientific and technological progress. In 1884 the periodical refused liberal values of the exposition, showing the significant role of the Catholics in science; in 1898 the controversy against liberals was softened thanks to the presence of both catholic and liberal events in the exposition

An explainable convolutional autoencoder model for unsupervised change detection

Abstract. Transfer learning methods reuse a deep learning model developed for a task on another task. Such methods have been remarkably successful in a wide range of image processing applications. Following the trend, few transfer learning based methods have been proposed for unsupervised multi-temporal image analysis and change detection (CD). Inspite of their success, the transfer learning based CD methods suffer from limited explainability. In this paper, we propose an explainable convolutional autoencoder model for CD. The model is trained in: 1) an unsupervised way using, as the bi-temporal images, patches extracted from the same geographic location; 2) a greedy fashion, one encoder and decoder layer pair at a time. A number of features relevant for CD is chosen from the encoder layer. To build an explainable model, only selected features from the encoder layer is retained and the rest is discarded. Following this, another encoder and decoder layer pair is added to the model in similar fashion until convergence. We further visualize the features to better interpret the learned features. We validated the proposed method on a Landsat-8 dataset obtained in Spain. Using a set of experiments, we demonstrate the explainability and effectiveness of the proposed model

Inter-Comparison of Methods for Lake Chlorophyll-a Retrieval: Sentinel-2 Time-Series Analysis

Different methods are available for retrieving chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in inland waters from optical imagery, but there is still a need for an inter-comparison among the products. Such analysis can provide insights into the method selection, integration of products, and algorithm development. This work aims at inter-comparison and consistency analyses among the Chl-a products derived from publicly available methods consisting of Case-2 Regional/Coast Colour (C2RCC), Water Color Simulator (WASI), and OC3 (3-band Ocean Color algorithm). C2RCC and WASI are physics-based processors enabling the retrieval of not only Chl-a but also total suspended matter (TSM) and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), whereas OC3 is a broadly used semi-empirical approach for Chl-a estimation. To pursue the inter-comparison analysis, we demonstrate the application of Sentinel-2 imagery in the context of multitemporal retrieval of constituents in some Italian lakes. The analysis is performed for different bio-optical conditions including subalpine lakes in Northern Italy (Garda, Idro, and Ledro) and a turbid lake in Central Italy (Lake Trasimeno). The Chl-a retrievals are assessed versus in situ matchups that indicate the better performance of WASI. Moreover, relative consistency analyses are performed among the products (Chl-a, TSM, and CDOM) derived from different methods. In the subalpine lakes, the results indicate a high consistency between C2RCC and WASI when a_CDOM (440) < 0.5 m^-1, whereas the retrieval of constituents, particularly Chl-a, is problematic based on C2RCC for high-CDOM cases. In the turbid Lake Trasimeno, the extreme neural network of C2RCC provided more consistent products with WASI than the normal network. OC3 overestimates the Chl-a concentration. The flexibility of WASI in the parametrization of inversion allows for the adaptation of the method for different optical conditions. The implementation of WASI requires more experience, and processing is time demanding for large lakes. This study elaborates on the pros and cons of each method, providing guidelines and criteria on their use

Physics-based Bathymetry and Water Quality Retrieval Using PlanetScope Imagery: Impacts of 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown and 2019 Extreme Flood in the Venice Lagoon

The recent PlanetScope constellation (130+ satellites currently in orbit) has shifted the high spatial resolution imaging into a new era by capturing the Earth’s landmass including inland waters on a daily basis. However, studies on the aquatic-oriented applications of PlanetScope imagery are very sparse, and extensive research is still required to unlock the potentials of this new source of data. As a first fully physics-based investigation, we aim to assess the feasibility of retrieving bathymetric and water quality information from the PlanetScope imagery. The analyses are performed based on Water Color Simulator (WASI) processor in the context of a multitemporal analysis. The WASI-based radiative transfer inversion is adapted to process the PlanetScope imagery dealing with the low spectral resolution and atmospheric artifacts. The bathymetry and total suspended matter (TSM) are mapped in the relatively complex environment of Venice lagoon during two benchmark events: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown and an extreme flood occurred in November 2019. The retrievals of TSM imply a remarkable reduction of the turbidity during the lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and capture the high values of TSM during the flood condition. The results suggest that sizable atmospheric and sun-glint artifacts should be mitigated through the physics-based inversion using the surface reflectance products of PlanetScope imagery. The physics-based inversion demonstrated high potentials in retrieving both bathymetry and TSM using the PlanetScope imagery